Fun with German!

Salzburg, Austria

There are places that you visit in this world that just speak to you. For us, Salzburg was one of those places. We arrived in Salzburg at around 11AM on Friday, the 26th of August. Because it was high season, we had to book hotels and trains in advance, so we had pre-determined that we would stay in Salzburg for only two nights. When we got off the train, my brother John left us to fend for ourselves while he took another train to the countryside. He had booked one of his crazy "thrill seeker" adventures. He was going to Zip Line down a mountainside face down, traveling at around 60 Mph for a distance of just over a mile. Not for the faint of heart, like me! So John was off to find adventure and Shaun and I were left to find out whether our few words of German were enough to get us around for the day.

When we came out of the train station, there was a little info/ticket booth with a friendly man in the booth waiting for a customer. We asked if he could speak English ("Sprechen Sie Englisch?"), and he said he could speak a little. We explained that we were only there for about 48 hours and we wanted to explore as much of the city as we could. The Salzburg card was his suggestion. I am always wary of these kinds of cards- sometimes they are a great deal, other times they get you entrance to a bunch of stuff you wouldn't want to do. The Salzburg card was a great deal. For 34 Euro a person you had unlimited public transportation throughout the city, plus free entrance to practically everything you could want to do in Salzburg for 48 hours. Considering the fact that our hostel was on the outskirts of town, we knew this card would save us boatloads of money.

And yes, I meant to type Hostel, not Hotel. Austria and Switzerland in high season are extremely expensive so we needed to find a way to do this on the cheap. There was a Meininger hostel in Salzburg that had just opened in the last year and got good reviews on Trip Advisor. Unlike some hostels which only have dormitory-style rooms, Meininger has single, double and triple rooms as well. Once we knew my brother was joining us, we decided to book a triple room, which basically brought the cost down to 30 Euro a night per person. When we checked in they mentioned that we had a handicapped room, which always means a large bathroom (for wheelchair accessibility). In this case the whole room was huge, the largest room I've ever had in Europe. Shaun and I took the pushed together twin beds that constituted the double and John, always a sport, was happy to take the top bunk of the bunk beds when he arrived. The room was spotless and the beds were comfy. All things considered, it was a great find.

Here is Shaun by the "Double", John by the bunks and me in the giant bathroom!

Meanwhile, John was barreling down the side of a mountain, and Shaun and I were falling in love with Salzburg. Using our Salzburg card, we jumped on the bus back into the city and set out to explore the city and find some lunch. You can usually tell by the subway map where to get dropped off. We hopped off at Mirabellplatz and started exploring. Salzburg is my favorite kind of city. Lots of narrow winding cobblestone streets between old beautiful buildings and a pretty green river splitting the "old town" from the new. The public transportation here is the bus system, which is well laid out and easy to understand. The German language not as easy to understand, but I'll get to that later.

I should preface this by mentioning the weather. It has been unseasonably hot here since we arrived and the first day in Salzburg was no exception. It was 93 degrees and humid as could be. I normally don't mind the heat but when you are sightseeing, it gets to be a bit much. We looked on the list of free sights on the Salzburg card and found we were right by the Museum of Modern art. The museum hovered above the city and had a beautiful shaded scenic overlook. It was the perfect place to hang out.

The view from the top of the Museum

We took the elevator up and took some photos from the overlook, then meandered back in to check out the art. I'm not a huge Modern Art fan, but one of the exhibits was really neat. It was described as "video portraits". There were people like Johnny Depp, Marianne Faithful and even Xioa Xzing posed in these crazy pictures and it was only if you stood there long enough and saw them blink or breathe that you could tell it was a video, not a painting. We checked those out for a while and made our way through some other exhibits, happy to be in the cool of the museum, when we turned a corner and came upon a Karaoke Room in the middle of the museum with a sign urging patrons to go in and have a go!

You may not know this, but I am a closet Karaoke fan and have been for years. Shaun was a novice until about a year ago when we went to Jamaica on a trip with college friends. It was Karaoke night at Sandals and I was up asking what songs they had when all of a sudden I heard a familiar voice belting out Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me". When I turned around, there was Shaun, mic in hand, shirt unbuttoned, doing his best impression of a sweaty 80's hairband singer. The crowd loved it, especially when he pulled off his shirt and started swinging it wildly above his head and doing high kicks along with the singing. I only wish he wasn't so shy.

