Recently in Travel Category

Our friends Kevin and Marjorie invited us on a road trip to Moab, Utah. They were planning on going out there to celebrate their 5 year anniversary and thought it might be nice for our families to go out there together. They have a 17 month old daughter, Camryn, so it was fun to get the girls together. We've taken several trips with those guys over the years (Vegas, Sante Fe, camping) but this was the first one we all took as 'parents.'

We took separate cars and just met up at the Gonzo Inn in downtown Moab. Scott and I were excited to take Sophie and the Element on their first road trip! Sophie was amazing and slept most of the way. When she was awake she just played with her toys and made happy little squealing sounds. Most of our time in Moab was spent lounging by the pool and in the pool, out at restaurants, and napping. We did get to go for a little mini hike and try out the new baby backpack that we got from our neighbors. Scott wore it and Sophie loved the scenery from such an elevated viewpoint. We took some nice pictures and got to enjoy nature.

Overall, a fantastic weekend and thanks so much to the Noleens for inviting us!

Charlotte, Sophie, and I flew to Michigan using some frequent flier miles last weekend. We were in town over Mother's Day - probably the first Mother's Day I've spent with my mother (or my grandmother) since I was in college and still lived in the area. Charlotte is a new mom this year so she was included in the celebrations. My sister, a relatively new mother herself, also made the trip up from Columbus with her three children.

Like all my trips home to see family, this one felt too short. Even though we were there three full days, they flew by. We did get to meet up with some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice. We saw Molly, whose job involves enough travel to earn her elite status on Northwest Airlines within the first three months of the year. Charlotte, Sophie, and I also drove over to the East side to see Greg, Tara, and their two girls. Sophie got a kick out of watching little Erin and Rowe run around. Charlotte, Valerie, Valerie's son Will, and I also attended a Tigers-Yankees game Friday night at Comerica Park. The struggling Tigers eked out a win after extinguishing a Yankees rally in the bottom of the ninth. I spent some time around the house helping set up my mom's and the Almeister's new iPod Touch (a retirement gift from Almeister's office), and working on our family tree on geni.com. I even managed to spend about twenty minutes cleaning out the closet of my old bedroom - a task my mother's been begging me to do for at least a decade. Probably only about 10 hours left on that task...

I guess it was a pretty busy weekend!

I am on Martha's Vineyard at the moment. Getting back in touch with my 'roots' and hanging out with my friends. I flew back to the East Coast this past Saturday and hung out with my father in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a short but nice visit. On Monday I took the ferry to the Vineyard. Now I'm here, I brought my laptop with me because I'm not officially on vacation -- still trying to get work done while I'm here -- which is convenient because both my friends, Jade and Jon, still have to work. I'm having a really nice time and am having fun uploading photos daily as I take them.

P.S. Scott just reminded me that today is the 4 year anniversary of the day we met on a plane. Yay!

Just using this blog to say that I posted a bunch of my pictures from Japan. Check 'em out.

Well, we're back from Japan now. Actually, it's been over a week since we've been back but both of us have been so busy working on pictures and catching up on our yard work that we have let the blog go without an update for a while. For our three or four dedicated readers, this must come as a huge letdown.

The last part of our trip to Japan went very well and in retrospect very quickly. Two weeks was the perfect length for the trip we have both decided. We got to see a lot and do a lot and by the time we got back to the Tokyo airport we were ready to get back to "normal life". When you're traveling like that, you don't have agendas and to-do lists like you might have while you're home and going to work every day. Traveling gives you freedom from the mundane. However, when you're moving around a lot on a trip you end up having issues with facts of life you might ordinarily take for granted. Things like having to find public bathrooms and having to learn a new public transportation system every three or four days. Finding decent and cheap restaurants and trying to get good sleep can also be a challenge. Don't get me wrong - we still love to travel! It's just that it can take something out of you.

Today was our second full day in the Kyoto area. Yesterday we walked about 14 miles and hit a couple temples along the way. We actually went to the Imperial Palace first off but it was closed. Whether it was closed because it's always closed Thursdays or because it was Constitution Day here we don't know. Hopefully we have to time to try again. Tomorrow is actually another holiday here -- Children's Day, I believe. Only after we booked parts of this trip did we realize we were traveling during Golden Week in Japan. It's a huge holiday week here and consequently prices are higher, availability is lower, and landmarks and attractions are crowded! Still, we're having a great time on the journey.

I guess it's technically day 4 in Japan, but it's only our third full day, and that's what I'm counting. Let's start with the journey here.

Wednesday night late, Charlotte's sister Emilie was nice enough to pop by and drive us to the airport for our 12:55 AM flight to Atlanta. Now that we're married and living in the burbs, 12:55 is kinda late. Luckily, we were excited to be on the road so tiredness was not a problem. For those who don't know, we're taking this trip flying standby all the way. Charlotte's dad has flight benefits from Delta and he was kind enough to throw a buddy pass my way. Anyway, we got on our first flight without a problem.

The weekend before last, I made my second annual Geezers Vegas Hockey trip. Last year it was just me, but this time Charlotte came along for the ride. And what a ride it was! The weekend started out with a thud as we blew out a tire on I-70 on the way to the airport. I've thought about how bad it would be to blow a tire on the way to the airport before, only it'd never happened to me. We ended up missing our flight and could have been stuck in the airport for about 10 hours due to the full Vegas flights (opening weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament), but we were able to get on standby for the next flight. Whew!

Back a couple months ago, when we got a new camera, we decided to schedule a coming out party for it – the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. We planned to make the trip last year, but our schedule filled up we passed. This year, I booked and paid for the hotel in advance, so staying home was not an option!

The drive down was fun. This was our first road trip with just the two of us, and one of the few trips where we weren’t visiting friends or family or conducting business. We took off in the early afternoon and dropped off Peanut with Charlotte's mom and sister before leaving Denver for New Mexico. By the time we were hungry for dinner, we were already down in Las Vegas, NM. This Vegas isn’t really anything like that Vegas, you understand. Then again, what is?! Anyway, after a lovely dinner, we arrived down in Albuquerque at around 10:00 PM.

Charlotte's cousin Folkert stayed with us last week, his last stop on a quick cross-country trip he undertook after his internship in Montreal. After some discussion, we ended up deciding to go to Moab for the weekend to do a little Western sightseeing.

Friday afternoon we left the house and headed west on I-70. Though it was only the middle of September, there was more snow on the drive than I usually see on our way to go skiing! However, by the time we crossed the continental divide, we were mostly in the clear.