Author: Cindy

  Monday, June 4th

This morning I was up bright and early and was anxiously awaiting Kellie’s (ReaWrite) arrival and then I was off to the Javitis to meet up with Tina (bookshipper) to pick up our badges and then enjoy some book shopping.

I snapped this one of the floor.

Every year BEA does this with the stairs and this year its Cassandra Claire.

I have to send out a huge thank you to the guy who was working in the Hudson newsstand for giving me this bag. I had an armful of things and he graciously offered me this to carry my things in.

This is my ticket for Wednesday’s Children’s Author Breakfast. I am super excited to go to this because Chris Colfer will be speaking along with John Green.

My badge and my hotel key. I have a special post coming up this week on my stay on the Hampton Inns.

After Tina and I got our badges we hoped on the shuttle back to Penn Station and took the subway to go to two of our favorite book stores, The Strand and Housing Works.

This photos is from 2010 and I would have taken one this time but it was pouring rain when we went.

This is also from 2010.

This is me at Housing Works.

After our shopping we decided to hit the Wendy’s for lunch and funny enough this was the same Wendy’s we ate at in 2010. I got the Berry Almond Salad with chicken. Which was delicious. My only complaint was the huge drink they give. I asked for a medium and got what is a large here in Canada. So mental note next time to ask for a small.

After lunch Tina and I took the subway back to Penn Station and went our own ways to get ready for two events we were going to that night. That post is to come after this one.

At The Strand I picked up: this super cute owl tote bag with matching mug and pencil. For Michael I grabbed him A Walk in New York (as my souvenir book for him), Squish vol 3 (this isn’t out in Canada yet) and some bookmarks (which I have missed placed now) along with a pencil for him.

At Housing Works I got Serpent’s Kiss by Melissa de la Cruz (book two), Twice Upon a Time Beauty and the Beast The only one who didn’t run away by Wendy Mass and an Accidental Adventure book 3 we give a squid a wedgie.

I love visiting both of these bookstores and I am always happy when I get to go and shop there.

Check back a little later for my post on the two events I went to that night.

 I have finally downloaded my camera and thought I would share some of my favorite photos from my first day of travelling to NYC via the Amtrak train.

I snapped this while I was waiting. As you can see I got there a little early. Its so hard to know what traffic will be like on a weekend in Montreal. We currently have alot of construction happening here. Thankfully I made it with plenty of time to spare.

This was taken some where in NY state. This has to be one of my favorites.

Another one taken somewhere in NY state.

I love seeing these kinds of photos. This has got to be one of the nicer routes I have traveled on by train.

I love taking pictures as you can tell and more will come this week from my journey in NYC and BEA.

Its hard to believe that this time last week I was sitting on the Amtrak train on my way to NYC.

This time was different for me and I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps all the planning I did put a bit of a damper on the festivities. The last time I went to NYC and BEA was in 2010 and I was packed and ready almost a week before I was leaving. This time the only thing I had prepared and ready to go was my planner everything else (clothes, make up bag, camera etc) was literally packed the morning I was leaving. No word of a lie.

Thankfully we managed to get out the door on time and as soon as we got to the train station I grabbed a red cap and he took my bags for me as this is one less thing to lug down the stairs. Even though I had one suitcase it was kind of heavy because I put a smaller one inside the bigger one.

I found out the night before that Natalia from Dazzling Reads had decided to attend and was super excited when I found out that she was going to be on the same train as me. I found her when I got to the train station.

I am always amazed at how nice people can be (when you pay them of course) and the guy who brought my luggage down was no exception he got us pre-boarding so that meant we didn’t have to wait in line. Natalia and I decided to sit together on this trip and as the train was boarding I quickly commented on how nice it was that we got pre-boarding because the train was getting full.

It was nice to have a familiar face to talk to on the way to NYC and it made the trip that much more bearable and easier. I found the time flew by rather quickly.

Thankfully we arrived in NYC on time which was shocking because they always seem to be a little late due to the border (customs). I was happy to see a familiar face at Penn Station when I got in because Tina from Bookshipper had decided to meet me there. We spoke for a bit before leaving.

I then decided to hop in a cab to my hotel to meet up with my roomies for the week, Kate from Midnight Book Girl , Kim from On the Wings of Books and Kellie from Rea Write . I was super excited to finally meet them in person. Sadly I found out that Kellie was going to come in later the next day.

We stayed at the Hampton Inns Manhattan/Time’s Square South. I will have separate post about that later this week.

So all in all day one wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Stayed tune because more to come this week.

I am on my way home from NY. (Not sure where I will be when this post appears. Hopefully I am very close to Montreal.) It was a blast. Check back next week for a recap of the week. I will have pics and hopefully some video to share with you as well.