I hadn't really thought out my visit home this past weekend beyond idly figuring, "Eh, I've got Friday off, might as well get outta town and see my family."

Wednesday night, I spent a few hours debating what the best method of transportation home would be. Trains? expensive, not great timing. Planes? roughly the same price as the trains, typically faster, but um, there's that tunnel problem. Automobiles? Chinatown is annoying to get to from Queens (note to self: figure out if there are cheap trains leaving from Flushing. This would be significantly easier to get to and aside from Main St. Flushing being one of the most overcrowded, unpleasant places in all the world (or, well, Queens), it would probably get one out of the city much, much faster) so Fung Wah was out, but Greyhound, perhaps? Cheap, but not the most comfortable. LimoLiner? Middling in terms of price, better in terms of comfort, but their timetables are pretty limited too... It was a great debate, documented for history in this lovely chart:



In the end, I opted for a Greyhound ticket that was less than a third of the Amtrak fare for the same leg. On my way back home, I ended up with an Amtrak ticket and a cab ride home from Penn Station, which may not have been the most economical of choices, but were probably much, much more pleasant than the alternatives.

Anyway.

I'm glad I got home because I had a very nice visit, which included sightings of my mother, pregnant sister, brother, little sister, father (eh, I think he came in the house mainly because a mysterious car was parked out front. It was a rental that Katie has because her car was hit. Nothing like curiosity to prompt your first communication with your daughter in about 6 weeks), Lillian, grandmother and grandfather. Which was all very nice.

As much as I love New York and am not prepared to not live in it at the moment, I do wish there was some way to make the distance between Boston and New York much, much smaller.