So there we were in the Museum, singing Aerosmith's "Dream on" together in the privacy of the Karaoke booth and having a great time. Next I attempted Miley Cyrus, "Party in the USA" (because I am a very mature, serious woman) but it was going very badly. Who knew Miley could hit some difficult notes? So all of a sudden these two older Austrian women come in, and we offer them the microphones but they say they just want to watch. Well, I was done at that point but Shaun was now taking requests! So they asked him to do Bob Dylan, "Knockin on Heaven's Door", and he starts doing his best Dylan and I convince them to take the mike on the chorus. So there is Shaun, in the middle of the Museum of Modern art in Salzburg singing Knockin on Heaven's Door with two Austrian Women with thick German accents. I'm convinced that someday this will end up on a German TV show or as an exhibit in the museum...

After the Karaoke extravaganza, we were back out on the steamy streets and needed a pick me up so we stopped at a cafe and ordered Eiskaffe, which we assumed was iced coffee. We forgot that my brother had told us that ice and ice cream are the same words so we were quite surprised when the waitress brought us two coffees with a big scoop of ice cream in the middle and some kind of cookie across the top.

Enjoying our Eiskaffe

That should have been a sign about our lack of understanding of German, but we missed it. So when we decided to walk to the Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station) to meet John, we started following signs that said Einbahn and had an arrow on them. It made perfect sense to me that since the central trains stations in every city are called Hauptbahnhof, and the German rail service is Deutche Bahn, that Einbahn with an arrow must mean "To Trains" Right???

Well we followed those Einbahn signs for about 15-20 minutes. They were everywhere! It wasn't until we came across two in the same area pointing in different directions that we realized I may have made a bad assumption. At that point we were already late to meet John and had no way to contact him, so when a pretty college student from Iceland stopped and offered us a deal to take us to Hauptbahnhof on her pedi cab, we jumped at the chance. We later found out from John that the Einbahn signs we had been following really said "One Way", something that seems fairly obvious in retrospect.

Einbahn- Just follow the arrows, right??

That evening we had a traditional Austrian meal, meat with mushroom gravy for John and I, goulash for Shaun and some Austrian wine. We headed back to the hostel pretty early. We knew it would rain the following afternoon and we were going to try to fit in as much as we could in the morning. We were also quite tired from the heat and the travel.

The next day the we woke up a little later than we had wanted and it was already raining by the time we left the hostel. It had also turned much colder- only about 50 degrees. I had really wanted to do a Sound of Music tour, but the one we wanted was a bike tour so we scrapped the idea. We headed into town to the market square and ate some yummy ham sandwiches for breakfast with fresh raspberries we bought at one of the fruit stands. Some coffees at a cafe and we were ready to go!

Shaun buying raspberries at one of the fruit and vegetable stands at the Marketplace

We took the number 25 bus way out of town to a Village called Grodig, home of the Untersburg mountain and the cable car that takes you to the top of said mountain. It should be said that I am afraid of heights so I was not exactly looking forward to this. But it was pouring rain, it was free (the Salzburg card) and Shaun and John thought it would be cool so I just tried not to think about it too much. Well let me tell you, that is easy to do on the ground, but not when are you going up 1776 meters in a cable car and you pass beyond the cloud cover! I thought I was going to Sheisse my Leiderhosen if you know what I'm saying! Once you arrive at the summit, they let you out at the top where they have a little cafe. We had a quick cup of coffee before making the descent and then attempted to find lunch, but no luck. It was that crazy time between 2 and 5 that many restaurants in Europe close down. We will have to keep a better eye on that it the future. All we could find at that hour were coffee and sweets. So it was one more cup of coffee and a piece of Sacher Torte and we were back on Bus 25 heading to the Hellebrun Palace.

The clouds were dense but that is another cable car making it's descent next to us!

The Hellebrun Palace was nice, but the big draw is the "trick fountains" and the gimmick on the tour is that they actually try to get people wet. Most folks were enjoying this, but we were pretty cold and soaked already, so we left the tour a little early and headed back to the hostel to change into dry clothes. By now we were pretty hungry so we said we would go directly to dinner, but first we had to stop at Mirabelle Gardens so I could pay homage to Julie Andrews. I found the passage that Maria comes through when she first goes to meet the Von Trapps and made Shaun and John video tape me as I twirled and whirled and sang the chorus of "I have confidence in me!" It was awesomely cheesy and embarrassing and I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

All of us in Mirabelle Gardens and a photo of my Ode to Maria Von Trapp

Once again we set out for dinner, and once again we were waylaid. As we were walking along on a main street, we passed a small archway on our left. Beyond the archway we could see there was a steep little street that had stairs built into the sidewalk. We had no idea where it led, but we had to investigate. The street and sidewalk stairs went up about a half mile and led to some absolutely stunning overlooks. By now, the weather had completely cleared up so we took some great pictures before heading back down. After so many detours we were ravenous, so we settled in at a little restaurant for "Schnitzel with Noodles" and a few beers before heading back to the Hostel for our last sleep in Salzburg.

