Day 16. London to New York

We opened the curtains to a beautiful London morning, with hardly any clouds at all. Would have been perfect if this was a day earlier, but nice to see that London would have a good day today. There wasn't much time for carry on this morning as we had a plane to catch. To get there, we had to take the tube, which we had not done yet. The Tube is London's underground train network. It is huge and is how most people in London get to and from where they need to go. It was a fast trip out to Heathrow of only about 45 minutes. Easy, and a great way to get there!

At Heathrow, we found our way to American airlines and the check in was all very easy, though we did have an "inspection" for the clothes we were wearing to see if we would be suitable for an upgrade for our flight to New York. We passed the muster and were on our way to the gate. Once there, a full performance was in place from two turkeys! They were celebrating USA thanksgiving day with a tap dance and singing performance. Very fun!!!

Our beautiful 777 was waiting for us, and we found out we would be sitting at the very front of the plane in row 1. This was a nice surprise as the flight was full, and we did not even know if we would get on. The only place with seats was first class and so unfortunately, we had to sit there! LOL. Thanks Larry for organising this. Our flight was superb and as always, the service on American was top notch!

First class suite made up as a bed

We had a lovely lunch, facing each other, and finished off with ice cream sundaes. The crew were so good and worked so hard as they only had 8, instead of the normal 11. Thanksgiving day had meant a lot of people could not go to work! Cory insisted he was not going to sleep on this flight, but every time I looked over, he was out for the count!

Our purser, Jonathon treated us like royalty!

We landed into new York's kennedy airport about 30 minutes early. This was perfect as we were hoping to get to spend as much time with our friends for thanksgiving as possible. Thanksgiving is a massive holiday in the USA. It celebrates the founding fathers finding ground with the native indians when America was settled/colonised. Most Americans regard this as their number 1 holiday, much the same as we would xmas in Australia. This was one of the reasons we got good seats on the plane. Few Americans would travel over this important holiday. Unfortunately, we discovered that few immigration agents like to work on this holiday as there were only a couple to process our flight. Cory and I were off first, so did not think this would be an issue, except, there was two other flight arrivals before us and there must have been 1000 people lined up to have their passports checked..

We waited in line for almost 2 hours before we were processed. There was a lot of frayed tempers, but you have to take the good with the bad was our philosophy and we had just had an amazing flight experience, so this was a minor hiccup. We eventually got out of there and headed for the rental car pick up and our drive to the Hamptons!

 The drive was about 2 hours and we started to get very excited. It has been over a year since we  saw Fred and Larry and their beautiful dog Opie. When we arrived, there was a house full of people celebrating Thanksgiving. It was a lovely way to arrive and be greeted by a wonderful group of our hosts friends. Fred had made a beautiful pumpkin soup for a starter, which he served out of a pumpkin. This was the first time I have ever seen this, and it was absolutely delicious. It had a whipped cream and cinnamon garnish, which made it extra fabulous!

pumpkin soup de la vega

There was turkey, and all the trimmings, including two types of stuffing, mash potatoes, beans, brussel sprouts, cauliflower with cheese sauce and a very light jus to top it all off!!! YUM

This was a perfect evening, and so relaxed. There was a lot of giggles and stories and memories as everyone talked about how they knew our hosts, what they thought of their new president and we even touched on the topic of gun laws. It was very much a group of like minded people who want the best for their country and to make it an even better place than it already is. Larry gave a divine thankgiving day speech about the importance of friendship and appreciation for each other. Everyone had a tear in their eye. It was a very special way to spend a holiday celebration with a group who relish giving thanks for the good fortune of living in the USA. We definitely want to be here next thanksgiving, if only for our host's delicious cooking!