Embarking on our honeymoon

Our honeymoon adventure - a three week trip taking place nearly eleven months after our wedding - began with a flight to NYC. Before the trip, I spent a great deal of time figuring out how we would pack for a trip of this length. We settled on packing one big bag of formal clothes for the crossing, which we would ship home when we reached England, and two smaller, more manageable bags for our clothing during the rest of the trip.

The baggage drama began at LAX, as we arrived at the airport 46 minutes before our flight only to be told that our baggage couldn't be checked because they stopped accepting bags 45 minutes before the flight. The Skycap took our IDs and went inside, leaving us on the curb with our bags. Several minutes later, he returned with tags for our bags. We raced to board our flight, certain our bags would not arrive with us.

After landing at JFK, we made our way to the baggage claim. I was delighted to see Craig's orange and gray TUMI bag making it's way around the carousel. I spotted my TUMI bag a moment later, further along the carousel. (We had, thankfully, checked all three bags in Craig's name, making use of his Diamond status for priority baggage.) Craig plucked "his" bag off and we waited for mine to come around again. As we waited, we wondered whether we would recognize our third bag. This larger bag is a lightweight bag I bought for Craig for Christmas. It's a more generic bag that he hasn't had the opportunity to travel much with yet.

We spotted the new bag, checking the tag to make sure that it was, in fact, ours. We grabbed my bag as it came around a second time and headed out to the curb. Craig called an uber and we headed for our hotel.

Stuck in traffic several miles from the airport, Craig got a phone call from the airline. His orange and gray TUMI bag was still at the airport. We had taken someone else's bag. We made a painfully slow return to the airport to exchange the bag. Thankfully, the owner of the bag we had taken had actually taken Craig's bag off the carousel and gone some distance before realizing the bag was not hers. (She went to put some paperwork in her bag and discovered that her things were not in the exterior pocket of the bag.)

We only spent one night in NYC. Then it was off to Brooklynn to board the Queen Mary 2. First, a picture of us on land with the ship in the background. It's so large that it didn't fit in the picture!

Next, a picture of me with NYC in the background:

Finally, a picture of us with NYC in the background:

I didn't write much about the crossing, myself. Craig kept a detailed journal that he plans to guest-post here. I have a few thoughts I'll share in another post, but I think I'll leave the day-to-day for him.