Travel 2019 – An Even More Go-Go Year!

Continued from Travel 2019 – Another Go-Go Year!

August I again had back to back trips.  First up was another visit to Seattle, a 9-day trip to help my daughter over a two-week period while our son-in-law attended two separate out-of-town conferences.  What I thought would be just “granddaddy duty” turned into a real vacation as chronicled here.

Then less than 36 hours after flying home, I was heading off to North Carolina for our 2019 BroGo.  My brother and I almost weren’t able to squeeze one in in 2019 due to our busy schedules.  But we did manage a good 4-day trip where we got to enjoy our favorite vacation place while tasting over two dozen IPA (Indian Pale Ale) beers in what became known as our BrewGo.

In September, I had two trips, one short and one very short.  On the second Friday, I drove down to Ole Miss to once again give a lecture as a part of a weeklong course.  Then on Sunday, I flew out to San Francisco for four days to teach my Method Validation course.  It was a pretty quick trip with Sunday night being the only free time I had to see my son and his family.  Getting back home was a bit harrowing with runway construction going on at SFO causing significant delays.

Then two weeks later at the beginning of October, I was back out in San Francisco for my fifth trip there in 2019.  This time the occasion was to once again, help out my son and daughter-in-law with their two small kids while my daughter-in-law’s parents were out of the country.  And for the second time, my wife accompanied me on this trip.

Between pre-school, daycare, and their other activities, it was a pretty busy week.  I was the designated chauffer to shuttle the kids around to different locations, which my son’s father-in-law graciously allowed me to use his BMW (my first time to drive a Beemer).  By the end of the week, we actually had some free time to entertain ourselves while both kids were offsite.  We didn’t do any sightseeing but for me, a really special moment was capturing my wife hugging our oldest child while he bathed his oldest child almost sensing my wife’s love flowing down to the third generation through our son.

November was the one single month the entire year that I did not travel but as I wrote in December, was very special as our youngest son got married.

Early December found my wife and I flying off to Seattle, my third trip there, to help our daughter following her eye surgery.  Her surgery went great but sadly both our grandsons were sick while we there, so we didn’t have the same type of trip we have had in the past.  But we still got some special time with our grandsons.

Then we were off to Hawaii to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary, a trip deserving its own post.

When I added up all my travel for the year, I took 13 trips by plane and nine additional trips by car for a total of 22 trips, almost double the number of trips in 2018.  Further, I was away from home a total 103 days, almost a third of the entire year.  I suspect my travel in 2020 will be somewhat less than this hectic pace but only time will tell.

Hopefully you also had a fun travel year last year and will also this year.

So, cheers to another fun year of travel in 2020!