Home Sweet Home

I love to travel, but I really love coming home too. Travel makes me appreciate home. Home is where my pets are. They were very glad to see me. I tried to spend time with each and every one of them yesterday.

I missed Jill too. She is very good at pet care, which helps alleviate some of my worries when I am traveling. I like traveling with Jill, but selfishly like it when she stays behind.

The "book" has two Nevada destinations. I can check both off my list.

1. Bellagio

2. The Las Vegas Strip

Other highlights from my trip:

1. Pool

2. Poker

3. Brunch at Mesa Grill - Bobby Flay's restaurant

4. Stalked Mario Batali around the Venetian

5. Slept late

6. Stayed up late

7. Dinner with family (cool cousin Kerry, his wife Amy, parents, brother Bruce, sil Jodi, and dh Dave)

Travel Problem

I have one, smallish, problem when I travel. I really miss my pets. Sushi is good on road trips, as pictured here. Give her a blanket and a seat and she will sleep. However, I have not yet introduced her to airplane travel. She is too big to fit under the seat in front of me; and is probably too badly behaved to pass for a working dog. I think she would be fine on a plane, especially if she could sit on my lap. I would really like to bring her and/or Tallie, my cat, on every trip; but for now...they stay home.

I guess she doesn't know what she is missing. But, I really miss Sushi, Tallie and Hobbs.

Found luggage

What a relief! Dave's suitcase was delivered to our hotel the next day. I hope that never happens to us again. Or to anyone else.

I read some good advice on a website that lists packing recommendations, and next time I will actually do this - if you are traveling with someone, and you are both checking suitcases - pack 1/2 of your clothes in each suitcase....so you both have something in the event one suitcase doesn't make it. Because....even though you check two suitcases at the same time, they never come down the luggage chute at the same same. Why is that? When do they get separated?

Lost luggage

I've heard of this happening to people...other people, but never to me; until today. Actually, it was my husband's suitcase that never came down that little chute. I am very grateful mine arrived, especially since I don't usually check luggage and was taking a huge risk.

We experienced another first today - a cancelled flight. I'm sure his suitcase would not have been lost if it didn't need to be re-directed after we were re-booked.

Our flight was cancelled because a flight attendant called in sick. Due to a good re-booking, we arrived in Las Vegas earlier than expected, but at what price since my husband has nothing but his laptop.

Packing heavy

I googled "pack light" and had 283,000 results in .25 seconds. I googled "pack heavy" and got 61,100 results in .24 seconds. (Not many of the pack heavy results seem to be related to travel.)

After years of trial and error I do know how to pack light. I am actually pretty good at it. I use a very small suitcase for all business trips. Add my laptop bag; and I never need to check luggage.

It was earth day this week. It would be better for the environment if we all packed a bit lighter. (Shouldn't every day be earth day?)

However, there are times when I want to pack up my whole closet and take with me on vacation. That is what I am facing today as I pack for my trip to Las Vegas.

I like to fly

I really do. I know some people hate flying, or are afraid.

I get excited every time I go to the airport. It doesn't matter if it is a short trip, like to Chicago....or a long flight, like to Japan.

My first plane ride was on Eastern Air Lines to Orlando, Florida. I was a high school sophmore. Eastern stopped flying in 1991. (According to Wikipedia. Image is from their site.)

Planning

I love to plan trips, and it doesn't matter if they are my trips or someone else's. I think planning is almost as fun as the traveling part.

I am planning a short trip to a place I have visited many times before. It is the kind of place where you can easily find new things to see or new places to eat, no matter how many times you have already been there.

I am currently researching restaurants. I like travel books, but the Internet is such a valuable research tool, especially when it comes to travel. If you don't have a website, I probably will not visit your store, restaurant, etc.

Cities I've Visited

No, I am not going to list them all here.

I pinned 166 cities in 15 countries on TripAdvisor.com's map. They are missing some though, such as Bruce Mines, Ontario, Canada (cute little town on Lake Huron). I'll blog about Bruce Mines later.

I've been to 46 states and the District of Columbia. I am missing Alaska, Louisiana, Maine and New Hampshire; and all of the US territories.

I guess my first goal should be to visit all 50 states and Puerto Rico before picking up where I left off in the "1,000 places to see before you die" book. Going forward, I will refer to it as "the book." (No disrespect to the real book, the Bible.)

What is this blog for?

I like to write and have considered blogging for several years now. I love to travel....really love to travel; so I decided to write about what I love.

My step-son is a freshman in college, so most of my travel money now goes to the University of Iowa. (Go Hawks!)

I am going to start by blogging about all of the trips I have taken during the first 40 years of my life. My husband gave me "1,000 places to see before you die" by Patricia Schultz. If I counted correctly, I have been to 10% of them. That should give me enough material until I take a real trip.