Views from the scenic overlook

Shaun and I have already decided that we want to come back.

Auf Weidersein Maria! Bless your homeland forever.

Beer; It's not just for Breakfast Anymore!

Munich, Germany


When I used to travel for business and someone would ask me how my trip was, I usually answered, "Uneventful, just the way I like it". Well I can't say that for this trip! Things started out normally enough. My sister Maura drove us into Logan and we took a flight to DC. We had a really long layover in DC so we decided to meet up with my cousin Sarah who works at the Capitol building. The trip into the city was a little hectic at first, but only because we are on a tight budget so a cab was out of the question. Once we figured out the right bus to take us into the city, we called Sarah and she agreed to meet up with us at L'enfant Plaza where we were getting dropped off. That area has food trucks galore so we all ordered wraps from a truck that served Middle-Eastern food. (I'm sure you think this was where things take a turn for the worse, but the sandwiches were great and nobody dies from eating them!)

After our fun lunch in the park, Sarah walked us back to the bus stop where we said our goodbyes. All was quiet and Shaun and I were sitting there talking about the trip when our bench started swaying back and forth and the ground started moving beneath our feet. Yup, it was our first earthquake! At first we weren't positive that was what had happened, but when we got on the bus and started driving through DC, we began to notice that everyone had evacuated their buildings. By the time we passed the Pentagon word had spread that it was definitely an earthquake.

Now, generally I love any kind of storm or cool natural events, especially when nobody gets hurt. However, after last year's Icelandic Volcano that killed our trip to Paris, I was more than a little wary of how this would impact our trip. We had heard they had evacuated the towers at LaGuardia and JFK in NY so I was fearing the worst. Imagine my surprise when we boarded and took off right on time!

The flight was one of the longest I've taken so far, about seven and a half hours. I'm a terrible plane sleeper and historically I've opted against taking anything to help me sleep, but this time I was determined not to start the trip with horrible jet lag. So after taking a little something with dinner, I was off to dreamland. Roughly four and a half hours later, I woke up for breakfast with only 90 minutes to go in the flight. I watched out the window as we flew over the southern tip of England and before I knew it we were landing in Munich, Germany!

Customs in Germany was a strange affair. For some reason I was expecting them to be particularly harsh, but it was one of the easiest border crossings I've ever done. We had our packs and were out of the customs area in less than an hour. My brother John was joining us for the first six days so we waited about 30 more minutes for him to land and we were off! Once again, the challenge was to get to our hotel without cracking and ordering a cab. We started off great, taking the S Bahn from the airport, but we messed up when we had to transfer to their underground, the U Bahn, so we ended up having to get a bus to take us to the next U Bahn stop. Even with all the delays, we were at our hotel by 11AM. The hotel was great. The brand is Ibis, which is a low end hotel you can find all over Europe. I signed up for their frequent guest program in hopes that we will build up enough points for some free nights. In Munich, the room was only about 50 Euro, which got you a clean, comfortable room. No amenities, but we weren't planning to spend much time in the room anyway!

The first day can sometimes be a wash, but we did a pretty good job of filling it!. We went to Marienplatz square where you could see the Glockenschpeil, a very famous clock with life sized figures that dance and even have a joust! Then it was off to the Viktualienmarkt which has hundreds of outdoor food shops and a beer garden of course! My brother convinced us to try Currywurst, which is basically a bratwurst in a sweet sauce sprinkled with curry powder and served with a bun. We washed that down with some beers. Needless to say, Munich is not going to be a dieter's delight!

After more walking, we were exhausted so we came back to the hotel. John and I went to our respective rooms for a nap, while my crazy husband took the subway into town to do a workout at a local Cross Fit facility. If you don't know what Cross Fit is, I will tell you, it's a fitness cult! People who do it are in the best shape of their lives, but they are also obsessed. Needless to say, I'm not in the cult!

