2012 ended a year of travel to Vancouver and signaled the start of travel to San Francisco. And, by San Francisco, I mean Silicon Valley: Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View. Though initially, I started the year off in San Francisco, thinking I would be bold and brave and do a daily commute to Palo Alto on the Caltrain. But, after a month of this, I realized that bravery was stupidity and moved to Redwood City (and later Sunnyvale).
Winter wasn’t all California sun, beaches in Carmel, and warm weather. February brought us dog sledding in Canmore and a really fantastic experience that I’d recommend to anyone.
When Spring hit we headed to Ireland where family from all over the world converged on “The Gathering.” Locals thought it was a big scam but it was nice to learn about the place where my grandmother’s family is from. This shouldn’t be the end of our Irish journeys… because the majority of my family are from Northern Ireland. I figure this will be a completely different trip and not one I want to put off.
In Calgary there was spring flooding, which devastated the city. People will talk about the “Flood of 2013” for decades to come.
At the cusp of spring to summer, Colorado was on the schedule. Here my co-workers met for a weekend of bad food, rowdiness, and activism.
Summer included San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, the completion of the NorCal Mission quest, and two months full of adventures in horseback riding, robotics, and summer camps.
September brought Las Vegas and the Wanted. Forget everything that happened earlier in the year, from la Niña’s perspective the Wanted trumped every experience. Then there was New York and the Delivery Leads Summit in New York.
November came with a mileage run to Sweden and a glimpse into weekend blitz travelling. Expect more of this in the future.
This year’s cluster of easy tools: Google Flights, the United app, Parkopedia, Wikihood, Hailo, Subway Pro, Google Drive, and Dropbox Pro.
2014 promises more back and forth to California and perhaps a few more surprises. There’s still talk of moving to a different city, we’ll see where this discussion takes us.