Still in love with Motorcycles, Traveling Around the World, and the Long Way Round/Down...

Travel ... Motorcycles... Travel... Motorcycles... Travel.... just a deep yearning to go... now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb6bgpJX69U&feature=quicklist

It's been a busy 2009 and it's ok to feel like Meg Ryan sometimes.

Wow... it's been a year of changes. New home in a new state, new schools for my girls and I am no longer married ... but I wanted to at least blog one time this year to share something very important...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJgxfg2rdJw

It's ok to feel like Meg Ryans character sometimes...

"Long Way Down"...

Scotland to Africa





Dreams... especially travel adventure dreams are so deeply embedded in my soul... I can't stop thinking and talking about travel... so I wanted to share my latest favorite travel, adventure documentary shot in 2007, Long Way Down. It is a follow-up to the 2004, Long Way Round and is a motorcycle journey undertaken by two friends, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. They ride south through 18 countries from John o' Groats, Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa. It's amazing...

http://www.longwaydown.com/

ok... so I couldn't help but post this picture of Ewan... he 'rocks my world'



Stacey

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”

A Russian Church, in Dutch Harbor, Alaska

My hotel, somewhere in Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Salvador Dali Museum, Spain

At the top of a Cathedral in Strassburg, Germany

Strassburg, Germany

One of my favorite lines from J.R.R. Tolkien is “Not all those who wander are lost.” I've always felt like a wanderer but I've rarely felt that I was lost.

When I graduated from High School one of the most import things on my mind was travel. I couldn't wait to buy my first plane ticket. I was ready to see the world and I wanted to go everywhere. My first trip on my own was to Houston, Texas, then Hawaii, then San Felipe, Mexico, then Mazatlan, next was Steamboat Springs, Colorado, then Washington, D.C., next was a Euro-rail trip (Germany and then France), then the next year I was in England, France, Germany, Italy, and then Spain and then I traveled to N.Y. City. Then, I took a break and got my Bachelor's degree, paused briefly after and then took myself to Alaska for 3 weeks. During many of these trips I tried to convince my friends to travel with me, I managed a few times to drag some on them along but travel for them was different and often difficult. My friends were looking for a vacation get-away but I always wanted something more.

After getting married and having kids, I had the opportunity to travel through my work around the U.S. That was great because I didn't pay for a thing and I was not away from my family long but I was able to spend time in Chicago, Houston, Denver, Atlanta and New York City. Then I headed for the Aleutian Islands in Alaska (scary plane ride with a lot of fisherman in a prop plane).

While I was married my husband and I traveled a few times across country with our kids (they have been in over half of the states) and I was also very lucky to have the chance to travel across the lower U.S. alone with my Dad a few years back... through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and then to Georgia. That was fun, especially when I made my dad find a 'Whole Foods' for me in downtown, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

So this blog is dedicated to us travelers... and to future travel with my girls. I really hope to take them to Africa and New Zealand some day... and enough of the mowing the lawn (my metaphor for boring) and hanging out waiting for something to happen...

Go travel people... bring your kids, quit your job, sell your house... live

Stacey

Just my favorite photos...

Addisen and Alexey, Chicago's Museum of Modern Art

Addisen hanging out in Cody, Wyoming

Alexey in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho

Addisen, Stacey and Alexey in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Alexey and Addisen in Yellowstone National Park

Just my favorite photos...





Enjoy

The Singing Elvis

Last week while I was driving home from work and I was talking on the phone (in Oregon we can talk on our cell phones, drive and listen to someone serenade us Elvis at the same time) to my Mom when an Elvis impersonator drove up next to me at a red light... he said, in his Elvis voice, "Helloo Baby"... I'm Elvis and then he started singing "It's Now or Never"... he followed along side of my car for at least 15 blocks, singing and laughing. Every time I'd try to get away... he'd speed up next to me... he even shouted out "don't try to get away from me darlin"... so I listened and then when he realized that he had missed his turn a few blocks back... he shouted out "See you on the Internet". What did that mean? Anyway, it was fun, funny and weird... so that's what they mean when they say... "KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD"

What was great about this is that the Elvis impersonator was freely doing his own thing... he had created his own world... I like that... but I still like the 'original' Elvis better.


Stacey

Alexey... Relaxing in the Pool

Happy Alexey...


Pool therapy