Carmel, CA.
We’re ending 2018 in the same place we started it. Our happy place, breathing in the sea air, the warm sun, the blue skies, and viewing an endless parade of happy dogs running on the beach.
This year’s total: 170,000 seat miles on Delta.
Why?
Most people do a Best Nine. Call us rule-breakers.
To explore:
Glaciers, cemeteries, waterfalls, wind-swept oceans, the lakes and mountains of Patagonia, the Berlin Wall, Sydney Opera House, the Spreewald, the spires of Prague, the Holocaust memorial.
To see:
Wombats, baby wombats, wallabies, Tasmanian Devils, woodpeckers, kangaroos, pelicans, fluffy dogs, giant iguanas, howler monkeys, whales, seals, condors, llamas.
To bicycle:
Over bridges around the world, the coast of Tasmania, the hills of Provence, out of torn Berlin and into war-destroyed Dresden, the wineries of Sonoma/Napa, and to the top of every hill.
To be mesmerized by:
Crashing waves, from the Pacific to the Tasman Sea, from the Caribbean to the Atlantic, all the way to the Southern Ocean, the Lagos of Patagonia, and Lake Koronis in Smallville (only when a big boat goes by).
To discover:
The whisky trail in Tasmania, how to catch fish in Patagonia, and how to not catch fish in Belize, the food in Portland, Maine, and the street festival and sausage party in Buenos Aires.
To eat:
A 10-course breakfast at Single Thread Farms, deep-fried pimiento cheese (not for breakfast), fresh-caught mud bugs, lobster rolls, fry bread, fresh oysters all over the world, lamb over an open wood fire, and dessert that we were usually too full to really justify (but ate anyway).
To drink:
Too much great wine, and sparkling wine/Champagne nearly every day.
To:
learn, experience, absorb, meet new friends, laugh with old friends, breathe the air, feel the sun, watch every sunrise, moonrise, and sunset.
What we learn makes us better at what we do.
Here’s to our 2019 adventures. It’s a big, beautiful world, and we’re just beginning.
Carmel/Zihuatanejo/Austin/Patagonia Sur/Belize/Chicago/New York/Charleston/Washington, DC/Los Angeles/Provence/Paris/Portland, ME/Boston/Berlin to Dresden to Prague/Melbourne/Sydney/Tasmania/San Francisco/Healdsburg/Eureka-Arcata/San Antonio/New Orleans