New York City - September 2006 Megamail

Hey everybody, this Megamail is being preceded by a small informational advertisement: Sam and I have officially stuck it the man by getting rid of our home telephone. We're still trying to find a way to stick it to the cable company and will let you know as soon as we find a good way of doing so, but it feels good to save a few hundred bucks a year.

Anyway, from now on we can only be reached at our cell phones: Sam - 804-306-1537 and Eric - 804-306-1539.

And now on to our regularly scheduled programming...

As this is now our third trip to the Big Apple, I shall again spare you details that are duplicates from previous trips. This trip differed from previous ones in that a) we flew instead of trained, b) we stayed a full week instead of a long weekend and c) we were with a bunch of Spanish speakers, AKA Sam's family. Her mother and sister have never been to New York before and her father and sister's boyfriend haven't been to New York in some years.

Saturday

Our pre-trip activities were far more stressful than usual due to tropical storm Ernesto passing through the day before. It dumped a lot of rain and naturally knocked out our power for a full day. Although we had our generator going, we couldn't do a lot of things like vacuum and do laundry until the power returned. This was desirable because we had a dog sitter staying at the house in our absence and we would have preferred to leave him a clean house as opposed to a hairy one. We finally got power back about an hour and a half before we had to leave and thus made everything a mad scramble. Of course, we discovered right before we left our kitchen drain was clogged so our dog sitter was screwed.

Also, I am now a big fan of packing the night before. This packing of the suitcase the day of always leaves me feeling that I rushed and forgot something, which fortunately I didn't.

Now remember I said Ernesto passed through the day before? Well, he was heading straight north and so he delayed our flight into JFK by a few hours. We were again taking advantage of jetBlue's low fares for the direct flight into NYC. jetBlue just has a personality that the other carriers don't. During a two or so hour wait, the gate attendant made an announcement: I have some good news ladies and gentlemen; I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. This naturally received a good bunch of stress relieving chuckles.

As it turned out, I wouldn't have minded if the flight was a delayed a little longer because this was the roughest landing I have yet experienced. We were getting tossed in every possible direction and angle and the scene below once we broke through the clouds kind of looked like a disaster movie. Yet, despite the weather, the pilot really gave us a pretty soft landing. Good job whoever you were!

We next had to brave our commute into Manhattan, but first, some explanation.

Due to the length of our stay and the number of people (six of us in total), we bypassed the expensive hotels and rented somebody else's place. There are a number of web sites that offer this service in NYC, as well as in several other major cities. Our experience worked out pretty well. The place was a tri-level loft that had a bedroom, Murphy bed and pullout sofa with kitchen and kitchenette. It was very charming, well located (54th between Park and Lexington), and its only drawback was that it had only one bathroom, which resulted in us getting some slow starts in the morning.

So, the owner of said apartment arranged our commute there. It took probably an hour and allowed us to view Manhattan Island from a point a view that I haven't seen before. Which I have to say, is pretty damn impressive. When you see Manhattan from the Ellis Island ferry, you see the narrow side of the island. When coming from the airports, you get to see the full length, which has skyscrapers for seemingly as far as the eye can see. Quite impressive. Not as impressive as when we left, mind you as the storm obscured a lot of things. Which brings me to my next point.

I always admired the dark and foggy depictions of Gotham in the Batman movies because I thought they were so original. Ha, what a fool I was. Crossing the Queensboro Bridge that night, the skyline of New York looked *exactly* like those movies with the lights of buildings casting an eerie glow through the rain and fog. Very cool, and a good lesson that nothing in Hollywood is truly original.

We flew to New York with Sam's parents, but Claris and Miguel were on a later flight in from Europe. With the weather the way it was, they arrived very late in the evening. This allowed us to explore the area around the apartment a little bit and locate a grocery store to get some breakfast items for the next several days.

When they finally did arrive and we went to find some place to eat. We finally found a bar on 2nd Avenue called PJs or something like that, which has a kitchen open until 3am. And so began our not so economical eating habits. We ate at some pretty nice places with Sam's parents and after a couple bottles of wine, and cognacs, things add up, especially in NYC. Fortunately, Sam's parents paid for most of the meals, which certainly helped our pocketbook and I couldn't thank them enough for. But boy, sometimes I just wanted a crappy Big Mac. Anyway, I don't know how much this place cost, but it was all in all, pretty fair fare, as in not terribly exciting.

