Originally when we arrived at the Airport on Friday, apartment schedule in hand, we expected the weekend to be nothing short of a success. While the apartment Gods were smiling, Hermes (The Greek God of Travel) was trying to pick a fight.
We arrived at Newark Airport 2 hours prior to our scheduled departure (7:30AM EST) bound for a layover in Salt Lake City with our final destination being San Jose, CA. About five minutes after we board, the captain informs us that an “Emergency Turbine mysteriously activated itself” over the course of the evening and it was a 2-3 minute repair to fix. The problem, though, was that Delta Airlines no longer has any maintenance crew working out of Newark and needed to have someone drive (in rainy Friday rush hour traffic) from JFK to fix the aircraft. We were able to re-route our flight through Atlanta as well as change our return flight to return at 11:30pm, rather than the previously scheduled 6pm. We also were able to re-schedule all of our appointments as necessary, to be able to see everthing we had planned.
The only problem was that the Atlanta flight didn’t depart until 12:55pm, and we had to wait around the airport for 5 hours. Fun. In this time, though, we noticed that we were not the only Delta Airlines flight to be delayed. The flight at the gate next to us was delayed because the flight crew could not be found. They ended up leaving only an hour or so late, compared to our original SLC flight which was delayed 3+ hours.
When we arrived in Atlanta, we were pleased to find out that our San Jose flight was also delayed by a half hour due to mechanical difficulties earlier in the day. (Delta was batting 1.000 in my opinion). I went to complain to the front desk trying to score a free upgrade, but the agent wanted nothing to do with me.
When we boarded, I realized that we were in seats 4A and 4B — First Class. Thank you, Tammy!! (The Newark Ticketing Agent who re-routed us). We finally arrive in San Jose only 9 hours later than planned and make it to our hotel and pass out.
The first place we saw was pretty nice, but the location was a little dodgy and it was a bit pricy. The second place (Alderwood, our eventual choice) was perfect and we knew it from the get-go. A little more than we planned on spending for an apartment, but it has everything that we need (2br, Pool, Fitness, Clubhouse, Spa, W/D & D/W in unit, etc.) Plus it was in a real quiet residential area of Santa Clary and it has a great “woodsy” look to it.. more than some of the other places we’d seen.
The third place was the nail in the coffin for our searching, as for a little less, we could’ve gotten a crappy 2br in a crappy complex that has kids that destroy the place and leave a mess everywhere. It was flat-out gross. The woman kept trying to put a spin on everything “Oh, those kids must’ve been in here this morning and left their crackers everywhere” — it was 9:30am. Ish don’t think so. The fourth place was owned by the same management company as Alderwood, but was a little pricier and we didn’t see the added benefit for the increased price. So, we headed back to Alderwood and put down our deposit to move in on or around 10/16.
We then test drove a few hybrid vehicles and put our names down for an “Any color but white” Toyota Prius, which might be available in time. That’s anyone’s guess whether or not this will payoff. We drove around our new neighborhood and had a nice afternoon.
Heremes was still upset when we left on Sunday only this time our flight out of San Jose was only delayed 20 minutes due to a baggage issue. We still caught our SLC flight in plenty of time, but getting bcak to Newark at midnight was a debacle. There were no cabs to be found anywhere, and there was a 50+ person line. We eventually went to go find a bus, but ended up heading back to the cab stand a few minutes later. Something must have happened during that time because there were only 5 people left. A swarm of cabs must’ve come and taken all the people away. No idea. In any event, we made it home by 1am (but our bodies said 10pm). All-in-all it was an extremely productive weekend, with only a few minor stops and starts when it came to travel plans.
Here are some pics of the new apt:
This looks very awesome – AND it looks like you have plenty of room for company. I guess we’ll be seeing you in the winter/spring in California! Yeah!!!!
I’ll be playing ‘California Girls’ in your honor tonight as I cry in my beer.