The End of the Hiatus

I took this vacation to heart.  I wasn’t just visiting different cities, but I took a true vacation from work (no reply emails or returning phone calls), from personal email, and yes, even from blogging (both writing and reading)!  I didn’t worry about my daily posting streak.  I didn’t worry about coming up with topics.  I didn’t worry about stopping whatever fun vacation activity we were doing to stress over posting.  And guess what?  The world continued to turn!  My blogs did not spontaneously combust.  And I return with renewed enthusiasm and a pile of new topics.

The break from life as I know it was welcome and needed.  Our last true vacation was almost two years ago when we went to Austin, Texas.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve traveled about but mainly to visit family.  Luckily our siblings live in warm, fun places (near Atlanta, Georgia and Las Vegas).  But sometimes it’s nice to just get away, have no obligations, and just be.  That is exactly what we did.

We spent five and a half days in New Orleans and the same amount in San Francisco.  We had been to New Orleans before and it was enjoyable to go and feel like we were familiar with the French Quarter.  However, we took time this trip to explore more of the surrounding neighborhoods and find out what lies beyond Bourbon Street.  We had never been to San Francisco and tried to see as much as possible.  We are big on exploring by foot, and those hills were brutal.  But we did a decent job if I do say so myself.  I loved San Francisco.  It is probably one of my favorite places that I have visited (San Diego remains at the top…seeing a pattern?).

The eleven days did not fly by as quickly as I thought they would, but nonetheless the end came much too quickly.  I know that by the end of a vacation some people are happy to arrive home – you can sleep in your own bed, you have more space than a tiny hotel room offers, you can cook your own food.  Yes, I missed all of those things, but I am never happy to get home.  It’s not the laundry or the unpacking (although I don’t relish that) that gets me.  It’s that I’ve traveled to fascinating places that are so much more interesting than where I have to spend all of my days.  Beautiful scenery, awesome weather, interesting scenes to photograph, and inspiration everywhere you turn.

I’m trying not to focus on the fact that I am now back in my boring, brown environment.  Instead, I’m going to take the next few posts to write about our travels, what I learned, and what I experienced.  Surely traveling can only help me to one day realize my goals.