By the time Shaun returned from his "Feats of Strength" as I like to call them, it was time for dinner. I got us all good and lost trying to find a place I had looked up online. (Why bother writing down the name or the address of a German restaurant in a strange city, right? We can find it!) As fate would have it though, we ended up at a cute little place called the Red Pepper where we all had yummy meals and some drinks before heading back to the hotel for bed.

That night we all slept great for 9-10 hours and everyone woke up feeling like we were fully adjusted to German time, which is huge. We decided to head to Viktualienmarkt for breakfast where we had coffees, croissants, quiche and some sort of sausage/meatball kind of thing that Shaun couldn't resist. It was 10AM and there were about a hundred people in the beer garden having beers as big as my head. It was tempting but we had big outdoor plans for the day and beer would have only led to more sleeping so we passed.

So it was off to do more exploring. We spent most of the day in the English Garden, which is one of the largest urban parks in the world. We rented a paddleboat, walked for miles and were generally having a fun, but quiet day when we came upon what I will call the Crazy River! In the middle of this park there was a raging man made river. There were signs everywhere saying swimming was "Verboten" (forbidden) but hundreds of people were jumping and and riding the rapids down the river. I knew immediately that Shaun would be one of those people.

It was actually really cool and if I wasn't so chicken I would have tried it too, but this thing was truly raging- complete with white water rapids- so we let Shaun do his thing. I stood at one end and John at the other and we both took pictures and video of his trip down the crazy river. He had to go twice of course, and the second time he got caught in some rapids so he was done at that point, but he's totally glad he tried it! We needed some beers after the crazy river, so we stopped at the beer garden and had a radler (Beer with lemonade) before heading out of the park.

The Crazy River- obviously not Shaun but I don't have one uploaded.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We walked around the area of the Royal Residence and the Opera, Odeonsplatz, which was a beautiful spot. We grabbed a pizza for lunch and took the U Bahn out to Olympic Park where I laid down under a shady tree on a hill while John and Shaun looked for more adventure. Finally it was back to the hotel, where I'm having a small beer while writing this post! We're off to dinner now and tomorrow we head to Salzburg, Austria where I plan to get in touch with my inner Fraulein Maria! The Hills are Alive!!!

Twas the night before leaving...

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau

How can I possibly express my excitement, happiness and gratitude on an evening like this one? Here we sit at my sister Maura's house, all packed and ready to go. We just had a lovely dinner with Maura and Tom and their kids Amber and Ted, and now everyone is settling in for the night. Shaun and I did tons of prep work over the last few weeks to ensure that this final night in the States would not be chaotic and it was all worthwhile. Our bags are packed, our few remaining items are stored away and tomorrow morning at 6AM we are headed to Logan for a flight to DC and then on to an overnight flight to Munich, Germany. We won't be back on US soil again until mid-December and that will just be a quick two to three week visit before we are off again to New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia.

The last few weeks have been a blur. We were lucky to get the chance to visit with lots of family and friends in the midst of all the planning and packing. For those of you we missed, you'll just have to join us somewhere along the way! We already have my brother John joining us for the first six days, which is great because he's been taking German lessons! No matter where you go, the people are always friendlier when you speak their language so I'm hoping John will at least arm Shaun and I with the basic pleasantries before he leaves us to fend for ourselves! Danke Shoen John!

And speaking of friends and family, we are using our long layover in DC tomorrow to hopefully have lunch with my cousin Sarah. What better way to say goodbye to the States for a while than to spend it visiting with a "Frousin" (that's friend/cousin for all you non-Flatley's!) in our Nation's Capital! Of course, getting to and from IAD will be good prep for the mayhem to come. And then, when we get back to the airport, we may get a chance to see my friend Carolyn as well who will be flying out of Dulles around the same time! It's a small world!

As for the trip, we are really excited and optimistic; but we are also realistic about the fact that everything will not go perfectly. We know that there will be some tough times on the road. We know that we will get lost more than a few times. We know that we will get in a few fights (probably after we get lost!) We know will probably go over budget once or twice?! We know that there will be missed trains and some scary accommodations and lower standards of hygiene than one might expect from a couple of forty year olds. But we also both know we wouldn't trade this moment for the world!

Personally, I'm most grateful tonight for my husband Shaun. Maybe I'll tell you our story somewhere in these pages when I have more time. All you really need to know though is that I could not ask for a better travel companion. He is as low key as I am high strung and we are great foils for each other on the road. So off we go to bed, feeling like little kids on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow, we start living that life we imagined!

