We left New York city on Saturday, September 11.

After our other experiences with flying in North America, this one was remarkably easy. We caught the airport shuttle at some ungodly hour of the morning, and cruising around the streets of NYC in the early hours of the morning, I realized how remarkably well the game "Grand Theft Auto 3" is. Since I have probably put more than 100 hours of my life into that game, the streets all looked eerily familiar.

JFK is actually a pretty good airport, set out into several small terminals, so as long as you get to the right bit, it is pretty easy to negotiate with only 10 or so gates in each one. Even if you got the wrong one, there is a monorail that zips around between all of the terminals.

There was an armed guard on every door, and checking in was quick and efficient. You got the sense they wanted you in and out of there as quickly as possible. The security screening was as vigorous as you might imagine, but other than that it was plain sailing.

We knew it was September 11th when we got to Vancouver and opened our bags though, because there was a friendly note in there from the US government to say that its agents had checked through our belongings and that they hoped we didn't mind. It was for our safety after all...