Last Post from the Emerald City!

We’ve said goodbye to the Belliston side of the family in Tri-Cities this morning and have traveled back to western Washington. As I type this, we’re in the Sorento hotel in Seattle, which is WAY nicer than anything we’re expecting to stay at in the near future. For example, there’s a bellhop. I’m expecting this is the last we’ve seen of them for awhile.

A couple other lasts . . .

1. We stopped by Bob’s Burgers in Tri-Cities . . . last time we can be confident of a decent burger
2. I just parked outside. . . last time driving a vehicle for awhile
3. Leslie’s jettisoning the luxury bag . . . last time for the hair straightener.
4. We stayed with Leslie’s sister Lindsay and her husband Adrian last night. They made Chicken Alfredo . . . last home-cooked family meal.
5. Tomorrow, we will cancel our phones. Last bill to cancel, last phone call cometh.
6. In about 45 minutes, we’ll be meeting friends and family in Seattle for our goodbye-dinner. Last evening out Seattle.
7. Last night in the USA.

Also a first . . . we’ve paid down our dollars, which is a term we use for getting rid of all local currency before heading onto the next country. Our last couple bucks went to the bellhop

Next stop, London

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on April 16, 2012 by bryan.

Our new apartment!

It took us a bit longer than we expected, but we’ve officially moved into our new apartment . . . okay. . .  all our stuff is in a storage bin except for our backpacks and a “luxury” suitcase that is the last few non-necessities for our last few weeks in Bellingham and Tri-Cities.   Notice the massive wine stain on the box-spring for extra credit!

I’ve spent a surprising amount of time on the phone cancelling Comcast bills, finalizing travel insurance and eliminating the remaining monthly bills that we had.  As you can imagine, much of this was annoying, but I’m am proud to award the Most Useless Service Award to . . . . the ORCA Card (Seattle’s public transportation card).  We lost our card, so cancelled and tried to get them to reissue the card.  Instead, they sent us new cards, so we now have 4 cards.  One of the lost cards has $17.25 on it.  Unfortunately, I can’t transfer it onto a non-lost card.   My only option is to order a replacement card (which we tried to do once) at $5, then pay the $10 refund fee so we can get a check for $2.25.  Grumble . . .

On a positive note, our Eurail pass has shown up.  This is a train pass that’s going to be good for travel throughout 23 European countries for three months.  I almost wrote “Free travel throughout 23 countries,” but trust me. . . it wasn’t free.  We did get a 15% discount by traveling together at all times though    We also got a 1st class pass!   . . . because if you’re over 26 they don’t give you a choice.  It’s litterally a letter-sized strip of paper and will be activated once we write our first date on it.  It willbe good for most trains in the member countries with extra fees applying for night-coaches  or the 200mph trains.  It’s good in 23     www.eurail.com will have details if you want more details. 

Anyway, we’re in Bellingham celebrating Merry East-birth-giving, because we’re going to miss all familial holidays next year and want to spend time with the family before we go.  We’re going to be in Bellingham with Bryan’s side of the family until Sunday and then will be traveling to the Eastern side of the state to visit Leslie’s side of the family.  

Then we’re off.   T-minus 11 days. . .

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on April 6, 2012 by bryan

Bryan’s Last Day

Today, my time at Logic 20/20 has come to an end.  This was my second professional programming position, and the first away from the friendly confines of North Ridge Software.  The code I wrote with North Ridge was arguably more difficult and technically challenging than most of the stuff I accomplished with Logic 20/20, but there is always a certain amount of uncertainty in yourself when you’re working for your father. 

Logic 20/20 gave me the opportunity to prove that I had chops outside of North Ridge.  Sometimes, I had to deliver code on my own.  Other times, I had the opportunity to work in teams, where I had the opportunity to learn from a plethora of talented individuals.  Whether it be Clarisonic, Expedia Local Expert, internal Microsoft tools or the Windermere project and it’s ~3000 dynamically created sites, Logic put it’s faith in me. 

I will be forever grateful for the opportunity.   It’s been an honor.

That said . . .  it’s done.

I am on sabbatical. 

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on March 27, 2012 by bryan

Booked, boxed and shot.

Just a quick update as to where we are. 

In order to make the Moms feel better, we have gotten our shots.  Okay, maybe there’s a “we don’t want to get crazy diseases” element to that as well.   We’re now vaccinated against yellow fever and have started a typhoid vaccination regimen.  Thankfully, the Bartells in the U District deals with outgoing and incoming foreign exchange students, so had a very good travel clinic. 

We also decided to book the first night in a private room.  We’re likely to have plenty of dorm accomodation throughout the UK and Europe, but we wanted private space to recover from the jet lag, so we booked two nights at the My Place Inn in London.

Time to start boxing stuff up . . . .

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on March 24, 2012 by bryan. 

To book or not to book. . . . always the question!

This is getting real. A month from now, we will be somewhere in the UK. While we’re confident, there’s always questions. Did we actually budget enough money for this beast of a trip? Are we missing any vital vaccinations? Did we remember to cancel all the bills?

There’s also just some flat out unknowns. We’re going to get some travel insurance, but what happens if we actually need to make a claim off the coast of Malta?

Then again, if there’s no risk, there’s no adventure.

In general, we don’t book in advance, instead getting advice from travelers once we arrive or just walking up to a guesthouse and hoping. This is always a bit more problematic when first arriving halfway around the world.

My first trip I flew to London and had pre-booked. I immediately took the train in the wrong direction and eight hours later found the rain dumping down on me in front of Buckingham palace at 1am. I eventually found the place, but it was not a good location and a rough experience.

