I am my father’s daughter.  Of course I allowed more time than needed to pick up Mom, pack a lunch, and drive to the BWI Amtrak station. Even with trouble finding a parking place (may have snagged the last one?) we still had time to catch an earlier train - except they wouldn’t let us board because I hadn’t exchanged the tickets. And naturally our train, due to leave an hour later, ended up running about 20 minutes late.

The train was so full that I didn’t find a seat for Mom until after we were moving, and then had to search for one of my own - though at some point the seat next to me opened up and I relocated Mom.  Once at Penn Station in NY we got our tickets for the LIRR, but the actual track number, 20, didn’t get posted until mere minutes before departure. It was a bit stressful finding the entrance because the numbers seemed to end at 19; turned out that 20 was around a corner. Of course we knew there’d be a flight of stairs, but before I could zoom back up to help Mom (I’d taken our suitcase down) a man was carrying down her walker (with both our bags on it) and a woman was helping her on the stairs.

Once on board I was able to relax, and by late afternoon we made it to the hotel in Great Neck without much difficulty. Barbara and Suzanne drove over so we could all go to dinner together, but Mom’s Rollator wouldn’t fit in the trunk. But with it in the backseat there was no room for me, so I walked the two blocks to the Wild Ginger.  We pigged out on delicious Asian food and chatted away.

And we’ll get together tomorrow and do it all over again!