It cracks me up that, "Oh, no, Zeus would get pissed if I flew!" was a reason for hard travel, but, "We're freaking twelve, no one in their right mind is going to let us go by ourselves," wasn't. =)

I was also hampered by my desire for my friend's eight-year-old, who got me into the series, getting a bit shafted by the Annabeth changes. (Annabeth was SO TOTALLY HER FAVORITE. It's neat watching the first stages of fandom in a small human, you know?)