Playing Catch-Up: Travel Tidbits

Before I start posting about the JEMS Sabbatical Saga, I realized that I'm woefully behind in my travel updates since October. So here's a brief recap of family and work trips that took me through all of the mainland US time zones...

October
I made my annual Halloween time visit to see A, R, F & C in Lakewood, CO. This year's trip happened to coincide with the World Series, so we got to experience the highs and lows of the Red Sox for several games, and I caught the final out of the championship as my Southwest flight landed in Sacto at the end of the visit! I enjoyed my time with the family and catching up with A. She and I took the boys to a cool neighborhood that was all decked out for the holiday and with lots of the funky local businesses handing out candy for a safe daytime trick-or-treat experience. So fun to enjoy the festivities with F & C in costume!

November
The month started off with my combo trip to Chicago/Marshfield/New Orleans. The first stop on this trifecta was for the GPA Conference, where I was slated to co-present with my GPA mentee, R. However, due to family emergencies on both our parts, we had to bow out of this year's agenda and will instead defer to 2019 in D.C. I stayed with Mr. E's parents, since their condo is right across from the Swissotel, which was the conference hotel. Although my trip was shortened, I did get to spend a lovely evening with them enjoying dinner and wine at Mariano's along with a great swim in the morning before heading to Marshfield a bit early. I had planned to visit Mom over the Veteran's Day long weekend but changed plans to get some extra time with her before heading to New Orleans on Tuesday after the holiday for a work meeting on Wednesday morning in conjunction with the NACHC PCA/HCCN conference. Fortuitously, I ran into A and S at the conference hotel as I was working on my laptop in the lobby while waiting to go to the airport, and the three of us had some great catch-up time over drinks at the airport as we were all on the same flight back to Sac.

I was home with Mr. E and the kitties for about six days before we returned to the Midwest for Thanksgiving with Mr. E's family. His parents hosted and managed to fit nearly 20 people in their condo, including several other family members from his Mom's side. We also learned that another set of family had unexpectedly made the trip and were staying nearby, so a cluster of us headed over to their hotel to chat a bit after finishing up the main dinner event. The next day, Mr. E and I took off in our rental car for the drive to Madison, where we spent the weekend at the Fluno Center and watched the [rather disappointing] final Badger game of the season on Saturday, prefaced by brunch with S & S at the restaurant that replaced Bluephies on Monroe St. The food was good, but the service needs some additional refinement...!

We got back to Sac on Sunday evening, and I fit in one day of work before catching a redye Monday night back to Mom's, where I stayed until Saturday, helping her get settled. I managed to work half-days during that week to keep up with various projects, which was a bit tricky sometimes but very helpful given the upcoming extended vacation time in January. And I got back to Sac in time to join my CH+ team for the CIM Relay on Sunday morning.

December
I had another abbreviated work week thanks to my trip to Nashville for my PCA Learning Team face-to-face meeting. As always, this was a great gathering of my PCA peers, and I got to reconnect with several folks and also make some great new connections. We didn't have much free time outside of the meeting, but I did manage to fit in a visit to the Frist Art Museum to see a special exhibition about Paris in the early 1900s.

I then had two weeks at home in Sac, but Mr. E took off the next weekend to visit G, G, & L in Dallas. The kitties and I got to have some extra snuggle time to make up for all of my recent absences! And I caught up with friends during monthly brunch and Book Club.

Another redeye (Jet Blue direct!) took me back to Mom's, and we then traveled together on Southwest the next day to Austin for holidays with J, C, and B. We met up with Mr. E at the airport and drove together to the house. J had booked tickets for Sunday evening's final night of Trail of Lights (TOL) at Zilker Park. We all enjoyed the journey through the brightly lit displays, and B, C, and I also took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. Earlier in the day, Mr. E and I took C out to lunch at Panera and then to buy fish for his new tank. (don't ask about the shark.... ha, ha) On Christmas Eve day, we spend family time together, and then Mr. E and I prepared dinner while Mom, J, C, and B went to church. B's mother, JK, also came over for dinner to celebrate. The next morning, J and C made blueberry coffee cake before we started on the gifts. JK stopped by around lunch time as well. The rest of the day was pretty mellow, with several loads of laundry completed, and the dinner leftovers were put to good use for lunch and snacking. Mr. E's flight on the 26th was earlier than mine, so he headed off to the airport around 6am (thanks for remembering the luggage trolley in the trunk!!!). I got to spend the morning with Mom and C while J went to yoga. This also gave me time for a final load of laundry before J drove me to the airport for my 1:45pm flight. Mr. E had another long layover on United, this time in LAX, so I arrived in Sac just an hour after he did, thanks to my direct Southwest flight. We met up for the ride home and spent the next 22 hours getting ready for our big travel adventure -- paying bills, updating Quicken, snuggling with the kitties, doing laundry, cleaning, connecting with S to confirm overnight plans as part of cat care, and re-packing.

And then our JEMS Sabbatical Saga officially began at 2pm on December 27th when we headed off to the airport for our flight to Sydney. More on that to come in separate posts...