Day 4: LAX to EWR

Thursday, October 8

David's traditional flying shirt on the airport
parking shuttle to the terminal

Natalie, David, Sandra and I head to LAX (Los Angeles International airport) to fly to EWR (Newark, NJ) for cousin Jessica Loren's wedding. Meanwhile, at the same time, Benjamin boards a plane at SFO (San Francisco), landing at EWR an hour or so ahead of us. 

On the flight out, there were great views of the Utah Canyon Lands, Goose Necks of the San Juan, Moab, Monument Valley (we think - it was a bit far away) and the rim of the Grand Canyon. We had taken a memorable driving trip to these places in 1999, and it was fun to get this little flash back as we were beginning another big journey. Just as we crossed the Colorado border, we hit major turbulence. Flight-attendant-sitting-down-in aisle type turbulence. I personally find that sort of turbulence amusing. Airplane wings only work because they ride on the air, and turbulence is a friendly reminder that there's plenty of air out there. Flight attendants are always so blasé about turbulence, so when they actually take notice and sit down, I feel like it is an exciting and unusual event. Eventually it smoothed out and the remainder of the flight was uneventful.

Rendezvous on the Newark Airport Airtrain

Upon arrival, we met Benjamin in the airport and went to pick up the rental car. We had reserved a "full sized," which turned out to be a Nissan Altima. It's funny how definitions change. When I was a kid, a full sized car was a  gas-guzzling behemoth capable of hauling six adults comfortably, plus their luggage, with room left over. If Altima's had existed at the time, they would have been considered compact cars. It was at this point that the first domino of our packing decisions tottered into the second: all our bags would not fit in the car. The second domino began to tip and (metaphorically speaking), pushed us right out of that Altima and into the next size up, which was a barely bigger Nissan Rogue - a sort of miniature SUV. While this new car was still too small, it was not physically impossible for all of us and our stuff to be shoe-horned into it. But as we were only going to be 5 people in this car for a few days, one of them Shabbat (when we don't drive), it was acceptable. The Enterprise rental car agent had to draw up new paperwork for the new car. Unbeknownst to us at the time, this is when the third domino was struck by the second and began a long slow fall that was not to come to our attention for another two weeks.

With Natalie's suitcase at Sandra's feet and a duffle bag laying across the laps of all three kids in the back seat, we set out towards Princeton Junction. While driving, Jessica's parents, Marlene and Gary, called us, as they were on their way at that late hour to pick up their other daughter Becky and her husband Philip from the Philly airport. They recommended the Omega Diner just at the moment that we were driving up to it, so we stopped there to eat. 

Tired, but happy at the Omega

Our hotel was a Comfort Suites, where we had two rooms. It was clean and comfortable and by now we were quite ready to make use of its beds.