Breaking Out

We made it out of NYC on Monday evening after a pretty useless weekend watching the start of Winter Break roll in. Since Nacho was working until a red eye landing on Sunday morning, I was home alone wondering where in the world we would be going when we finally made a decision. It was such a mess of options and filled flights that I wasn't exactly feeling optimistic. Part of me desperately wanted to go some place new and yet the the cost of hotels and rental cars adds up even when the flights are free. So there was a lot to consider and nothing was jumping at me. I checked all the major European capitals and the only one that looked great was Frankfurt from Sun-Sun. In the States, our vision of hitting San Juan or Seattle quickly started to fade as the flights looked iffy. And the weather in Seattle wasn't exactly enchanting me. Of all the places I wasn't expecting, St. Louis looked really pretty decent with temps in the mid 70s all week and lots of kid-friendly outings to appease our travelers. But then, well, it just wasn't clinching the deal. Nacho returned from his trip and we spent the better part of Sunday morning trying to solidify our plan. He needed to rest that day, so it kind of ruled out Frankfurt for me since I really wanted to get a jump start if we were going to Europe. Of course, that was the ideal. But then he kept mentioning Madrid and it was clear he was itching to go home. So why not? Of course I wanted to see the family too and the girls would get over their initial disappointment that we weren't going to see the arch in St. Louis and swim at a hotel all week (Reminder: Next time don't mention ALL the options! Oops). Carolina frowned and said she didn't want to go to Spain because she didn't like the way it smelled. Of cigarettes, diesel exhaust and too much jamon, I wondered? Oh but I digress...we went and it was all fine. Getting the last row in the mid-section with a seat between me and Elisa worked fine and Nacho took Carolina in the row ahead of us. We made it in time to get dinner in the terminal and relax just a bit before boarding....