It has all been said already, but let me also throw out a quick thanks to eightblack and ung1 for putting this all together. And even more thanks to the numerous other FTers who opened up their house to us or invited us all to dinner or who made entire drink tabs disappear. This truly was an awesome trip!

And to top off such an epic trip, I somehow got the op-up from EK C to F for my ultra-long DXB-IAH flight. I have no idea how this happened, as I have zero status or miles of any kind with Emirates (never even flown them before), AND this was a reward ticket. Dumb luck or something going on behind-the-scenes? Guess we'll never know...