And so concludes our first, and most damp day in New York.

Sunday

As is characteristic of most days after a tropical storm, the weather was pretty nice. And given our track record in New York in the past, we figured our nice days were numbered so we jumped at the chance to explore Central Park. Nothing different here than previous times, other than I noticed this one building that seems to get cut in half by Central Park South that I particular liked.

One of these times we will do a carriage ride, but not this time. After leaving the park, headed south, which is rich with art-deco architecture. I think I said this the last time, every time I go to New York, I have more and more appreciation for the art-deco style and wish there was a return to it.

Our second ridiculous meal was at Rue 57 (or was it 59?) on 6th Avenue south of the park. It must be 59 come to think of it as you can expect to pay $59/person when eating there. This was place was too fancy for its own good. Don't be surprised to find an attendant in the bathroom. I thought turning on and off the water for me was a little too much, but when he zipped up my pants for me, that definitely crossed the line! OK, I'm just kidding, but I'm not used to that sort of stuff and found the whole situation awkward.

Weekends in Manhattan, if you didn't already know, seems to be 'festival day' because several streets around the city get closed off to traffic and get packed with pedestrians looking for cheap, greasy eats and cheaper clothes and arts and crafts. I'll have to tell you, I would have much preferred eating at this type of venue (also on 6th) than Rue No Moola, but whatever.

We caught some of the Brazilian festival, which was just south of the normal festival. The number of green and gold shirts I saw that day were too high to count. At some point we lost Javi and Josefita and so it was just the kids. We meandered down almost the entire length of 5th avenue, past the Empire State Building, past the Flat Iron building, down to Washington Square and New York University.

This was the old stomping ground of Miguel when he attended school there. We stopped in for a drink at the coffee shop he used to work, Café Reggio. It is very nice place on University I think, just south of Washington Square. If you don't know which one Washington Square is, it is the one with the arch at the beginning of When Harry Met Sally.

My memory is shot so you are spared the details of the remainder of this day. Hooray!

Monday

During this trip a conscious effort was made to see some of the things that we haven't done before. One of those things on that list was the Brooklyn Bridge. And we had a glorious day for walking its span.

The subway drops you off right by entrance to the pedestrian walkway. The walk across isn't short, nor is it long. It is juuuuust right. The bridge itself isn't horribly interesting to look at as you cross, but the views of New York that you take in are impressive. I found out afterwards that there is supposed to be a really good ice cream shop on the other side of the bridge in Brooklyn, which would explain the number of people we saw eating ice cream that day. But alas, we didn't know of this gem beforehand.

Very nearby the bridge is South Street Seaport, or Pier 17. This is a very touristy area full of shops, cafes and restaurants. On such a warm and sunny day, and the fact that it was a holiday, the place was packed. We stopped in at Red for a wine, which has a southwestern motif and ate at Soleil???, which is has a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Actually, this was the original reason that we went to Pier 17 in the first place, because it was supposed to have a great view of the bridge, but we were pleasantly surprised with how happening it was in addition to the views. A gaggle of street performers were also in the area to entertain the people eager to part with their money.

Next came the usual crawl through the Wall Street, the World Trade Center, China Town and finally Littler Italy. I say Littler Italy because it is pretty much just Mulberry Street now. It is almost entirely swallowed up by Chinatown, which is sad. I hear that either Brooklyn or the Bronx is supposed to have a much better Little Italy nowadays, but I couldn't confirm that fact.

Next, Sam and I broke from the pack and visited our friends Brian and Kathy. They live on the upper west side not far from the park. They also have a very happy dog, Molson. Their neighborhood is really nice and reminded me of Carrie's neighborhood on Sex and the City. Actually, Carrie lived on the east side and I'm kind of shocked, as I am sure you are, that I actually know that!

Anyway, we caught up over a few beers and then had to regroup with Sam's family in Times Square for dinner. Now, if you were in Time Square, around 10pm on Labor Day, where would you go to eat? Throw out chains... those are off limits. I would head west down 46th and see what was shaking on Restaurant Row. Did we? Hell no. We walked back past our apartment all the way to 2nd. Why? I won't get into it, but safe to say, it wasn't my idea.

