Two years have passed and given the choice of beaches in the DR or the highlands of Guatemala my wife has graciously opted for the latter. Due to conditions beyond their control we received a robo-call from the ringmaster of our circus, Continental Airlines, informing us that our flight had been cancelled and insructing us to call their 800 number to re-book. Simple enough except that their 800 number kept telling us that due to the weather they couldn't take our call. Is Joseph Heller their CEO? The wonderful little gnomes of travelocity, residing somewhere in the far east, were very helpful and after 90 minutes or so of long periods on hold followed by profuse apologies we were succesfully rebooked for thursday.

Thursday dawns, we check out of the very nice Country Inn and Suites of Elizabeth NJ and shuttle off to the airport. The self serve kiosk at Continental departures will only check us through to Houston, an attendant appears, and after much dialog with his cellphone informs us that our Houston/Guatemala leg has been cancelled but wouldn't we like to spend some quality time in the GW Bush airport/resort in Houston? After much civil conversation we are again re-booked for a saturday departure and its back to the Country Inn.

If you're ever stuck in Newark and have a craving for Portuguese food you are in the right place. Valencia's of Elizabeth prepared a lunch that outdid most any I've ever had. We started with a nice green salad, fresh crusty bread and oil, followed by a huge bowl of Arroz con Mariscos, (1/2 a crab, shrimps, scallops, clams and mussels, in a wonderful stew of rice, tomatoes, herbs and spices) for me and grilled beef with black beans for Pam, all washed down with a pitcher of sangria we were stuffed. We had enough leftovers for dinner and enjoyed reliving the experience via the hotel microwave.