The flight

I'd like to start off with this, the first of a series of photos called "Jeff likes to take unflattering pictures of his wife."

We are at the airport in New York, and boarding has just begun for our flight. While were waiting for them to call our zone, I decided to test out my new neck pillow. It's inflatable and pink and wonderful.

And I look like a goober.  But at least the pillow matches my hair!

A few minutes later, we were on a very big plane ready to take a very long flight.  Flights like these just feel different. There is a different energy. On domestic flights, no one seems excited. Everyone just plays it cool, like they fly all the time, and no one ever seems as scared as I feel (I hate flying) and we all just file down the aisle, sit in our seats, plug in our headphones and pretend to sleep.

Totally different on this flight. There was excitement! People were talking, and everybody was super friendly, and there was just this buzzing energy, as if we all knew we were about to go on an amazing journey. Fun!

And then, you know, we flew. Not that exciting. We watched some movies and ate some bad plane food and got some bad plane sleep.

Two interesting things:

1. On our way to Rome, we only flew over one other country - France. I don't know why, but I didn't think you could get from NYC to Rome and only fly over France.  Turns out, you can.  I just don't know my European geography very well.

2. The island of Corsica looks AMAZING from the air. It's basically an island of mountains, the highest of which is over 8,800 feet, and it's so amazing to see the mountains so close to the ocean. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture.

But don't worry. I took over 500 pictures on the trip. There will be plenty to see.