Richard's email to me:
Hi to you all
We've booked up to stay in the Bedford Hotel [should be an experience] for 5 nights from 3-8th August and then from 11-18 Aug Alison has booked us into Arcadia national park accommodation; we plan to spend a few days driving there via White Mountains and then zip straight back to NY to fly home on the 18th.
We'd love to meet up with whoever is around for the first part of our trip but pl don't feel obliged to shoe horn all the cousins and 2nd cousins and cousins once removed into meeting us [unless they want to in which case we'd love to meet them]
The holiday planning executive team is in dissent here regarding the issue of baseball. The CEO thinks we could just watch a game on the TV back in the UK; the VP holds that we should go and soak up the all - American atmosphere. Crisis talks planned as I write; shareholders are being consulted...
Really looking forward to coming over...it's been too long
Love to you all
Richard and co.
Here's my response:
Hi Richard,
Good to hear from you. We are all excited with the prospect of your family's visit. In the days and weeks to come, I'm sure you will hear plenty of suggestions on what to do during your time here. I know I enjoy thinking of all the "to dos", some of which I have never done or it's been years.
For planning purposes, I am assuming that you will be arriving the evening of August 3rd, and will have the days of August 4, 5, 6 and 7 for your time in the NYC area. You will leave for points north the day of August 8th and then go straight to the airport/car rental place on August 18 for your return to Britain. Please let us know if this "schedule" is inaccurate.
I did some quick research on the various legs of your trip and attached some links below. The link below is to directions/map from my house to the White Mountains National Forest. You will see the drive is listed as 305 miles and approximately 5 hours 43 minutes. This route is almost entirely highway driving and at the start will go through some heavily travelled areas in the NY metro area. However, I did this search at approximately 8 AM NY time and the estimates are given for "current" driving conditions.
The following is a link for travel from the White Mountains to the Visitor Center at Acadia National Park (I have erroneously been spelling Acadia with an "r", there is no r). This will be a more scenic drive than the first leg and is estimated to take approximately 5 hours 15 minutes.
You will not be going directly to the Visitors Center but rather to your accomoodations. If you wish, send to me the name or a link to the place where you are staying at Acadia and I can do some mapping or help with planning. I am virtually certain your family will greatly enjoy your stay at Acadia, it is a wonderful place.
Here is a link for the trip from Acadia to JFK Airport. This leg will be a hard drive, almost 9 hours in good driving conditions (assuming no stops) and that time will be considerable lengthened for a drive on a Saturday in August along the main Northeast corridor. If I were making this trip, I would plan on 13 or 14 hours to be safe, and maybe longer.
Gasoline prices in NY are approximating $4.20 a gallon and the current national average is approximately $3.90. Here's a link to a website that tracks gas prices in NY:
http://www.newyorkgasprices.com/ Assuming a $4.00 average, the average current price per gallon is approximately 2.50 english pounds. These prices are very high from a historical perspective and it's difficult to say what the price of gas will be in the summer. Gas prices are very volatile here, but it is an election year for the President and the price of gas is a major influence on how people here will vote for the leader of the free world. So, I would guess that the price will be lower in the summer, but that's not solid. A mid-size car or minivan for a family of 5 will get approximately 25 miles per gallon, so you can guesstimate the cost of your car travel (there will also be road tolls to consider). I urge you to be prepared to pay cash (dollars) for your gas. In recent months, gas stations have differentiated the price for gas paid by credit card and paid by cash. The credit card price can be 20 cents a gallon higher. This practice has become wide spread in the NY area, but I don't know if the same applies as you travel north.
If you have an idea of the type of car you want to rent, you can let me/us know and we can do some shopping for you. Car rental prices in the NY area are higher than other areas, and there are great differences in rental rates. The disparities are so great that web sites have cropped up to help consumers handicap good rental rates.
In terms of the baseball game, here are a few thougths. First, I/we don't have a bias either way so please don't read any of this to be encouraging or discouraging you one way or the other. The best opportunity for you to go to a game is Sunday, August 4th. This is a Yankee day game at Yankee Stadium. A day there is an event, not just a baseball game. There is much to see at Yankee Stadium, lots of history, lots of walking around inside the Stadium (as the Yankees say, they don't play in a baseball park, they play in a Stadium), plenty of shopping, museum like areas, all kinds of food, and a fun day in the sun with lots of other people. You should not feel compelled to stay for the entire game (the games have almost become secondary in a day at the Stadium), but if you did stay for everything the entire day with travel would be from approximately 11 AM to approximately 5 PM. Pricewise, you can use approximately $100 per person with ticket, food, incidentals (it could be more or less), which estimates to 62.70 english pounds. If you decided to go, I would almost certainly get a ticket and there may be others who would want to attend. Again, not to appear to be subjecting you to undue influence, August 4th is the most likely day for a family reunion given that it is a Sunday. The Mets are in town on the evening of August 7th starting at 7 PM. The Mets play at Citifield in Queens, and even as a Mets fan I would say the overall experience is not the same as Yankee Stadium. There is plently to see and do at Citifield and it would be less costly than going to Yankee Stadium (rough estimate $75 per person; approximately 47 pounds).
I checked the location of your hotel (118 E. 40th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues). This is a great spot, in midtown, on the East side near Grand Central Station (the major train terminal), and away from the hurly burly of Times Square and the West side (great places to visit, but I'm not sure about staying there and it has to be more expensive in that area). You can easily travel to sites in Manhattan walking, public transportation or cabs. Have you made arrangements to go from the airport to the hotel? If not, please let us know as we can likely help with that. Also, please let us know the kinds of things you and Alison and your kids may want to see, we all have many great ideas but obviously don't want to charge ahead.
Ok, I think that is enough to chew on for an interim response. We all are very excited to meet our family from the motherland.
Regards,
John O'Reilly
A few quick additional thoughts. You may want to sign up for a web site called Yelp.com. This provides information on a wide range of subjects based on member suggestions. There are a number of these member driven web sites, but Yelp does a better job than most in weeding out "homers" and people with a malacious motive. As an example, I searched for "breakfast" at a location near to your hotel and came up with a number of a results, which I have attached in a pdf.
Do you plan on having use of a cell phone or other web accessible device? There are many useful apps for travel and things to do in the NY area and if we know which device (if any) you plan on using, we can suggest apps for you. Having a cell phone or web device is by no means essential, but if you have one, it would be good to maximize its usefulness.
John
