Category ‘2009’
On Friday, my Mom, Ben and I rented bikes and rode outside of the city. It was really fun, and a bit of an adventure since the signs were hard to follow and we got lost. But the scenery was really nice and we got to see an old windmill!
Most people probably don’t picture canals when they hear of Amsterdam. But they should because they are everywhere and so pretty!
Now that I’m sitting here in the Boise Airport, I’m finally SUPER excited to be heading to Europe. However, the last few days have been a bit stressful. As we tried to get the house ready for our renter and make final arrangements before heading off for three months, the time we had left to finish everything just slipped away. And today when the taxi arrived (10 minutes early, which didn’t help), we scrambled to finish picking up and getting our stuff together.
Phew, but now we’re here. Yay! And as far as we know, we haven’t forgotten anything. So we’re good 🙂
So, our plan is to blog throughout our trip. We’ll see how it goes with frequency, but at the very least you should hear from us once a week.
The first stop is Amsterdam, where we’ll be joined by both of our Moms. We don’t have internet at our hotel there, but we might get a chance to stop at an internet cafe.
Bye for now!
It’s getting close, only one week until we leave for Europe!
Getting Ready
I have borrowed TONS of books from the library. I love reading guidebooks. If only there was more time in the day…
I also did a trial run of my new shoes and my loaner backpack. I hiked up to Table Rock with about 15 lbs in my pack. Success! No problems with either items. But my legs were a little tired.
Goals for the Year
On a different note, here’s a few of the things I hope to gain from this year of traveling:
- fun and adventure
- appreciation for different cultures and ways of living
- learn more about history and the world
- be brave and try new things
- improve my photography
- make friends all over the world
- remain flexible and open-minded
- learn a little of the local languages, and improve my Spanish
- share my experiences with friends and family
We just spent an awesome week in Banff National Park in Canada with our good friends Becky and Jenna. This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world! We had an amazing time. Here’s some of the highlights.
Lakes
The Canadian Rockies have some amazing blue and turquoise colored lakes. The color is due to tiny particles deposited in the lake from melting glaciers. Some of them are opaque and milky-looking, and others are very clear. Even the main river that flows through the valley is turquoise.
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world
in the way they have been told to.” -Alan Keightley
Over lunch on an otherwise typical day, Ben and I made the decision to spend a year traveling. I don’t know what started the conversation or why it happened that day, but all of a sudden we realized that our dreams weren’t going to just happen; we had to make the decision to pursue them.
Our plan for Europe is to take one backpack each and travel around for 3 months. We’re keeping our itinerary flexible in case we want to change our pace, hear of new places, or want to stay somewhere longer. So although it’s guaranteed to change… here’s our initial plan of where we’ll go when:
Ben and I have some exciting news to share with you. This summer, we will leave our jobs to travel the world for one year!
Lately we’ve realized that now is a great time to pursue some of the things we want to do in our lives. We both enjoy exploring new places and seeing different parts of the world, and I’ve always dreamed of traveling for an extended period of time. Working as engineers for the past several years, we’ve been able to save up enough money to make this happen. Ben will be leaving his job at HP at the end of June, and I will be taking a one-year unpaid Leave of Absence from HP starting in July.
Some of the places we’d like to go include: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Asia and Africa. So far we have the following plans for July through December 2009:
- July: Road Trip to Canada (1-2 weeks)
- Aug-Nov: Backpacking in Europe (3 months)
- Nov-Dec: Home and Family time in the US (1.5 months)
Over the next couple of months we’ll share more of our thoughts and travel plans on this site. And while we’re traveling we plan to post photos and stories along the way. We hope that you’ll enjoy sharing this adventure with us!
We went to Moab for a weekend and met up with Ben’s mom. It was GREAT! Seriously, I can’t tell you how much I love this place…
Here’s a few random things I’ve been up to lately…
HP Ski Day at Bogus – Cross Country Skiing with my co-workers Soumya and Theresa:
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