We did manage to find a nice French place called La Mangeoire. Nice and pricey that is. I think I had the flounder or some other type of fish. It was pretty good. Actually, the whole meal was pretty good... just a little on the pricey side.

Tuesday

Tuesday was Statue of Liberty Day. It was Tuesday because we ordered our tickets ahead of time so that we could actually go into the statue. The crown is still closed, but you can go up to the top of the pedestal. Naturally, this was second crappiest day of the week. I say naturally because I think it has been cloudy and overcast every time we've gone to the Statue of Liberty.

Now, let me give you some sage advice. Getting to go into the pedestal is no big deal. Meaning, there isn't a whole lot of reward for doing so. There is a nice little museum about the statue and its construction, but the views aren't much different than if you are standing at the base of the pedestal.

So, if I were you, I wouldn't bother to preorder tickets prior to going to New York because you don't know what the weather is going to be like. Instead, either skip the pedestal entirely, or if you know it is going to be nicer in the next couple of days, you might preorder your ticket then. But definitely don't get them more than a couple days in advance!

In Ellis Island I tried to see exhibits I haven't seen before and that tended to be displays about the island itself and the renovation that occurred as part of the Statue of Liberty renovation in the 80's. It was actually very interesting. Again, if one has the time, one could spend a full day at Ellis Island.

By the time we left Ellis Island it was sufficiently crappy out that we pretty much just shopped the rest of the day. Lunch was unspectacular that day so I'll spare you the details and we ended up eating in the apartment for dinner.

Wednesday

Finally, the main draw of our trip to New York: the US Open. Sam's parents are avid tennis fans and play regularly at home. We timed this trip so that we could attend the US Open. And the weather promised that we would have an excellent time.

We wouldn't be attending until that evening so that allowed us some museum time during the day. We took in one new one and one that we've seen before. The new one was the Whitney Museum, which is devoted strictly to American art. The art on display was a mixed bag.

I found the top floor, which was primary Hopper's stuff really interesting. I guess I like the way Hopper captures the boredom and minutiae of every day life. The 2nd and 3rd floors were pretty lame. And the best part was easily Calder's Circus collection on the first floor.

Basically what the Circus was a collection of very simple, yet amazingly agile wire and cork characters that Alexander Calder made back in the 20's or 30's and carried in his suitcases. Doesn't sound that impressive, does it? And true, actually looking at these contraptions as they are displayed is not overly satisfying. What you need to do, however, is watch the film that accompanies the display. That is amazing!

We also saw the Frick Collection again. This is a must see. It is small but exceedingly impressive.

For lunch, we *finally* went to west 46th and ended up at a place called the Joshua Tree. I personally think the group was roped in by the name. It had a southwestern tilt to the menu, which means I naturally went for the big ass burrito. The waitress we had was goofy in the Cameron Diaz sort of way and found us Spaniards really 'neat'.

Well, now the big event had arrived. We jumped on the subway at Grand Central for the trip to the US Open, which is near the end of the line in Queens. It is the same stop as Shea Stadium. We clearly weren't the only ones utilizing the subway as just about everybody got off the train when we did at the US Open.

I have to say, I am not a big tennis fan. When surfing channels, tennis is clicked past almost as quickly as golf or the home shopping network. And other than Maria Sharapova, I couldn't really have named anybody in the sport. But hey, it's the US Open so what the hell. But the reason I mentioned all this is that I really had no idea what to expect from the event other than I was hoping that I would get to see Maria.

OK, so the grounds for the US Open are a clearly marked, short walk from the subway stop. After passing through security to enter the grounds, I was kind of surprised at the festival vibe I got. There are a number of tables in a large courtyard area and numerous shops and food shops about. A large screen showed the event going on in one of the major venues and there is the entire bracket for the tournament filled in with the latest results.

I guess that for the earlier rounds they sell passes to just the grounds so that you can see matches on a first-come, first-served basis in any of the smaller venues. To get in the big venues, you need a special ticket, which is what we had.

At the far end of the grounds is the entrance to the Arthur Ashe stadium, the main stadium where the big names played. We picked up a program for the nights matches and I was in luck. Maria played some French chick (Tatiana Golovin) in the first match and then Roddick played Hewitt in the second match.

We were up in the nosebleed seats because the best seats can only be bought if you get multi-day tickets. But they weren't too bad I guess. I was really surprised at the international audience at hand. I was expecting more of American Tennis Lovers Anonymous.

