It has been awhile since I have written because why would I want to leave Seattle in the summer?? The northwest is gorgeous in the summer...we put up with a lot of rain all year and the reward is the beautiful blue sky, Lake Washington, the Puget Sound, clear views of the mountains, and all of the green trees. As I drove home from work on 99 I watched the ferries on the Sound and even saw someone parasailing. It doesn't get much better than a real summer day in Seattle. I don't have a school schedule to work around so there is no need for me to do my travels in the summer. Road trips are all I need to relax. So far this summers road trips have been Portland and Sunriver. Next up are the cabin in Cle Elum, Chelan, and Vancouver BC for the City Chase!
However, Fall is a different story and I have been busy planning for Fall traveling. My humble start to Fall traveling came with a Travelzoo top 20 e-mail. I forwarded the e-mail on to Cheryl (same friend I went to Iceland with) and asked if she was interested in any. Cheryl replied interested in the Ireland trip. One catch, the trip was for four and neither of our significant others were interested. In comes our mothers, yes, mother daughter trip to Ireland in October. We first were thinking September but waited too long and those days sold out. We also waited too long for the dates in October. This led me to search the web further and low and behold I found Sherman Travel, another website that sends out top deals of the week. They had the same travel deal going except a different resort, this one near Dublin, even better. So a week in Ireland it is with a manual rental car, and yes they drive on the wrong side of the road. This should be another adventure!
My Fall travels don't end with Ireland. The real adventure will be three weeks in Peru in November. I have never taken three weeks off work, hopefully I will forget I even have responsibilities at home for awhile. I have already booked my Inca Trail hike, a 4 day hike to Machu Pichu. I made sure to sign up to have a porter carry 13 lbs of my stuff (sleeping bag and sleeping mat at least) for an extra $40. First I thought no I can carry it myself, and then I came to my senses and thought who am I trying to impress, how about I enjoy the hike as much as I can at 9000 ft, with the altitude and hiking up mountains I'm will be lucky to make it at all! Francis (my hunk) told me I can plan the whole trip myself and he was in as long as I keep it under $2000 per person including airfare. Lucky for me you can get your own room in a hostel for about $10 each per night. We will likely have some long bus rides instead of plane rides between sites to keep it under budget but I am up for the challenge! So far for both plane tickets from Seattle to Lima I'm at $450-thank you Alaska air miles, I knew I was saving you for something!
