I have been bitten by the travel bug. After a life where vacations were scarce (we went to a lot of state parks & had one big family vacation to the grand canyon when I was younger). But in the past 14 months I have gone on 4 vacations. It started with a trip to New York. It was followed by a trip to Boston. Then a trip to Connecticut. And lastly, a trip to Munich.

I went to New York to see a friend. I went to Boston to see another friend. In Connecticut, I saw family. In Munich, I realized just how much I was in love.

This is the story of that trip to Munich.

It starts with a flight. You see, because I am afraid of planes and the vibration makes my leg hurt like hell, I insisted upon holding Paul’s hand the entire flight. I didn’t knit. I didn’t read. He held my hand.

I wanted to see castles. The castle I most wanted to see was 2 hours away from where we were staying. It is where we went on our first full day. And we got to see 2 castles that day. We rode in a horse drawn carriage because it was romantic. I got to order for him in a german restaurant.

We went to Oktoberfest with one of my friends from college. We sang songs. We drank beer. We had fun.

Then, we went to Nuremburg to see more castles. I must have gotten a nice little stomach bug because on the tour of the castle, I got dizzy. And nauseous. I thought I was ok, but by the time we got to the train station I was really ill. Paul had to eat in McDonalds because I couldn’t function. (Luckily that was something he wanted to do in Europe was to eat at a McDonald’s). I couldn’t eat. I got a bag of gummy bears and some sprite so that when I felt like I could eat something, I would have it on the 2 hour train ride. Well, halfway home, I got ill. It hit me like a freight train. Thank goodness there was a plastic bag in my purse. At least I felt better physically after it happened. The rest of the train ride he kept his arm around me and stroked my head to help me relax.

We had an amazing trip and are talking about where we will go next. Maybe California in February with some saved up airline miles. Maybe India in 2012 if my best friend gets married (he doesn’t have a girlfriend, but still plans to be married in 2 years). Maybe Ireland for our next trip to Europe. Maybe I will travel alone to Raleigh to visit a good friend from undergrad. Maybe I can go back to Connecticut to see the wee cousins.

What I do know is that none of those trips will be quite like this one was. This was the trip that showed me just how far in love I have fallen. And, it rocked.

It is a story of 2 siblings, they happen to be from Venus, who are very, very different, yet still love each other.

It was written for Henry and Jane Escamilla, two of my youngest cousins (they are 3).

I got some pretty cool pictures while I was there making the pitch:
I was in nerd heaven. I might just be buying a kit to buy a robot there for myself one of these days because it would be fun.

And, those pictures are from my phone, and not retouched in photoshop or any of the apps.  It really is that colorful and vibrant in there.

New York, here comes Mary Fran

I leave for my first vacation in quite a few years tomorrow.  I haven’t been on a plane since an interview with Google in Ann Arbor, MI (yes, I had the poor taste to accept such a ridiculous interveiw).  And, I have to admit that I am a wee bit nervous.  I was going to try to pack in a carry-on sized bag.  Ha!  My camera equipment doesn’t fit in my laptop bag.  And, I swear I am only bringing one lens, one DSLR and one little point & shoot digital. And only one moderately sized laptop so that I can work while on “vacation”. If I do enough work, does the travel become a work expense?  I guess we will see on that one – and I will have to re-think my packing.