In front of us we had some Brits. To their left were some German speakers dressed in Italian World Cup gear. Sam figured they were Swiss. Off to our right were some more Spanish speakers. Some annoying New Yorkers who talked Wall Street most of the time and who spilled beer on me were behind us. Don't worry, it was just a Heineken. And throughout the stadium you heard French and a few other languages I couldn't identify.

I was also surprised at the obnoxiousness of the crowd. I was expecting tennis to be a civilized sport where people only cheer in-between play. Nooo! Tennis fans are more annoying than Bear fans! Catcalls throughout. Lots of Maria, ahem, admirers too.

Overall though, I found that women's tennis was more enjoyable watch, and not just because they were women playing. Basically, the men just crush the ball back and forth and it doesn't seem, to me anyway, that is all that exciting. It is kind of like watching a game of pong where the paddles can only move side to side, but not closer or further away from the net.

Would I attend the US Open again in the future? I think I might, but I would rather attend the day session and just get the grounds pass to see some matches close up.

Thursday

For Thursday, the big event was to see the Blue Man Group. Their theatre is well off Broadway down in the Village. As such, we decided to spend most of the day prior to that in and around the Village, something that we haven't really done

Here we just used the walking tours in our guidebook to meander around the Village and SoHo. I found SoHo more interesting than the Village in the respect that the architecture was more interesting. But the Village definitely did feel more like a community and a place where I could see myself living if I were ever to move to NYC.

Also in this area is Washington Square and New York University (mentioned previously). This day was student registration day or something so there were kids crawling all over the place.

I don't know, I got some sort of vibe while walking around NYU that I haven't felt in awhile, probably since we moved from Madison. With the school year starting, and all these returning upperclassmen and dumb looking freshmen looking doe-eyed as they discovered their new surroundings, I got an undeniable feeling of anticipation, eagerness... a certain potential energy that was about to become kinetic energy. Sorry for that blatant engineering term, but that is exactly how it felt that day. It was great!

After a forgettable lunch at Unos, we primarily did some shopping. Well, I say we, but it was primarily Sam and her sister. At some point, I got bored and decided to see what was going on in the Village east of Broadway. In my brief tour I discovered a very trendy neighborhood with lots of cafes and restaurants. Little India is over there too.

The Blue Man Group, if you haven't seen them in person, is a must. It wasn't at all what I expected. What I was expecting was a lot of interesting and clever noisemaking to be performed on stage. What we got was a lot of audience participation. The Blue Man were literally crawling over the audience finding their victims.

One of the reasons we picked this show was we figured it would be all music and no words which would work well for Sam's mom who doesn't speak English. And although there certainly weren't a lot of words, there were a lot more than I was expecting. But that didn't take away from the great show on stage.

I will have to say, that the warning they give before the show about how all paper is recycled is comforting. I've never seen so much paper in my life! I won't spoil how it is used, but safe to say you will have the time of your life!

For dinner we went to the forgettable Café Español on Bleeker Street. Don't get me wrong, the food wasn't bad, but any similarity to Spanish food was completely coincidental. Bleeker Street has a number of other fine restaurants of which to choose from and judging by the drunken college kids, plenty of bars to keep you entertained throughout the evening.

Friday

On Friday I was on my own for the morning while Sam and the gang went shopping. I really wanted to see The Rock (no, not the movie) while in New York this time so I took this occasion to do so.

Recently, they opened up the top of the Rockefeller building to the public. Think of this as the alternative to the Empire State Building. The reason I was more curious about The Rock than any other tall building was that supposedly the top of the building has some naval inspiration and it is laid out like a ship.

I have to say, as far as lines go, The Rock is waaaaaaaaay shorter than those for the Empire State Building so that if you just need to go to the top of some building, it's much better to go to The Rock. It might be cheaper too, which doesn't hurt.

After routing you through the obligatory history museum about the building and its construction, you come to the moment that is almost worth the price of admission all by itself: the elevator. Why is this elevator so cool? Because once you start moving, they readjust the lighting so that you can actually see the elevator shaft as you go up. Totally cool!

At the top, you get much better views of Central Park than you do from the Empire State Building, however the rest of it is pretty much the same. I was disappointed in the 'ship' in the sky motif. I think you would get that impression if you were standing on the roof with the antennas; however the observation deck didn't give me that impression by itself.

