Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Saturday, July 13, 2019
The Trip
Nine days before I leave and my bags are more or less packed and my quarter-century old hiking boots are cleaned and ready.
There are still a hundred things left to be done, but Jo - who has been doing the heavy lifting literally and otherwise - says we are making progress. It's hard to plan to be away for a year. Too long for the usual holiday preparations, and too short for goodbyes. But we have been steadily emptying the house of personal belongings while packing what we'll take with us. As of yesterday I don't own any suits - and only one wedding to attend between now and departure date!
One huge and liberating decision we made a little while ago is to travel light. Each of us will have a carry-on sized backpack or duffle bag. We'll have enough clothes for a week. Two, if underwear are called on to do double duty. Along with rain jackets and warm clothes to take us down to about 5°C.
This is a map of approximately where we are going. We'll be African in August and September for the wildebeest migration and the flooding of the Okavango delta, the Mediterranean in October, Hyderabad for Diwali, Bhutan, Tibet, China and Singapore till the middle of December, Australia and New Zealand for Christmas, New Year's and most of January, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines till the middle of March, Japan for the cherry blossoms till mid-April, Patagonia in Chile and Argentina for the rest of April, and then work northwards as winter creeps up South America, spending May and June in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama, and returning to the US via Hawaii in July. And if we decide we hate traveling, we'll go directly to Hawaii and spend the year there...
Vivian and Evan are saying their goodbyes. It must be mind boggling when you are nine and you only remember about six of those years and you wont see a friend for one full year. Jo has finished her immunotherapy and had egg for breakfast a couple of months ago. And I'm packed and ready to meet Aaron in Arusha and start walking up Kilimanjaro.
There are still a hundred things left to be done, but Jo - who has been doing the heavy lifting literally and otherwise - says we are making progress. It's hard to plan to be away for a year. Too long for the usual holiday preparations, and too short for goodbyes. But we have been steadily emptying the house of personal belongings while packing what we'll take with us. As of yesterday I don't own any suits - and only one wedding to attend between now and departure date!
One huge and liberating decision we made a little while ago is to travel light. Each of us will have a carry-on sized backpack or duffle bag. We'll have enough clothes for a week. Two, if underwear are called on to do double duty. Along with rain jackets and warm clothes to take us down to about 5°C.
This is a map of approximately where we are going. We'll be African in August and September for the wildebeest migration and the flooding of the Okavango delta, the Mediterranean in October, Hyderabad for Diwali, Bhutan, Tibet, China and Singapore till the middle of December, Australia and New Zealand for Christmas, New Year's and most of January, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines till the middle of March, Japan for the cherry blossoms till mid-April, Patagonia in Chile and Argentina for the rest of April, and then work northwards as winter creeps up South America, spending May and June in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama, and returning to the US via Hawaii in July. And if we decide we hate traveling, we'll go directly to Hawaii and spend the year there...
Vivian and Evan are saying their goodbyes. It must be mind boggling when you are nine and you only remember about six of those years and you wont see a friend for one full year. Jo has finished her immunotherapy and had egg for breakfast a couple of months ago. And I'm packed and ready to meet Aaron in Arusha and start walking up Kilimanjaro.
Catching Up
After threatening to blog more often, I stopped. For the first time in the life of the blog I have one posted in 8 months. I've been grappling with the issue of privacy. Not the general one about your Amazon Echo knowing you better than your spouse, or Facebook manipulating your vote. But the more specific concern about my kids' privacy. Vivian and Evan didn't ask for this.
My need for being a social animal won this round. I'll fill in the stories at some point but here is a dump of pictures - starting with our trip to see Stephanie and Gary in Utah in December, up to yesterday. A lot of pictures...
My need for being a social animal won this round. I'll fill in the stories at some point but here is a dump of pictures - starting with our trip to see Stephanie and Gary in Utah in December, up to yesterday. A lot of pictures...
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