Domestic Adventures

The last time I posted was September 21st, a few weeks after we'd returned to Seattle. While I had intentions of keeping up with some blogging, I've had trouble actually sitting down and doing it. Tyler and I would agree that we should do something about a recent event. But, eventually--after much procrastination--Tyler would say to me, "Do you just want me to write about going to Austin/Meeting up with Greg from Safari/trip anniversaries?" and I would say, "Yes, please." And I'm not sure why. Given the opportunity, I still love to talk about our trip; I've even been re-reading the blog and love reliving the memories that Tyler and I put to the page along the way.

And it's not that we haven't had news. We started househunting in April, looked at about 20 houses in two days, made an offer and got the keys on my 32nd birthday.


The front of our new home on Beacon Hill



Official owners


We've also been on our first hike of the year (if wet):


Tiger Mountain in April, wet but quiet


Visited Santa Monica to see my brother- and sister-in-law:


Meghan, Travis and Tyler in LA with the Hollywood sign, no less


Hosted our friends Silke and Ricardo that we met in India during some of their last days during a yearlong RTW trip:


With Silke and Ricardo in Seattle. We met them during their first week of travel and then again during the last week before heading home


And had our housewarming party:


Tyler, BBQ master



Seeking shade in the "party-port"



The silk lanterns we bought in Vietnam finally get to shine



And we're starting a family, something that travel helped us realize we really did want to do together.



Good news at four weeks!



Week 19 and looking pregnant


Now instead of days filled with sightseeing, travelling from Point A to B and navigating new cultures and cities, we go to work, do yard work, spend too much money at Home Depot, (if you're me, sleep a lot) and generally go about usual daily life. And as much as I've already started thinking about what would be good places to travel to with a baby, I'm pretty satisfied with the domestic adventures we're having right now.

Time flies...

Wow! 4 months!

It's hard to beleive that 4 months have already passed since Sarah and I returned from our trip around the world. That's over half the length of the trip itself. By comparison, in the same amount of time which has passed since we returned home, Sarah and I saw Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile, the Moai of Eastern Island, Tahiti, New Zealand, Tasmania, taken a motorcylce trip through Vietnam, saw Angkor Wat in Cambodia and been to India.

In comparison, it feels like we've barely done anything since we got back.

People say "time flies when you are having fun" but I don't know if that's necessarily true. Instead, I think time flies when you are going about a routine life. Time flies when you can wake up and sort of drift through it on autopilot. When you don't need to actively be considering where you are and what you are doing, that's when time flies. Or to quote another phrase, this one by John Lennon, "life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

But, at the same time, it's not like Sarah and I have been just sort of drifting along with glazed over looks on our faces. In fact, for the most part the opposite has been true. The time since we've been back has been filled with activity: Moving into our new apartment, going back to work or job hunting, making wine, watching my borther and sister-in-law move to California, cooking Thanksgiving for my family, celebrating the holidays with Sarah's family in Texas, getting caught up on comics, movies, art and music, and on and on.

In fact, if anything, our schedules have been too busy.


Sarah and I just a couple of minutes after New Years 2008, a year older and -with any luck- a world wiser.

Also, to those of you out there in the Interweb, who might be considering doing a trip like this, but are affraid of loosing your job, I have something to tell you: Don't worry. Honestly. As someone who left his long term job, only to return and find a better job, at a more fullfilling company (on, in my case, Foundation), for even better pay than I was making when I left all I can say is that going on the trip might have been the best professional decision I ever made. Honestly.

(Though I will admit that it was a bit touch and go there for a bit when I got back.)

Finally, I'd like to end this with a final thought. The other day, I was looking through the photos from the trip, when a thought drifted through my mind:

"God, that seems like a lifetime ago."

And, as soon as it did, I stopped. I could hardly believe I thought it. But, in some regard, it was already true. That thought made me sad. Time flies.

The Complete Photos: Germany

And last but not least: Germany. Or, rather, Munich. We just had one day in Munich, but that was still enough time to take a tour and drink some beer! Then, we were headed home...

RTW: Germany

The Complete Photos: Hungary

...or, perhaps I should have titled this "The Complete Photos: Budapest," since that's all we saw of Hungary. Still, Budapest was the last little breather we had before we headed home. I remember being frustrated a lot because we couldn't find a place to stay, were running out of money, it was raining and we thought we had bedbugs... yet I still think fondly of Budapest.

RTW: Hungary

The Complete Photos: Romania

We were in Romania for only two nights, but we impressed with what we saw: Transylvania, "Dracula's Castle," Brasov. I'd definitely like to go back and explore all of Eastern Europe more someday.

Here's the 50 or so photos we took while we were there:

RTW: Romania

The Complete Photos: Bulgaria

Happy Birthday to me! It's crazy to think back to celebrating Sarah's Birthday on the other side of the planet, in Vietnam. And now, we are back to life as usual in Seattle. But, even if my Birthday can't be in an exotic locale, at least Sarah is helping me celebrate it in style: Last weekend she arranged for me to have a massage, and tonight she is taking me out for a nice dinner. Thank you, honey! I love you!

Anyhow, back to Eastern Europe. We took exactly 100 photos in Bulgaria. Of the Eastern European countries we visited, we probably saw the most of Bulgaria... but still, that only amounts to two cities. Still, I really enjoyed our quick visit and would be happy to have the opportunity to explore it more some day.

RTW: Bulgaria

The Complete Photos: Turkey

Sorry. It's been a couple of days since I last posted here. I've been fairly busy with Holiday stuff and job hunting. But, I also have some good news attached to that: I've found a job! I will begin my new job at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation next Monday. Luckily, I'm nearing the end of our travel photos, so hopefully I'll finish things up here before leaping into my next adventure... going back to work after a nine month vacation.