Landing in Bangkok, we took a taxi from the airport directly to our hostel. It was was out in the middle of nowhere under a freeway overpass. They had lost our reservation and were booked up. Thankfully, they found a mattress and we slept in an auxiliary room. The next day, we woke up, walked out the front door and found ourselves in a place that we would not recommend other travelers to visit. We proceeded to get ourselves lost going back to the hostel following evening. I used my horrible, horrible Thai to get a taxi to take us to a very close street and we did find the hostel, but not until we got chased by a possibly rabid wild dog.

Point being, the first step can be a doozy.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on March 21, 2012 by bryan.

It’s Official! We’re off . . . and finally selling Betsy

The final pieces are falling into place! We’ve told our places of work, purchased plane ticket and are flying out of Seattle on April 17th to travel the globe.

We’ve talked to a bunch of people about it now, so I’m going to try and answer the questions that we get asked most often.

First, we are flying London after a quick layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. We’ll be spending a few weeks in the UK, then going to Morocco. We’re going to spend three months traveling through Europe and are planning on taking the trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow across Russia, likely landing in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Then, we’re going to spend 3-4 months in Asia, hop the equator and head to South America. We’re then taking the train home. Sounds easy, right? 

Bryan’s last day at Logic 20/20 will be May 27th and Leslie will be ending her time at Columbia Lutheran home on the 30th. That weekend, we will be moving into a storage bin and we will officially be living out of our backpacks. We’re going to spend a bit of time in Bellingham and Tri-Cities to say goodbye to family and friens. We want to have some sort of goodbye event in Seattle and another in Tri-Cities, but we’re not really sure how we’re going to pull that off yet.

So there’s still a bit of stuff left to do. We have to cancel bills, move out and make the final decisions as to what is going into the pack and what’s going into the storage locker.

There’s really one big piece of the puzzle left to deal with . . . . Betsy.

For those who don’t know, Betsy is the white Nissan pickup truck that Bryan’s been driving for eleven years now. We recently passed the 150,000 mile mark heading over the 520 bridge. Yes, I’ve anthropomorphised the truck, but it’s time for her to go.

She’s got a bit of body damage, but is very reliable. My buddy Rand is a mechanic and he was saying we could expect to get to 200K miles.

Anyway, today is going to be spent getting bumper stickers off the car, cleaning it out and giving a good wash.

Cheers,

Bryan and Leslie

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on March 18, 2012 by bryan.

Twenty-Seven Rules for Backpackers

We got invited over to some friends house the other day to help give some advice on backpacking Southeast Asia. I guess we’ve become the local experts at that sort of thing. We’ve noticed that while a lot of the stuff people are looking for is of the “where did you go?” or “what did you see?” variety there’s a lot of interest in the “how do you do that?” sort of questions.   The logistics of traveling into an unknown location can be daunting at first, but do it a few times and it becomes second nature.   In our attempt to help everyone interested in this sort of thing, here’s Twenty-Seven Rules for Backpackers . . .

1. Pack your backpack with everything you think you’re going to need before you leave. Put it on and walk for a mile. Repack your backpack with everything you think you’re going to need.
2. Make a plan of everywhere you want to go. Throw it away. Repeat as desired.
3. Do not book places in advance . . . except in very exceptional circumstances such as a festival or a really popular hostel. You may find yourself outside a better guest house only to have to figure out how to get to a place that’s further away, not as nice and more expensive.
4. Get yourself a guidebook. Make sure it has decent maps of likely destinations. We like Lonely Planet.
5. If there are no locals eating at a restaurant, do not eat there.
6. Talk to other backpackers. The best advice and information will come from people who have recently been in the city you are going to.  Get hostel recommends.
7. Be aware of the political situation. Other backpackers are your best source of info, but Google News will work in a pinch.
8. “Beware of Wily Strangers” says the sign on Thailand’s Grand Palace. If you find someone trying to sell you something ask yourself, “Did I approach them or did they approach me?” If they approached you then be careful, especially if they are trying to get you onto some form of transportation. Beware the Tuk-Tuk Mafia. You have been warned.
9. Watch how the locals walk about the city. What may look like a sidewalk to you may in fact be a bike lane. Do not assume your customs apply.
10. Learn the language. You don’t need everything, but “hello”, “thank you” and “sorry I stepped on your foot” will go a long ways.
11. Watch clothing norms. What we wear in the West can be quite offensive to some parts of the world.
12. Layers, layers, layers. Bring stuff that can be mixed and matched to provide more or lest warmth. Flexibility is key.
13. Some places require close-toed shoes.
14. The really cool places are harder to get to.
15. Keep your eyes open for the necessities. Laundry service, where to buy bottled water, where to get cash, etc.
16. 7/11 has air-conditioning.
17. Use bags inside your backpack like drawers. One for clean clothes, one for dirty-clothes, one for “other” and a smaller backpack that contains valuables and things you want to carry around for when you leave the main-backpack in the room.
18. Most of the world is not kid-proof. In the USA, if you put your hand into an unknown hole and stab yourself on a piece of rusty metal the establishment can be held responsible. In much of the world, people will ask you why you did that and look at you like you are an idiot.
19. Sunscreen can be very expensive in places where the locals do not wear it.
20. Don’t pet wild dogs.
21. Don’t smile at monkeys. Baring your teeth is a sign of aggression.
22. Most of your money should not be accessible through the ATM.
23. Tell your bank you’re going.
24. You can buy stuff where you are going.
25. If someone does not speak English, they do not speak loud, slow English.
26. Don’t buy things from children. Odds are there is an adult outside who is keeping that kid from going to school and pocketing the money. If you want to donate to charity, donate to charity. Don’t financially encourage child-labor.
27. Carry toilet paper.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on January 8, 2012 by bryan. Edit

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