Packing Day! A week to go!

Yesterday was packing day! Yes, we were still 8 days out from the trip, but when you are trying to pack one backpack for four months on the road, you need to do a little extra prep work. As a long-time business traveler, I've become pretty efficient at packing a bag. I can usually make a carry on work for a trip of up to a week. You start by picking one color scheme and then pull together coordinating outfits. A few pairs of black pants/skirts and one pair of black shoes with a multitude of light, bright tops and you are done. As you might imagine though, this packing situation is a bit more complex.

To start with, we are going to be in Europe from late August to mid-December. That means we will basically be going from the heat and humidity to snow. We will also be traveling to many different geographies. In the first two weeks for example, we will be traveling from the city of Munich, to the mountains of Austria and Switzerland, to the black forest in Germany, to the Alsace wine region of France and finally ending in chic and lovely Paris. And that is just the first two weeks.

Add to all that the fact that we have been effectively homeless since June 1st. When we sold our house we were all about getting rid of our "stuff" as well. We did a great job of selling, donating and storing everything, but we kept almost all of our clothes on hand. So our bins of clothes moved with us from Lynn's condo to our home for the last two weeks, my sister Maura's house. At first everything was neatly stored in closets and the basement. But as we started to prep for packing day, we were doing laundry and pulling things out of bins and just generally creating chaos. What you see here is a picture of our starting point yesterday. UGH.

We didn't start the process blindly though. We both had a basic idea of what we were taking. We will be checking these backpacks when we fly, but my old carry-on guidelines still apply. A few pairs of shorts, pants and skirts in neutral colors. Lots of light, colorful tops and sweaters that can be layered as it gets colder. A pashmina type scarf for me that can double as a light blanket on trains/planes. The only real specialty item we are both taking is a lightweight hiking shoe that can double as a walking shoe/snow boot. Neither of us are bringing winter coats- they are too bulky. We figure we can get one at a second hand store in Paris as the weather turns colder.

The one saving grace for us is that we will be staying in some apartments along the way that have a washer/dryer. So, not to get to personal on you, but as long as we have enough clean underwear to last about two weeks, we should be able to travel fairly lightly without having to spend much time in laundromats. Laundromats can be an enormous time-suck when you are on the road like this. Our first apartment is in Paris on September 5th, so the goal was to have enough stuff to travel lightly, but make it from August 23rd to September 5th without needing to do wash. I also have a few small Tide laundry detergent packets that can be used in the sink in case of emergencies.

Here is a photo of Shaun's stuff all laid out on the bed pre-packing.

And here is his packed backpack with everything in it. First try for Shaun was a winner!

I had to make two attempts, but in my defense, my bag is much smaller than Shaun's bag! It is also seven years old and a lot heavier than the ones they make now so we may have to upgrade. That's one of the best reasons to do a "practice pack". Your backpack is the most important piece of gear you will have and you don't want to come to these realizations the night before you start a four month trip! Regardless, all my stuff fits so a newer pack will just make it fit better and lighter.

This was one of the biggest tasks we had to take care of for the trip, especially in terms of how much time it took. It feels great to have this behind us. One week from today we will be on a plane to start this great adventure!

How it all began...

Can I come home for the summer?
We could slow down for a little while
Get back to loving each other
Leave all these long and lonesome miles behind
Ray Lamontagne
 
It started with a song, like many good stories.  I had been working for the same company for 16 years-- almost 40% of my lifetime. It was hard work and lots of travel but for much of that time it was also very rewarding. I had started as a sales rep in 1995 and worked my way up to the Director of Sales.  The company had been very good to me and I loved the people I worked with. But over the last three years things had become increasingly more difficult in my division. The issues were Vendor related and therefore outside our control, but we still had to manage our way through them. As the business climate deteriorated, the choices we were forced to make had left me exhausted both physically and emotionally.  By January 2011 I knew I needed a change, but I was so burnt out I couldn’t find the energy to look for a new job.  Meanwhile, as I was driving to work or heading to the airport for another business trip I kept hearing this Ray Lamontagne song on the radio.
 
