Have you missed us? If not, please feel free remove yourself from the email distribution list if you don’t want to get our blog updates.  I can’t figure out how to do it from the site and don’t want you to feel like you are getting spammed.  Don’t get me wrong, would love to have you keep in touch via the blog.  We are going to call ourselves official travel bloggers and want to share our experiences to help others that are interested in travel, bad jokes, dry humor and have a thirst for learning about the world.  The site is going public so we will see how much traffic we get and maybe even make some money to pay for a cup of coffee or even dessert one night.

Somehow another year has flown by, but we haven’t been flying like we did on our 9-month trip where we picked up every few days.  I feel like a bird that had its wings clipped.  The cliff note version of recent travel…we have been hanging in Maryland, but primarily Miami Beach.  We did manage to get in some nice travel though. Cliff note version: BVI’s with five other fabulous people,

Dinner in the BVI’s

Germany for both of us (then Greg for Oktoberfest with 30 dudes),

Munich Germany with our new friend Christin

Southern Italy for Linda w/ Deena and we met up with the best hostess ever, Paola,

Nothing like a little hike along the coast…Amalfi

Napa with our YPO DC crew,

Greg fermenting with the wine!

Jamaica with the family,

Jamaica with the family

Cabo with two other fun filled couples (Lyles and Mouls),

Cabo baby. Dinner w our fresh caught fish.

and Playa del Carmen for Toni Karlin’s birthday bash!

White Party for Toni’s bday in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Funny how staying put for more than a couple weeks gives us the feeling of clipped wings. Wow, how things have changed. This time during our stay down south we really settled in, saw some old friends and made some new friends.  I guess after traveling for 9 months we have finally figured out that we are snowbirds.

So, why the blog post now? We celebrated our 1-year return anniversary from our 9 month trip by reminiscing, re-reading the blog and looking at the pictures.  Then we had the adventure bug and went kayaking and paddle boarding (thanks to Doug and Deena for letting us borrow!) in the Miami bay.  I’m sad to admit it but that is what we call adventure now, no Kilimanjaro hikes, strange chicken feet in our soup or tarantula butt for dinner.  No strange new lands with dirt roads and no electricity but smiling people.   No kids running through the street or being piled on to a Vespas with their other four siblings.   So the day was a bit of a wake up call.  And we are accepting the challenge!  In a few days we head to New Orleans for a month to hangout with our niece at Tulane, family and a motley crew of friends coming down for Jazz Fest.  I am sure we will have something to write about over the next thirty days.  But the primary reason to write is because we have the travel bug and that’s what we do, we like to write about the adventure of life, which is now going in to phase two.

Before we leave the sunshine state I want to give it the respect it deserves.  Yes, it averages about 75 degrees and sunshine all winter and there is no income tax, but that’s just the beginning.  Miami has grown up to be one of the most multicultural cities in the world.  People are flocking here from all over South America (locals call Miami the capital of South America), Europe and Russia.  English is almost the second language and we are sometimes spoken to in Spanish first.   Prices are starting to rival Manhattan and there are plans for another 30,000 condos and over 10 billion in investment dollars in the next 5 years.  People are beautiful, the food is excellent and being healthy is a top priority. Of course there is the tourist side of life here, groups of party people frequenting clubs that open at 1AM and getting home at 6AM just in time to catch a few hours of shut eye before they hit the “repeat” button.

The car is packed and heading to New Orleans and we are grabbing the pets and moving to the big easy for a month.  All aboard!