Anyhow, somehow we managed to take over 400 photos during the two weeks we were in Turkey. I know that a couple of things, like Istanbul's Hagia Sofia, really brought out both Sarah and mine's inner-shutterbug. So, while it's a lot of photos, I'm actually not to surprised.

RTW: Turkey

From here on out, the photo collections will probably get a lot smaller. Our final two weeks of our trip are divided over 4 countries... so sadly, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Germany will have fairly small collections. Stay tuned though!

The Complete Photos: Egypt

When people ask me about Egypt, occasionally, my response goes something like this: "You have to remember that Egypt has probably had tourism longer than any other country in the world. As a result, they've figured out how to work over tourists better than any other country."

That said, for each hassle we experienced in Egypt, we also got to experience one truly amazing thing after another: The pyramids, the Nile, Abu Simbal, Luxor, and on and on. See for yourself...

RTW: Egypt

The Complete Photos: Kenya

Our stay in Kenya was only a little over a week, but between our stay with the Masai family, and our afternoon whirlwind tour of Masai Mara National Park, we still managed to take quite a few amazing photos! Enjoy!

RTW: Kenya

The Complete Photos: South Africa

Animal lovers, this set is for you! The majority of our photos from South Africa are from our Kruger Park Safari. But, even when we weren't take pictures there, we were riding ostriches, visiting other reserves, looking at Dassies and Penguins at the Cape, or going to the Cape Town Aquarium.

RTW: South Africa

The Complete Photos: India

We were in India for longer than any other country, so I presumed that we'd have more photos of it than any other country. But, it turned out that Vietnam is still the record holder for the most pictures. Still, I think we did a good job of recording our adventures in India: From the passes of the Himalayas to the The fortress at Bundi, its all there.

Oh, and the Taj Mahal.

RTW: India

The Complete Photos: Cambodia

Our Cambodia side-trip in Southeast Asia was less than a week long. Most of the stuff we saw was either stuff relating to the Killing Fields (which we didn't really take photos of) and Angkor Wat (which we took a lot of photos of).

So, get ready for a lot of pictures of ruins and jungle!

RTW: Cambodia

The Complete Photos: Vietnam

Vietnam's photos turned out to be a beast to upload. We were there for about three weeks, and ended up taking a massive 682 photos! As you might imagine, Vietnam was one of our favorite locations. We were actually planning on spending only two weeks in Vietnam, and a week in Laos. But, instead, we decided we'd give Vietnam the time it deserved and skipped Laos. (Don't worry, Laos, we'll be back!)

RTW: Vietnam

Also, as regular readers know, we went to Cambodia for a week, after about a week in Vietnam. Then came back to Vietnam for our final two weeks. I've decided to put all the Vietnam photos together in the above album, and Cambodia will be my next entry!

The Complete Photos: Tasmania

After nearly a month in New Zealand, we were off to Tasmania for 10 days. With our little rented car, tons of natural beauty and more wine, Tasmania seemed like a natural sequel to New Zealand. And, it gave us a few more days of comparatively normal life before plunging into Southeast Asia.

RTW: Tasmania

The Complete Photos: New Zealand

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (Well, everyone in the US at least. To those of you outside the US, Happy Non-Thanksgiving!)

Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I've often maintained that I'm a little numb to the wonders of nature. Being surrounded by majestic pine forests, dramatic mountain ranges and the stunning Puget Sound my whole life has set the standards pretty high, so it generally takes something really exotic or something really, really over-the-top spectacular to impress me.

New Zealand has both! And lots of it! Pancake rocks. Stunning glaciers. Desolate mountain passes. Winding roads. And some of the bluest water I've ever seen.

Oh, and wine too!

Anyhow, enjoy the 300+ images we took during our 3+ weeks in New Zealand.

RTW: New Zealand

The Complete Photos: Tahiti

We were barely in Tahiti for two days, so we ended up with only 41 photos of our visit there. I think we'd both like to go back someday when we had a lot of money to burn and more time to relax.

RTW: Tahiti

Oh, and get ready, because the next entry is New Zealand... and there are a lot of photos.

The Complete Photos: Easter Island

We were only in Easter Island for about three days, but managed to take over 100 photos there. So, as you might guess, we really like it. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, and provided us with some wonderful photo opportunities.

RTW: Easter Island

The Complete Photos: Chile

Although we were in Chile for a longer period of time than we were in Bolivia, we ended up with about half as many photos. This is probably because we spent most of our time there in fairly large cities. Anyhow, here's what we did take, including La Serena, Valparisso and Santiago.

RTW: Chile

Even though Easter Island is techincially part of Chile, I'm going to post it as a second album.

The Complete Photos: Bolivia

Since we were only in Bolivia for about a week, there are a lot less pictures than the Peru batch. But, with Isla Del Sol, the salt flats and the altiplano, they might be more stunning on a photo by photo basis. I'll let you decide though:

RTW: Bolivia

The Complete Photos: Peru

I've begun the long process of uploading all the photos we took on our trip to Flickr. If you have a lot of time on your hands, and if you'd like to check out every photo we took in Peru, they are now online here:

RTW: Peru

This is probably just the first entry in a series, so check back and I'll keep adding new posts as I get new albums up. Also, keep in mind that this is -literally- every photo we took in Peru. So, not only are there lots of them, but a lot of them are a little random or blurry.

"Hmmmm..... another out of focus photo of a flat desert. Interesting."

Enjoy!