Posts Tagged ‘travel’

The Driver

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
The tuk tuk driver

The tuk tuk driver

We had arrived in Bangkok a couple days earlier, but clearly we didn’t do our homework. With our first class sleeper tickets booked and in hand, but only 40 minutes left to get to Hualamphong Station, things weren’t looking good. The original plan was simple, leave the hotel an hour beforehand and walk over to the roadside near Democracy Monument where we were certain we’d be able to find a cab for the five kilometer ride to the station. At the time it had seemed foolproof, and as we now rounded the corner from our hotel and saw some open cabs sitting in the traffic, we thought we were in the clear.

It was our first time in Thailand and we were heading south to Koh Phangan for the New Year’s Eve Full Moon Party. To make the […]

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A week in Florida, and finally getting to do the drive through the Keys from Miami to Key West

Sunday, March 11th, 2012
Smather's Beach, Key West

Smather’s Beach, Key West

It’s starting to seem like visits to the tropics are becoming regular occurrences, and I certainly can’t complain about that! After 3 weeks in Costa Rica over the holidays, we recently returned from a week in South Florida. A cousin got married in Miami, and while normally these wedding jaunts back East are whirlwind travels, this time we decided to take our time and spend 6 nights there; 3 in the Keys, and 3 in Fort Lauderdale. [Note: weddings or other family gatherings are perfect events to turn into mini vacations!]

We flew into Miami on a red eye, picked up our rental car, and headed south to the Florida Keys, destination Key West, southernmost point in the Continental US. This drive through the Keys is one that I’ve been looking forward to for years, so having […]

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A Reminder About Living Life

Friday, January 13th, 2012
Life is Good in Costa Rica

Life is Good in Costa Rica

It’s somewhat sad to say, but I’m officially back at home and back to the grind again after an awesome three weeks in Costa Rica. But as with all trips, there are always lessons learned while traveling that can be remembered after returning to normal life at home.

One of the best things about traveling, aside from the obvious excitement of experiencing new places and cultures, is the simple act of taking a breather from life. It’s always eye opening to be able to simply walk away from the chaos and the routine of life at home, and to get back to simply living, if only even for a few days. To be able to wake up and have nothing more to do for the day than to relax, to eat good food, […]

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Tis the Season … to be Busy

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Holy cow, when will time slow down?

And when did it get to be mid December, with less than two weeks to go until Christmas?

I posted my last “update post” in mid September after having a whirlwind end to the summer, and since then I can’t even remember where the time has gone. I’m pretty sure the unaccounted for time can be attributed to being passed either at work, my consulting gig, getting projects done left and right around the house, or to my half marathon training!

It’s a good thing that I don’t go big doing presents and shopping, I don’t think I could handle the holidays if I had to spend them driving around and fighting for parking at the mall.

One new thing of note is that I’ve negotiated some working from home privileges which really works out nicely. Typically I’m home 2-3 days a week, which really adds […]

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Saying goodbye Koh Phangan and heading west to Krabi and the island of Koh Phi Phi

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

(This is entry #6 from Thailand Trip (see entries #1, #2, #3, #4, #5))

Krabi Town Night Market

Krabi Town Night Market

JANUARY – From the Haad Tian resort on the island of Koh Phangan it’s just a 15 or 20 minute drive along the southwest coast to get to the Thongsala pier. After a great five nights on Koh Phangan, we had an early wake up so we could catch our ride down to the pier. Our goal was to head across the mainland to Krabi on the west side of Thailand, from where we would then hopefully travel on to Koh Phi Phi and perhaps Railey, depending how our time in Krabi and Phi Phi went. Knowing that after New Year’s there would probably be a mass exodus off the island, we decided to go ahead and buy our boat/bus tickets all the […]

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Time flies when you’re having fun

Friday, September 16th, 2011

It’s been an incredibly busy past month and a half.

Six states, three trips, two weddings. One website to add to my portfolio. Two new consulting gigs. And still working my full time job.

I’m ready for some down time. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I’ll have too much of it. The traveling has been fun but tiring, and the extra working has been sort of fun, sort of stressful, and sort of exciting. I’m working on saving a FYF (F*** You Fund), building a portfolio, and creating work that will enable me to transition away from my full time job and get me closer to living my dream of working when, where, and how I want to work.

It started with my trip to Cleveland, where I rented a car and drove two hours to Pennsylvania for my cousin’s wedding. It was a quick three day trip, I drove too many miles, […]

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A world of possibility awaits

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

While driving home from a concert the other night I looked up at the overhead freeway sign that said “Los Angeles” and was hit with an overwhelming moment of nostalgia. Being that we live in San Diego it seems about right that if you keep heading north, you will eventually end up in LA, but the mere presence of this overhead sign takes me back to my childhood.

I grew up in a small town of 15,000 people in Connecticut, and we were lucky enough that one of the interstate highways actually went through our town. I remember we’d get on the highway and if we headed east the signs starting saying “Boston” and if we went west they said “New York”.

We always got on the highway, and sometimes we would head east, sometimes west, but we never arrived in Boston or New York. I remember asking my parents, “Why does […]

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Riding the Amtrak from San Diego to Portland

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
View from Amtrak south of Santa BarbaraView from Amtrak south of Santa Barbara

JUNE 24 – I had previously taken the Amtrak from San Diego to New York City, and though it was a long and uncomfortable trip riding in coach, it didn’t change my view on traveling by train. Since then, I have always wanted to make the trip up the West Coast by Amtrak. I would have loved to go all the way to Seattle, but as it happened, we were planning a trip to Portland, Oregon, so only going as far as Portland would have to do. So it was settled, we booked one way coach Amtrak tickets to Portland, and then booked our return flights on Southwest. Incidentally, the total price for train plus one way airfare came to within $5 of what round trip airfare would have cost, so […]

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