The elevator ride down was equally as cool as the ride up though.

At about the time I finished this experience, Sam called and told me to get my butt down to Bryant Park to score some tickets for Olympus Fashion Week. I was dubious, but had nothing better to do, and besides, if I see a hot model or two, so much the better.

Bryant Park was packed. I don't know if this is normal or if it was because of Fashion Week. It reminded me a lot of the Terrace in Madison, but without a lake. Lots of trees, lots of tables and benches, lots of people talking about things important and unimportant. During my scouting trip I passed a designer and a harem of his models. They weren't terribly attractive actually, but they were all tall and thin, to be certain.

I did a tour of the whole park not seeing any obvious sign of a ticket booth. This didn't surprise me because I figured the last thing this industry wants is the public involved. Eventually I came upon a woman who seemed to me to be in the know so I sauntered up to her to inquire about tickets. She looked me up from top to bottom and replied: Invitation Only. What?!!? My sandals, baggy cargo shorts and Wisconsin T-Shirt don't scream high fashion!!!???

As I had some time before I had to meet up with Sam's family for lunch, I decided to grab a beer at this restaurant that was operating in the park and just take it all in. I actually saw a number of people who seemed really familiar. Fashionistas? Michael Kors? Nina Garcia? Who knows. Who cares. My beer was good and I was enjoying life.

Life got decidedly better for lunch. We went to Solera, which is a pseudo tapas/Spanish joint on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd I think. Everything tasted great and the service was impeccable. This was also, without a doubt, the most expensive meal of the entire trip. So I would suggest attending Solera only on special occasions.

Afterwards, we wanted to take advantage of Free Fridays at the MOMA. On Friday evenings, starting at 4pm, admission is free until 8pm. This is also the only night the museum is open late. As expected, we were far from the only people with this idea as the place was packed, especially the rotating exhibit on the top floor.

The theme of that exhibit was the Dada movement. I have to say, Dada does Nada for me. Actually, I was claiming to Sam that Dada brought more structure to cubism but she said I was daft. You be the judge. During the rest of the tour of the MOMA I realized I really, really liked stuff by Cezanne. His colors and his style are just really appealing to me.

And that is about all that is new at the MOMA.

We had another opportunity to meet with Brian, our friend formerly from the DC area. We met for drinks at a place called the Acqua Pazza where we consumed some NYC-priced beverages. I normally wouldn't have mentioned it, but they had really good snacks for us to munch on while we talked. In particular, they had manchego cheese from Spain... probably better than what they had at the Café Español.

We then wanted to meet back up with Sam's sister and Miguel so we migrated to the most unexpected venue for some additional drinks: St. Barts. Located on Park Avenue, St. Barts is... a church. That is why I thought it was unexpected. The church has a very large patio overlooking Park Ave and this has been populated with tables for dinner and drinks. I have to say, I loved the ambience but I just felt a little sinful drinking on church grounds.

During this stage of our conversation with Brian, he mentioned one of the buildings his firm is working on in Dubai, the Dubai Tower. This building is going to be half a mile tall people!!! That is just amazing. I know Frank (as in Frank Lloyd Wright, but as I am from Wisconsin I get to call him just Frank) dreamed up a mile tall skyscraper, but I figured that wouldn't happen in my lifetime. Now that they are building something half that size, I have to wonder.

Before we knew it, it was 11pm and we still had not eaten dinner yet. Brian then suggested a hidden burger joint that we might look into. We were all game so off we went. Along the way, we passed a street vendor that was absolutely swarmed with customers. Brian indicated that he was regularly voted as the best street cart vendor in the city. Judging by the line 30 people deep, publicity must be a good thing. Sorry, I don't remember which street corner it was though.

Finally, we reached our hidden burger destination, at the Parker Meridien Hotel, a really swanky joint on 56th near 7th. But despite the lustrous exterior (and interior for that matter) of the hotel, as soon as you walk in the door, you smell it: grease! Follow your nose to the left, and down a narrow, dark hallway you'll see the Holy Grail: a neon hamburger. Keep following your instincts and soon you shall find the secret burger joint. But, they are only open to midnight so don't wait too long.

Saturday

The final day in New York Sam and I wanted to do some more things we haven't had a chance to do in the past. The rest of her family wasn't so interested so we headed off by ourselves.

