You know that feeling when you set your out of office auto-reply and you shut down your computer and you just take a deep breath and go "ahhhh"? It's called the Officially On Vacation moment. And it is awesome. For the next four weeks (!) I don't have to think about work or the stress of day-to-day life. It's about as long a break as I've ever taken in my adult working life, and it sure feels good.

The last few days have been a scramble of last-minute arrangements, packing, re-packing, making latkes, cleaning up from latkes, taking stuff our of our bags to get the luggage a few grams lighter, and re-packing again. Getting everything we need for a 4-week trip into our carry-on limit was not easy, especially for Ryan, given how much his medication weighs. But now, I think we're as ready as we're gonna get.

In theory, we're checked in, packed up, and all systems are go. Except that it's snowing in Paris. And the Parisians do not deal with snow very well. As a result, there are a series of flight delays and cancellations at CDG Airport, which is where we're scheduled to connect. Will our flights make it? Who knows? So far, our flight to Paris is still showing as on time, but that's liable to change. I've got Watarimono on the case, and we'll just have to hope for the best.

Beyond making sure our flights are relatively on time and hassle free, Watarimono is also tasked with keeping us COVID-free on this trip. Given the ending of mask mandates and other protective measures, this could be a ninja-level task. Let's hope he's up to it.

To that end, we've purchased these fancy SIP Mask valves to allow for drinking water through a straw with our masks on. 24 hours of transit is a long time to go without hydration, so hopefully these things will allow us to still drink water while remaining COVID-free by the time we land.

Travel didn't use to be this stressful, right?

Update: It's now 6pm and we're at the gate at YUL waiting to board. The plane is here and the flight still looks to be departing as scheduled. So far so good.

After being dropped off at the airport, Ryan and I hastily wolfed down our brown paper bag dinners on the benches outside the entrance. We then donned our masks, zipped through security (thanks Nexus!), and found ourselves with an hour and a half to kill before boarding time.

Normally, this is about the time we'd activate vacation mode by stopping in at the airport pub for a beer, but in COVID times that isn't exactly possible, right? Wrong! Hey, if the SIP masks allow us to drink water through a straw, surely they work the same way for beer, right? Two pints later, we were officially on vacation.

We got a few odd looks from strangers at the next table, but hey, I've never minded looking weird before. Better strange looks than getting sick, right? And it worked like a charm.

Now we're at the gate on what promises to be a full flight, with the gate agents shouting at everyone to check their carry-on luggage, at least a couple of screaming babies, and plenty of unmasked people coughing all around us. Remind me again why we're doing this?

If we make it in one piece, next update will be from Bangkok!