Kenya, July, 2011 - Me and Kev

You know it's going to be a good trip when you have stories to tell before you leave the country.

 JetBlue has a partnership with Emirates, so we were able to check our bags straight through to Nairobi. I know what you're thinking. I'll let you know if they get there.  We get on the plane and find our seats.  The stewardess comes over to us to ask if we're over 18 and know that we're sitting in an exit row.  I say yes grinnning, and Kevin smiles and nods.  As she walks away, I turn to Kevin and say, "You know, she wasn't checking my age..."  He responded, "I'm never shaving again."  He makes me laugh.



This trip was thrown together rather quickly. Andrea, Kevin and I finally committed to the trip last week, and I sent our passports (mine & Kevin's) to NYC to get our travel visas (it's just easier -or so I thought).  Well, I was supposed to recieve our passports in the mail on Monday. Then I was supposed to recieve the passports on Wednesday.  Then I was informed that they'd be overnighting them to us today. Yeah, that doesn't work.  Long story short, they had a courier bring us our passports this morning.  We got off of our JetBlue flight in JFK, walked towards the Emirates departure desk, stepped outside to a non-descript Dodge mini-van, signed for reciept of 1 manilla envelope, tore open said envelope, removed our passports and checked into our flight.  Holy shnikies that was close.  But it all worked out.

So we get to the Emirates desk, and I ask if there are any exit row seats for our 12 hour flight.  He calls the supervisor who's standing 30 feet away.  I see her nod "yes," so I mouth "thank you."  BUT, she doesn't hang up.  She keeps talking on the phone to the agent at the desk.  Then I hear him say, "He was born in 1993."  She smiles and walks over to us. "I saw you (motioning to me) and then I saw him, and you didn't look old enough to have a son that old.  You are over 15 right? (motioning to Kevin)."  Kevin just shook his head as I smiled.  "Did I mention I have a daughter who's 20?" - I was thinking it, but I never vocalized it.  Here's another one I kept to myself - "My wife stole me from  my crib."  I chalked it up to the possibility that the supervisor wasn't wearing her contacts.

We're sitting outside our gate now, Kevin's tied into his iPod.  He's gotten quiet, so I know he's thinking about Andrea, Karen and Katie.  So am I.  I can feel them all with us, though... eith every step we take. 

See you in 12 hours.