Hard to write a Travel Blog when you haven't traveled.

If anybody is still reading this, I thank you for your continued interest and support! It’s been a while since I last blogged. Honestly, since the theme of it is “our travels”, it’s hard to write when we haven’t traveled. Oh sure, I’ve been to sea. I went to Hawaii and back on the Alaska run, but I’ve already written about that. Plus, nothing exciting happened. Don’t get me wrong, that’s the way I like it. The more boring the trip, the better the trip was for me. But like all media outlets, only sensational stories will hold the attention of my intended audience. My trip to Alaska would have read “calm seas, nice people, no accidents, we were on time.” Yeah, pretty lame. Same with the Hawaii run: “the weather was nice, I played some pickle ball with the Captain, spent a lot of money on taxis in Honolulu, went home.” Real interesting.



I did go back to Jackson Hole this September, but I already did a “September is my favorite month” article (still is). I had a great time, but I did all the same things I blogged about last September. What's to write about then?



We bought a house when we got back from Mexico. It’s wonderful and it has been fun meeting all our great neighbors while remodeling the garage.






















But being a homebody is hardly conducive to writing a travel blog. It’s been interesting preparing our neighbors for our lifestyle. We spent a long time talking about our career, but when it came time for us to go to sea (at different times of course) they were all shocked to hear how long Grant and I would be away from each other. Literally a few days would go by, and they would ask me if Grant was coming home soon. Uh…No. He just left. Yesterday one neighbor peered into my eyes, hand on my shoulder, and asked if I was ok…but really are you ok? She doesn’t understand that Grant and I have been leaving each other for months on end for 10 years. She truly wanted to make sure I wasn’t sad or having a hard time. It is hard to say goodbye, but I think our neighbors are having a harder time adjusting than we ever did! But that’s the great thing about our new house. Our neighbors are awesome! They all care about us, and we all watch out for each other. I have never lived in a place where so many open and kind people live so close together. We are damn lucky.

Right, but back to the “Travel” part of this travel blog. I’m turning 30 in a few months, and I decided that I have a lot of goals for year 30. So let me lay out some of my plans and goals for 2011 and hopefully I’ll report back on all of them:

- Rafting through the Grand Canyon. This is actually my father-in-law’s long time goal, but we’re going to make it happen this summer.

- Go to Rocky Grass. We have both been at sea for this fun Colorado bluegrass festival for far too many years, and we will not miss it this year!

- Travel to India…or somewhere in Asia. I’ve been to Asia many times on my ships, but I’ve never traveled there for fun. I have not met people outside of the stinking, ugly, mean container terminals and port towns I go to. I do not have a fair view of this region of the world, as longshoremen and sailors generally don’t accurately represent any society, and I would like to open my mind to the culture and people.

- I want to climb Middle Teton. It’s not mountaineering per se, but is about twice as far as I’ve ever hiked before and would be my first real summit.

-Speaking of, I’m going to do some backpacking in the Tetons. I’ve done countless day hikes, but have never been fit enough to get really deep into those mountains.

-I want to take my boat on an actual boat trip. I’ve had it in the Puget Sound for seven years for the purpose of sailing around the islands, and I have never done it. What a shame, and I’m going to change that this year.

So this is the start of my list. It’s going to be a busy summer, so I’ll have to get going on this stuff. Wish me luck and please check back. In the mean time, here are some pictures of the Tetons. I never get bored of them, and neither should you. Please, if you have any questions about going to sea, please leave a comment and I will try my best to write about it.