The summer vacation season is upon us. I got an early start today, heading up the road to the Jersey Shore, also known as Springsteen country, also known, to me, as home.
My goal is to have — for a few glory days — no goals! Unless you want to count enjoying time with my family, scanning the sea for dolphins, reading novels and eating thin-crust pizza made in the delicious way that my beautiful, adopted state of Virginia just doesn't get. I'm excited already.
One extra benefit is that it doesn't cost $32,840 to get there. OK, it's not likely to cost anyone I know $32,840 to get anywhere, including the beaches of the Garden State.
But it does cost that much, The New York Times reported last week, to fly first-class from Los Angeles to Dubai and back on an Emirates Airline A380 superjumbo jet.
And as I pack my travel bags, I can't help but wonder what trip — by air, sea, or road, for pleasure or business — could be worth that individual ticket price. If you pay it, here's what you get, according to New York Times writer Joe Sharkey:
"You will enjoy superb food and drink and be cosseted in a private compartment with a sliding door, a lie-flat seat with mattress, a vanity, a personal minibar and flat-screen television set, and a luxury bathroom down the aisle where you can take a shower."