Thank you all for the well wishes! I am hoping that this turns out to be quite the trip in the positive sense.

Of course, we almost did not make it. Arriving at the airport early courtsey of a lovely colleague, the nice lady at the Air France check in counter told us Gate 20 and sent us on our way.

The boy was taking a nap and I was listening to an audio book when I heard the tail end of an announcement. The gate next to us – 20 – was aboarding a flight for Korea and the time was 0710. At the same time I heard the final call for our flight at Gate 22. We ran.

It is a long, long way between those two gates. Ten minutes and we barely made it. My lungs were burning and I am not in bad shape. (I will not mention the heavy back pack or the leg cramp that slowed me down). At least the flight was not full.

New York City

It was 1800 by the time we arrived at the ship last night.

Today we were out bright and early. (pictures to be added later)

We got to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zereo, the Empire State building and did one of those ride around the city double deckers till we were sunburned.

Did I mention that it was 26* C?

Totally wiped out, I crashed fairly early.