As you may have read previously, we had an addition to our family about two years ago. After a few local trips, and Christmas in Texas, our little Ollie came along for his first real vacation. Of course, it included a Disney park visit.
Since the transition of this blog from wedding information to travel diary, the “where?” question has meant “where are you going next?” With no update since last summer (despite a promised October trip), the question is now “where have you been?” Unless you’re among the 0.01% of my readers who stumble here accidentally, you know the answer: We’ve been off changing our lives forever. And now, it’s “where do you go from there?”
Our three full days in Hawaii began with a completely planned day and ended with one without any specific plans whatsoever. (The partial days included travel, which is difficult to plan around.) I’m definitely a consummate planner, so I was nervous about how the unplanned day might go. While it was not without its share of disappointment, it turned out to have wonderful highlights all its own.
We arose early again on Wednesday, but had a more relaxed morning before heading out for the day. The only remaining scheduled item wasn’t until early afternoon, about an hour’s drive away, but we figured we could make some stops along the way.
After our few days of wedding festivities in Seattle, we hopped on another plane and continued our journey west, to Hawaii. We flew directly to Kona International Airport on the west side of the easternmost island, Hawaii, AKA the Big Island. A quick walk through the all-outdoor airport, then we picked up our rental silver Altima (which appeared to be the official rental car of the Big Island), and we were off to the resort!
This past weekend, Gina and I returned from our latest travels, the furthest of which reached about 4750 miles west of home. Or at any rate, our bodies have returned… personally, my brain is still lagging a few time zones behind. Our first stop was about halfway, in Seattle, for the wedding that prompted the trip in the first place.
We’re gearing up for our first trip this year, with another in the planning phase. Preparing to write this post, I realized the Dar Williams song I titled it after seemed a good fit (though I’m covering both Traveling I and Traveling II). Or at least its name did. Turns out it’s not really about actual traveling at all. But, I digress. We are, literally, traveling again (or will be soon enough, anyway)!
Last night, I stayed up to watch The Late Show with David Letterman. It’s the first time I’ve been up that late on a weeknight in quite a while, but it was an important event for me to witness in real time. Today, I am tired, and I feel a little empty inside. David Letterman has been a lot of things to me over the years, and while I changed from a daily watcher into someone who only occasionally caught clips on the Internet, there was a certain comfort to knowing he was always there for me when I needed him. And that comfort is now gone. Most people probably have very little idea quite how important David Letterman was to me in my life. I’m going to take a few moments to attempt to rectify that.
Today, I was greatly saddened to learn of the passing of actor, director, photographer, (etc.), Leonard Nimoy. Due to his ongoing battle with COPD, I was not entirely surprised, but expectation does not make the loss any easier. This was a man whose signature role had an early and lasting influence on my life.
I was initially resistant to the “Harry Potter” books and movies, assuming they were popular tripe for adolescents. I’d no intention of seeing the movies, reading the books, or learning anything about them. I generally haven’t had any issue avoiding popular media (sorry, James Cameron… I’ve seen neither Titanic nor Avatar, and have no intention of viewing either), so this was an entirely achievable ultimatum. Then, everything changed, and I’m thrilled that it did.