Day 20 - Fin!

-- Home safe and sound now ... managed to make it from Dublin through Paris to Newark and finally up to Lowell all in one piece. How nice it is to be back in the land of wide streets, one-size-fits-all paper currency, and working cell phones (seriously, how annoying is it that Europeans can bring their cell phones all over their continent and Asia, too, and we can't even bring ours to Mexico ... are they in metric or something?).

-- Fun bit of excitement on the way back ... it seems Air France overbooked the Dublin flight, leaving only one seat available on the 9am. Sue, wanting to make sure she made it home in time for Jen's wedding (Vegas had the odds at 5:3 against), took the seat (leaving a Sue-shaped cloud of dust behind her), leaving Alan to fend for himself. All turned out OK, as there were seats on the 10:15 and, thanks to some recent EU laws, Alan got a 250Euro compensation voucher. Go byzantine regulatory state!

-- We were aware that you couldn't take any liquids or gels on the planes, but when did M&Ms, deodorant and aspirin turn into liquids? In retrospect, we should have just checked everything and boarded the plane naked with our passports and boarding passes taped to our chests.

-- Anyway, this is pretty much the end of the line. I thought about extending this to cover our adventures in Lowell (it's my belief that the main industry of Lowell is generating tough-looking tattooed young men) but I think it's time to wrap it up. Thanks to everyone who read this (that's you, Moms), and I'm sure we'll see everyone soon.

Best,
A&S