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Bye Bye California (5.5 hours to go!)

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Wow.

I could fill a whole post just with that one word. I’m glad I’m finally really excited. The past couple of days have been stressful with coming down with a cold, saying good-bye to everyone, and checking things off of our lists. I’d gotten to the point where I was trying not to think about the reality of the trip but instead thinking of each task as just something to check off the list. But at about 4:30 today, everything was done and I finally had a chance to de-stress and get excited. We’d run all of our errands–including getting both of our Hep A booster shots and an MMR booster for me ($130 total at the Santa Rosa health clinic), going to our banks to get some cash in small bills and take off our overdraft protections (I believe it was Laura who pointed out that having overdraft protection wasn’t such a good idea because a. if our cards were stolen, then the thief would be able to spend more than what we have in our checking accounts–we’re keeping $1,000 in each–and b. we’re using them for taking cash out of ATMs, so the overdraft is useless since you can’t use it for cash withdrawals, only purchases). We also let our banks know that we’d be traveling outside of the country so (hopefully) the cards will work for us while we’re traveling. We repacked our bags, checking off each item on our pack lists as we went. The packing lists ended up being really great. I made them months and months ago with the help of travel books and how to pack light websites. Having the lists helped us buy stuff as well as made packing a lot less stressful. Steve weighed our bags–mine is about 32 lbs and Steve’s is around 40 lbs. So we’re under the 50 lb airline requirement for checked bags (and the ‘oh my god I’m not carrying that amount on my back’ limit). What else? I’ve called friends and family to say good bye. I’m sure I didn’t get to everyone on the phone today, but for those of you I didn’t call, I’m sorry! It’s been a long day and I need to relax a bit before the plane ride. So now there’s just showering and getting dressed in trip clothes and getting on the plane.

[read on]

Back in California (2 days to go!)

Saturday, May 31st, 2008

I just got back to California last night after spending two weeks of visiting my friends and family in Alabama and Pennsylvania. It was great to see everyone, so I’m really glad that I went. But now I’m pooped, and I have a whole list of things to get done before Monday night when we fly away!

I really can’t believe that there are only two days before we go. To be honest, I’m a little freaked out. I’m sure we’ll get everything on our list done (they’re little things and reminders, nothing major). But I still feel really overwhelmed. Actually, I feel so overwhelmed, that I don’t want to think about it anymore. I’m just going to get busy checking things off of the list.

[read on]

A Little Light Reading–Moon and Rough Guides vs. Footprint and Lonely Planet (24 days to go!)

Friday, May 9th, 2008
Things have settled down a bit recently. We found a new roommate to take over our room in the shared house starting May 15 (he's already paid us back our deposit and he's given Angela 1 1/2 months' rent). We've ... [Continue reading this entry]

Laura–Our Angel!

Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Steve's sister Laura has graciously agreed to be our home contact (or Angel as one travel book called it) while we travel. She will be responsible for various tasks such as collecting our mail--opening important looking things and recycling all ... [Continue reading this entry]

Travel Insurance

Thursday, May 8th, 2008
It was a difficult process trying to figure out travel insurance. On top of trying to decipher the legal-speak of the contracts it turns out that Steve and I have different ideas of what we think travel insurance should be ... [Continue reading this entry]

Stuff! (27 days to go!)

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
A few days ago Steve and I pulled out our packing lists and starting getting out all of the stuff we've acquired for the trip, checking off the items on our lists as we went. It was really a helpful ... [Continue reading this entry]

Money Matters (31 days to go!)

Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Someone out there in internet-land asked a while back what we were going to do in terms of getting at our money while we're traveling. We've done some research, and here's our plan: We're going to take each of our bank's ... [Continue reading this entry]

Making Moola (42 days to go!)

Monday, April 21st, 2008
We have been busy, busy, busy the last month trying to get all of our ducks in a row before we depart. Even though we have 42 days until we fly away to Peru (42 days! Wow!) there's only (quick ... [Continue reading this entry]

Updates! (77 Days to go)

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
We have been very busy recently with checking things off of our to-do list. Here's the latest update on our plans:
  • We've booked a 4-day/3-night trek along the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu through Liz's Explorer. We leave June 21st ... [Continue reading this entry]

113 days to go… We bought China tickets!

Monday, February 11th, 2008
We bought our one-way tickets to Beijing, China. They were $604 a piece through Vayama.com. We fly out from San Francisco on September 7, and we arrive in China on September 8 at around 2 in the afternoon. We'll ... [Continue reading this entry]