Traveling Fool

This trip got off to a very precarious and nerve-wracking start with a horrible ice storm that had me very worried I wasn't going to make it to the airport in time. Three re-routings later and my terrific Lyft driver, Tom, got me to the departures and the rest was up to me and the good folks at Delta. Seriously, if you could have seen the mass of people just waiting to check their baggage...in the Sky Priority line you might have cried. I know, because I was. I thank my indulgent attitude when I booked my Delta Premium ticket that got me Sky Priority and that I also obtained Global Entry/TSA pre-check. I zoomed through to my gate, and then we waited some more, because the ice had delayed a couple of crew members, then we sat on the runway to get de-iced (not complaining about that part at all), and then we were off, Tokyo-bound. We left on Saturday and landed around 3:30 pm on Sunday, thanks to the good old International Date Line. It's always a little disorienting landing in

I would not say I'm a nervous traveler or flyer; I'm not sure I could do the trips I do if I was. I think I have become a planner, however, and I woke up this morning (mere days away from departure) freaking out because I couldn't remember if I needed visas for Japan or S. Korea. Okay, "freaking out" is a bit dramatic, but I did have a bit of a heart flutter until I re-confirmed that I do NOT need visas for those countries. Now, in case you're thinking, um, hey dummy, shouldn't you have looked into that a little while ago? I did, and in fact, got my Chinese visa back in August, so I did do my homework, but it typifies the waves of panic I've had over the past few weeks. This panic has resulted in many online purchases. I knew I was going to a cold place; Harbin is called "Ice City" and all the literature stressed the negative temperatures; I was fine with that, blasé, you might say, UNTIL I realized that I might be fine, but my camera might