Vacation is a time that Ritsuko and I really cherish. It is a time to unwind, reset the accumulated stress of everyday life, and become spiritually renewed. Once the planning, preparation, and packing is done, my mind focuses on single tasks of getting to our destination. I begin to relax as life becomes less complicated.

On May 1, 2002, we had the bags in the car, checked the house over one more time, and said good bye to our cats Eeper and Smoochi. Eeper had known for the past couple of days that something was up. He had seen the bags come out of the closet before, and knew what it meant. Smoochi, our kitten, had never seen her humans disappear for several days, and didn't have a clue, but did react to Eeper's anxiousness. We watched their quizzical little faces (okay, Smoochi's quizzical face and Eeper's look of "I can't believe you guys are doing this to me again") disappear behind the door as we closed and locked it; then we got into the car and drove off into the early morning darkness.

Within a few minutes, we were across the Mississippi and headed across the dark flat plains of northern Illinois on our drive to O'Hare. It was a good morning for a drive to the airport. There was just a bit of a chill in the air, and some slight rainfall with the occasional pea size hail. It is always nice to leave home for a tropical destination when the weather is just a little bit crummy, but not so bad as to impair your journey. The last time I had driven to Chicago, I-88 was really torn up with long stretches of highway constricted into a single lane in each direction. Now the construction was mostly completed. We glided along on the smooth new pavement, ever closer to the next step in our journey.

We arrived at O'Hare at 5:15am, four hours before our flight departure time. There are two long term parking lots at O'Hare, Lots E and F. The charge for lot E is $13 per day, while lot F is $9 per day. From lot E, one can take the automated train directly from the lot to any of the five terminals. From lot F, however, one must wait for a shuttle bus which takes passengers to the train at lot E. Given a stay of 9 days, the difference in price would amount to an additional $36 for the added convenience of parking in lot E. I asked Ritsuko her opinion, and she voted for lot F to save the $36. Thinking this through, I asked if it would be worth $9 for her not to have to wait in lot F for the bus which takes people to the train at lot E, and, of course, not having to lug her bag up into the bus. Her answer was yes. I said that I agreed, that it would be worth $9 to me as well. Next, I asked that since it would be worth $9 this morning, am I correct in my assumption that it would be worth even more not to have to deal with this extra step when we return, tired from traveling all day. Once again she gave an affirmative response. I agreed. That being the case, spending the extra $36 to park in lot E and thus eliminating this extra step was in fact a bargain. We parked in lot E.

I have always found airports to be very unpleasant, and post 9/11 they are even more unpleasant. We checked in, being delightfully surprised by the fact that the counter agent was a very congenial lady who changed our seating assignments to a row where there was more leg room. Having so much time, we sat at the gate for what seemed like an eternity. I began reading "Secrets of the Talking Jaguar" as we waited. Bits and pieces of the conversations of others crept into my head as I read. Words bounced off my head as I continued to read, becoming immersed in the story, but I could feel Ritsuko fidgeting in the chair next to me, and finally put the book down to look at her.

She sat with arms crossed and jaws clenched. She was still upset over the incident at the security checkpoint where she had been searched because a metal box of chewing gum in her jacket pocket had set off the alarm. To compound the problem, she was not very cooperative with the security agents who were less than polite and congenial, and she is Asian, thus she probably fit into some kind of moderate risk profile. It was a bad scene, and right now she was just pissed off. Her aura cast a spell of doom over the happy mood of the occasion. I tried to comfort her by telling her to look at the bright side since she didn't get hauled off to jail, kicking and screaming for the CNN cameras while bringing business to a halt at one of the busiest airports in the world. She looked at me, her dark eyes fiercely piercing me with an angry stare. Her jaws tightened. I told her that no one held a gun to her head, at least no one visible, reminding her of the time that the foil in a pack of gum in my pocket set off the metal detector in the airport at Seoul, causing three ROK army guys to spread eagle me and search me at gun point. Her face relaxed....she wanted to smile, but wouldn't give into it. She picked up her Spanish phrase book and began to read.

Finally, we boarded the plane. As we taxied for takeoff, Ritsuko still was immersed in her phrase book, occasionally silently mouthing some words of Spanish. As the plane lifted off the ground, she nudged me. I looked at her and was so happy to see that her beautiful dark eyes were now sparkling again, and she was smiling with a big wide grin as she said "sin problemas".

"Si, sin problemas," I replied.

We both sank down into our seats and went back to reading. A feeling of calm and peace took over us both. We were on our way to a wonderful adventure in a beautiful place.