Up, up and away!

As hard as it might be to believe, I was already awake when the 5:00 wake-up call split the silence of our hotel room. While the bed was nowhere near as comfortable as my own, it was not the cause of my premature alertness. For over 6 months, we have been planning and anticipating this day's arrival.

After getting ready and re-packing, we headed downstairs to meet the airport shuttle. We met a nice Austrian guy who was flying home. While waiting for th shuttle (which ended up being 35 minutes late!), we became fascinated with the restaurant across the street. While spelled Smiling, Carrie read it as Smeye Ling BBQ. With the other language on the sign, it made sense. We asked Pat to take a picture of us with the sign, and, being her first time shooting with an iPhone, she ended up taking 32! I guess Smeye Ling is very, very important.

After shuffling some items to avoid over-size luggage fees, we made it to the gate to wait. Getting on the plane was pretty smooth, and gave me yet another reason to be thankful for losing mucho weight. It's amazing how much more space

these seats have these days ??. Unfortunately, no sleep on this leg. Hopefully, I'll get some from jfk to Dublin.

In any case, we are off on our adventure. We are so thankful for my parents, Gabino, Fred, and our kids for making this possible!