Yes, it has finally happened. My passport arrived in the mail, and after spending close to an hour looking at it, taking in my new reality and fighting off tears, (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating) I decided to make things official and book some tickets!
While Jen’s family all lives here in our town, I’ve been hearing alot of grumbling from my family, who all live in the Western U.S. and most of whom haven’t seen me in several years. When I told them about my plans they all demanded that I come visit before I leave the country for what I said would be “an unspecified amount of time.”
So I said to myself, “Self, how about a nice train ride, coast-to-coast, to see some old faces and be able to say good-bye to everybody in person?”
Spot on, Eli. Spot on.
Without any further ado, here is the official itinerary for phase one.
October 5th, 2010: New York City to Chicago via Amtrak
We’ll be heading down to Penn Station in Manhattan and hopping aboard an Amtrak train on a nineteen hour trip to Chicago. We’ll have six days to explore the Windy City, and neither of us has ever been. I foresee some good times in Chi Town. I can already smell the deep dish pizza.
October 12th, 2010: Chicago to Denver via Amtrak
My mother, brother and sister all live in Colorado, about an hour out of Denver. One of my best friends from Alaska also lives in the area. We’ll have another six days to experience that Rocky Mountain High that all my self-medicating friends keep raving about. There are bound to be hundreds of great photos ripe for the picking out there. I’m ready.
October 19th, 2010: Denver to Sacramento via Amtrak
Ah, the capital of California. I’ll be popping in on my dad and my other two sisters here, in the wonderful city straddled by the American and Sacramento Rivers. I spent two years living in this town, and it will be nice to show Jen some of my favorite places during my time there. Maybe we’ll run into Ahhhnold.
October 26th, 2010: San Francisco to Bangkok via KoreanAir
With a nice two hour layover in Seoul, we will finally be off of our native soil, free to blaze raging trails of fury around the globe. I’m hoping to get to San Francisco from Sacramento the day before our flight, so we can spend a day wandering a great city before we leave the country.
Once we get to Bangkok, we’ll probably spend a week or two within the city, getting adjusted to the time zone difference and slowly immersing ourselves in the culture. After that, we’ll get out into the countryside, see Thailand’s famous white beaches and eventually venture out into the rest of Southeast Asia.
For now, this is the official itinerary as it stands. It’s all about the countdown, now, folks. Saving money, getting our gear and shots, and looking at the calendar, wondering how we can speed up time.
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That’s nice for you, guys, able to fit seeing everybody (well, many at least), before you leave! In our time, after we had our transportation to Europe bought (transatlantic cruise), we pretty much trying to finish all job/school/documentation/health care related stuff until the end of our stay! Even not sleeping for 36 hours straight before we left! We did meet some family member before that, here and there from a half year before that (in Thanksgiving mostly). This is for Ryan’s part of family. My family is in Indonesia, and we were happy we got the chance of seeing them last New Year holiday.