It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

Oddly enough, I’ve been putting off this final Hawaii post.   I’m not entirely sure why, really.   Maybe the finality of it all was more than I wanted to deal with.   I’m home.   Things are back to normal (or as normal as things are in the summer in my life…many trips are in various planning stages up in here).   The feel of Maui is fading.   And this is the last thing I plan to “do” to close the chapter on this trip.   Once this post is done, my trip will officially be over.   And I’m not sure I want that to happen. Then again, I could be really lazy. Because this was my first trip to Hawaii and my first “big” (partially) solo trip (a trip to Disney World when I had my first nervous breakdown in the parking lot of Animal Kingdom doesn’t necessarily count, right??   It was pre-blog…it doesn’t count), I thought I might as well share a few bonus pictures along with some of the things I’ve learned from experiencing both of these things fo...

Every year, I say to myself, "Seriously.  You have to stop this.  It's ridiculous.  You should be saving for the future."  But every year, things happen. This year, I didn't bother saying this to myself.  Because this was always going to be a big year.  This year...I turn 40. I know.  I KNOW!! It's a pretty big number.  And I can't deny that I've been struggling a bit with the reality of what this number means.  I have a good job, a nice home, a great family, and several friends who are just as stupid as I am with these silly adventures.  But I'm no longer the "young one" in the office.  And I don't entirely know when that happened. But back to this year... If a "regular" year involves multiple foreign and several domestic trips, then what would a 40th Birthday Celebration Year involve??  Well...here's the story with this trip.  What??  You want me to share all of my trips at once??  No way, man. Abo...

Thursday, September 4th Our flight home was scheduled for 10a.  Considering the traffic in Beijing, we knew we had to give ourselves extra time to get to the airport.  So we started counting backwards.  Our math took us away from our hotel at 6a.  Which means we are up around 5a.  And of course, I was up once an hour since about 2a.  Because I was petrified I'd oversleep. In our wine-based haze from last night, Danielle and I did do 90% of our packing before falling asleep.  So I didn't have to do much this morning.  Shower, light packing, I was done.  This is always recommended. Because every key should have a Gumby keychain. Yesterday, when coming back from the Summer Palace, I went to set up a car service from our hotel to the airport this morning.  The front desk person explained it was actually cheaper if we just called a cab.  As we discovered the other day, the price for a taxi is based on the kilometers dri...

April 22nd, 2014 I always end my trip blogs on the plane ride home.  And honestly, unless something unforeseen happens on a plane, there isn't much of a story.  So I figured I would assume the plane ride went well.  Instead, here are some of the thoughts and such from this very quick trip.  It's all of the brain droppings I didn't have time for each day. "Just wait until you get the meat sweats."  Adele to me during Friday night's Parilla experience.  I did not get meat sweats, but I did eat my weight in meat over the last few days.  I'm not a super red meat eater, but I did partake hard here.  It was all so good.  I also never have swollen ankles.  My ankles are oddly delicate.  But today, as I sit on the couch and try to decide when exactly to take a nap (answer - NOW), I look down at my ankles and wonder what in the holy hell just happened.  My ankles are currently the size of my neck. Meat, glorious meat. ...

Sigh.   I really don't have any excuse. Two months have come and gone.  No fewer than three trips have been had.  And I have posted nothing. It's not like I haven't tried.  I have various posts saved in various places.  But nothing seemed to stick.    I've found that if I don't write while I am on the road, I don't write.  So...lesson learned. But I have been here and there in the last few months.  So...what better to do than share a few pictures. Florida - September I tend to hit the Orlando area once a year.  There are always reasons.  Mostly, just cause I want to be in Orlando.  It is my most favoriteist place in the whole world.  And while I haven't been everywhere , I've been to enough places to know I love the theme park mecca of Orlando.  When an opportunity came about for me to travel to Central Florida for work, I knew I would go.  And I knew I'd stop at Orlando for a few days first...