Can I come home for the summer?
We could slow down for a little while
Get back to loving each other
Leave all these long and lonesome miles behind
 
At first the idea was just about taking a small break.  My husband Shaun was well aware of my sleepless nights and the dilemma I was facing regarding my job. We talked about the idea of renting a cabin in Maine for a month or two that summer.  I would take a short break to regroup and then look for a new job.  Shaun was totally supportive of whatever I wanted to do.   He had left the tech industry himself a few years before and was happily working in his new career as a triathlon coach, personal trainer and high school track coach.
 
But a bigger idea was forming in my mind.  The prior year we had planned a ten day trip to Paris that we had looked forward to all spring. Unfortunately, a volcano in Iceland had other plans. Five days before we were scheduled to leave, the airlines started canceling flights. Soon the European airports were shutting down altogether. Was it really possible that an Ash Cloud an ocean away could ruin our long awaited vacation? Shaun tried to keep my spirits up but it was becoming clear that our trip was in jeopardy. Finally, the morning of the trip arrived along with a text from United Airlines.  Ours ended up being the last overnight flight to Paris that was cancelled, and the trip had to be completely scrapped because the European airports were so backed up.  Looking back on that experience, I started thinking about how that plan had gone awry and how little time you actually have in your life to do those kinds of things. So I came to Shaun with an idea. Why don’t we take a year off and go see as much of the world as we can now while we’re still young?  
 
At first I don’t think he even took me seriously enough to bother considering the idea. I’m a typical Type A personality and my job had been a huge part of my life for sixteen years. Shaun and I had actually met at my company, so for as long as he had known me I had been wrapped up in this role. I’m sure at first it seemed like I was just fantasizing to blow off steam.  After all, everyone says things like this when things get tough, they just don’t actually do them!  It wasn’t until I started to do some in depth research about planning this kind of trip that he realized I was serious. To be honest, it scared the hell out of him. To be honest, it scared the hell out of me too at first.
 
A funny thing happens though when you start looking into something like this. You find out that you aren’t crazy, that it can be done and that lots of people do this. There were books and articles and websites galore.  College students, young couples, even families did this.  They quit their jobs, got rid of most of their “stuff” and hit the road.  Some sold their houses while others rented them. Some did one continuous journey, others broke the trip into segments.  Some budgeted a specific amount of money, others budgeted based on a timeline. The more I shared about what I had found out, the more I could see Shaun warming to the idea.  Finally one weekend in March, Shaun went away for the weekend to the ski house in Vermont with our friend Adam. While he was there he met some friends’ of Adam who had actually done this and he spent time discussing what they had done and how.  On the three hour drive home he and Adam discussed it even more and by the time he got back to the house he had made up his mind.   He hugged me and said “OK, let's do this". The dream was becoming a reality!
 
The first decision we had to make was regarding the timeline around my job.  There were some important changes we were making and I wanted to leave on the best terms possible so I decided to wait until after the close of our second quarter. By then I hoped things would be more stable.  We decided I would give my notice at the end of June and leave in mid-July.  The second and easiest decision we had to make was regarding the house. The house had been on the market for 5 months so it was just a matter of actually selling it!  We had a buyer within a few weeks and convinced him to push the closing to the beginning of June. We decided we would get a storage space big enough for just the essentials and sell everything else.  We held Yard Sales, sold stuff on Craig’s List and donated to charities until all we had left fit into a 10x10 storage area. We needed a place to live for six weeks while we finished up work. Fortuitously for us, Shaun's friend Lynn was working in Germany and her condo in Newton was unoccupied. She graciously offered to let us live there. We packed up our clothes and moved into her condo to wait out the last few weeks of work.
 
We had two commitments that summer before the big trip- USA Triathlon Nationals for Shaun and the wedding of a friend of mine. The wedding was July 7th and Shaun would compete in Nationals on Saturday, August 21st.   We decided to spend the time in between in Maine with as much family as we could fit in.  We booked a cabin at a place where my family vacationed when we were kids. My brother and his family from Colorado booked another cabin at the same place and my sister and her family decided to come out from Arizona. Soon it seemed like everyone was coming. It would be a summer full of family, friends and relaxing. I could feel the worries wash away every time I thought about it and I became more and more certain we had made the right decision.  Now every time I hear that Ray Lamontagne song it makes me smile:
 
Can I come home for the summer?
We could slow down for a little while
Get back to loving each other
Leave all these long and lonesome miles behind
 
On March 22nd we used my frequent flier miles to book two tickets from Boston to Germany.  We would leave on August 23rd and return on December 12th.  The first leg of the trip had been decided and it would be Europe. We were on our way!