Forget Mastercard...a Visa is priceless! (Steve)

The passport drama has finally come to an end - at 9:30 this morning we received a long awaited FedEx package with our sparkling new visas. Talk about down to the wire! Its hard to believe, but we only have one day left before we leave. The movers came yesterday to pack up the items we set aside to ship, and we've been frantically working to tie up the remaining loose ends in preparation for our 6 month adventure. We start on Monday morning (April 11) and fly from Charlotte to NY, where we'll spend the day and take the kids to see the Statue of Liberty. Monday night we leave from JFK to Frankfurt, Germany in first class. What's that? Why, yes, I did say first class. Lufthansa is my new favorite company after upgrading the whole family to international first class. We'll spend 2 days in Frankfurt, visit some real-life castles, eat some schnitzel (or something like that) and then head out on the ~8 hour flight to Bangalore. 

The trip will be just under 4 days from start to finish, which means we'll have just under 4 days to develop our family strategy to battle the taxi drivers when we step out of the Bangalore airport.  I knew there was higher purpose behind Owen getting his Tae Kwon Do black belt this year!