When we landed in Dubai, I had little idea what to expect. That’s how I travel. I never do enough research. I’m not proud of it. It’s just a thing with me. Some years ago, I planned a family vacation to Puerto Rico. At the airport, an attendant looked at our tickets and said, no, we were going to Puerto Plata.
“I hope you have passports,” the attendant said, looking sympathetically at my wife, Kim, and our three young children — and sideways at me. “That’s in the Dominican Republic.”
Kim had packed those documents (“just in case”) and we were soon on our way. But I won’t deny it was a long flight to the Caribbean wondering if a round of welcome drinks might be going unclaimed somewhere in Puerto Rico while my family slept on the streets of Puerto Plata.