"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Our travels begin, as most do, with an extended trip to the airport. In this case it was known and even planned ahead of time.

We knew we needed a layover, we planned to have a layover, and most of all we planned to enjoy the layover!

And so we ate lunch at the Garden State Diner...a tribute to the 1950’s and reminiscent of our college days at Steak ‘n’ Shake...yes, sometimes it’s good to go back again! We met a cute little four month old girl who was being escorted through the airport by a proud papa...yes, he was traveling with a baby all by himself...wonders never cease!

So, after a brief sojourn through Brookstone and Borders, we ended up at gate C121 (for no other reason than it was a quiet place to rest our weary backs...who packed these backpacks anyway?!?!) programming the TomTom (many thanks to brother Jason for letting us borrow this really cool gadget. We just really need to download Sean, the guy from Ireland, because we’re not listening to Mandy the whole time we’re in Ireland!) and playing Guitar Hero on the iPod. T’s first attempt got the new high score and blew away all of Rita’s scores from the last 24 hours. Hehe!

Three more hours and we’ll be in the air flying across the pond!

Random thoughts for the day:

• New York City is really pretty (from the air!)
• Airports can be relaxing (when you’re not in a rush, aren’t trying to handle emails or return voice messages, and don’t have to work for TWO WEEKS!)
• Newark airport is much better when you're not traveling with 5 cranky kids, getting there 4 hours early only to be delayed 4 more hours (remember that Wermers Family vacation? it's one we'll never forget!)