The first stop was the Cloisters, which is a part of The Met, however it is worlds away around 200th street in Harlem. We took the subway up there and when we left the station, we kind of felt we were in a different world. The station exits to a park that has some outstanding views of the Hudson River. But what was truly amazing was the utter lack of buildings in sight. Everything was trees and the banks along the river we very steep. It was quite stunning, but unfortunately we didn't have time to dawdle because we had to meet Sam's family for lunch later that day.

The Cloisters, we discovered, and their surrounding park, were yet another gift of the Rockefellers to the rest of humanity. Gracias Chicos! How crappy would the world be if that were all still private land?

Anyway, the best way I can think of to describe the Cloisters is that if you wanted to see old religious and medieval artwork, but didn't want to travel to Europe to see it in its original context, the Cloisters is the next best thing. It is a museum, certainly, however it has a very monastery feel to it. I would definitely recommend making this a double feature with The Met as entrance into one gets you entrance into the other on the same day.

On the walk back to a different subway, we saw a glimpse of Harlem. I'm sure there are worse areas, but it didn't look too bad to me.

OK, the next stop was the Grant Memorial, which is a little to the north of Columbia University. This was pretty much a drive-by as we really took too much time at the Cloisters and were behind schedule. The memorial was much larger than I anticipated and I would have liked to have investigated it further. Next time I guess.

Almost across the street from Grant's tomb is Riverside Church. The thing is bloody enormous so you cannot possibly miss it. The bell tower is like 20 stories tall, or taller. It sticks out of the church in a very phallic way. The church was undergoing some renovation so we didn't see any obvious open entrance to check out the interior.

But we didn't look too hard as we had to book it to Columbia University. The main courtyard of Columbia reminded me a lot of Bascom Hill at the UW-Madison... but without the 'hill' portion of it. And it is more expansive. School had not yet started here yet, or so it seemed, so it wasn't too happening yet. Again, I would have liked to spend more time to explore, but no time for we had one more stop to make before lunch.

That was the Church of St. John the Divine, just a little south of Columbia University. This cathedral is still under construction, which reminded me of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It is supposed to be the largest cathedral in the world when completed. The problem is that it has been under construction for over 100 years and it has well over 50 more to go. The bigger problem is that they already have to renovate the areas that are already completed, which prevents them from doing anything new.

An entry fee is required to go inside, and we might do that in the future, but nope, had to go. So we rushed to the subway and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, a train came and... didn't stop!!! It wasn't even full! It just tooted its horn and kept barreling on by.

This gave us the impression another train was hot on its tail. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We waited 30-40 bloody minutes. The platform was by this time packed so we decided to stop waiting and grab a taxi. The taxi, naturally, got hung up in traffic as we approached Times Square, which made us even later meeting up with Sam's family. Fortunately, they didn't mind.

For lunch, we went to the Bankock House, which I've described in a previous Megamail. Would definitely recommend it again.

Next, it was off to The Met. Again, I saw things I've never seen before and again just barely scratched the surface. At some point I lost Sam and her sister. I knew they were in the Egyptian section, but heck if I could find them in the 40 rooms that make up that portion of the museum.

I found myself attracted to woodwork this time around. Kind of like paintings, but made with different types and stains of wood. There is a room at the Met that is absolutely amazing. It must be comprised of hundreds of thousands of pieces of wood, some no bigger than the head of nail. So cool.

We stayed at The Met until closing time and they rushed us out. We walked back to the apartment to meet up with Sam's parents. I have no idea what they did all day. Maybe visit the USS Intrepid or something. Probably some shopping too.

For dinner we made a repeat visit to the French place. I think I went with the duck, which I don't see on menus often. Again, it was quite good. The whole meal put a nice finish on a great trip!

Sunday

On Sunday we took in some of the Sunday markets near our apartment, hunted for some last minute souvenirs, had one last wine to toast the great trip and then waited for the SuperShuttle to take us to the airport.

That experience almost killed the vacation. The shuttle was late in picking us up and then had other people to pick up afterwards. We barely made our flights. I wasn't so worried about us heading back to Virginia. If we miss that flight, we have car and train options available to us. I was worried about Sam's parents' flight to Spain. But in the end, it all worked out well.

Well, don't be surprised if another Megamail is in your inbox by now. Vegas is on it's way baby!