Do You Enjoy Travel Stories?

This website chronicles our trip around the world in 2006. It has lots of photos, videos and stories. We invite you to come in, relax and enjoy the scenery.

~Lee and Sachi LeFever


To see what we're up to now, check LeeLeFever.com or CommonCraft.com

Our Recent Dispatches Are Below. RSS

A Dispatch is a report from our trip. Browse via keywords or global map.

How Do You Take it in?

By: leelefever on December 3, 2005 - 10:33am

As Sachi mentioned earlier, our full days in Seattle are almost up.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Banff, Canada for a workshop and we return on December 8th, and then leave home for the trip (New York City) on the 11th. So, we have today, and next Friday and Saturday as "normal" days.

The question is, what can you do in 3 days to feel like you've taken advantage of what home has to offer?  From talking to people, it's the small and seemingly insignificant things that you miss most.  So, we're taking some time to have a normal Saturday morning.  This involves getting up and making coffee eating breakfast, turning on the Dub-Reggae KEXP show "Positive Vibrations" and relaxing with the dog.  Soon enough we'll get in gear and get to work, but for now, home feels really, really good.

 

 

 


Filed Under: | | |

4 Days Left in Seattle!

By: sachilefever on December 2, 2005 - 4:38pm

Yes - the countdown says "9 days until we leave Seattle" right now, but 5 of them in the coming week will be in Canada.

Yay!


Filed Under: | |

Cleaned Out My Desk

By: sachilefever on December 2, 2005 - 9:46am

I have finally cleaned out my desk at the office and it feels great. A weight is lifting that has been there so long I can't remember what it was like without it. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't a burden, but more a large set of responsibilities that was always in the back of my mind.

 

A career, at least in American culture, seems to partly define who you are or partially describe the perception others have of you.  Without that career, there is a bit of a void for me. This may be a good opportunity for me to enjoy it.

 

As my colleague and friend Renee mentioned yesterday, after completing something that has been so time-consuming, the free time you thought you would have is quickly filled with smaller tasks and schedules. Before you know it, you have to wonder where it all went. Here's to enjoying more of our free time and having less of a self-imposed schedule each day. Thanks Renee!


Filed Under: | |

Avoiding Jet Lag

By: leelefever on December 1, 2005 - 12:24pm

Darren at Geeky Traveller turned us on a couple of interesting items regarding that damn jet lag.  First an awesome quote by William Gibson from Pattern Recognition regarding the unavoidable pain of jet lag.

 

Her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage.

Secondly, it appears that bright light and melatonin can reduce the effects of jet lag significantly. 

 Lastly, we've also heard good things about the anti-jetlag diet, which involves preparation for a trip using days of feasting and fasting.


Maximizing Amos

By: leelefever on December 1, 2005 - 10:09am

 Leaving this mutt is not going to be fun.  We're trying to enjoy the time we have, which often includes full access to nap-time on the couch and bed.

 


Filed Under: | | | |

From Minimizing to Maximizing

By: leelefever on November 30, 2005 - 11:29am

So, for these last couple of weeks, I think the monetorium is slipping a bit.  We used to be concerned with the question of whether to maximize and take advantage of home, eating, drinking and experiencing all we can, or minimizing and prepare for a different lifestyle.

I’d say we’re switching into a maximalist mode as things seem to have this use-it-or-lose it quality.  We’re constrained of course, but much more likely to join friends for dinner, have a cocktail at our favorite places and take advantage of what home has to offer.

In some ways, with work mostly behind us, the trip has begun and is currently focused on experiencing the people and places of our home is Seattle.



Treonauts for Treos

By: leelefever on November 29, 2005 - 12:18pm

As you may know, I've been doing what I can to find the best mobile device for the trip and choose the PalmOne Treo 650.  I've had it for months, but had a bunch of questions about things like the best way to manage music, etc. (it's Pocket Tunes).

 My friend and possibly the most connected person I know, Buzz Bruggemen introduced me to Andrew Carton, the guy behind Treonauts.com.  Treonauts is a site dedicated to the Treo and all things related.  I had a call with Andrew just now and he helped so much. If you have questions about the Treo, Treonauts in a great resource.

treonauts
 
 

Looking Forward to Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam

By: leelefever on November 29, 2005 - 10:53am

Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam, originally uploaded by dav.

I think Ha Long Bay, Vietnam and the vicinity is the place that I saw pictures of when I was a kid and wanted to go so badly. We will go there in 2006.

Seth and Julie were just there and described it nicely:

We have just come back from two beautiful days in Ha Long bay (gulf of Tonkin). Those that have been there know just how stunning it is, for those that haven’t, picture a flat sea green expanse of water studded with 3,000 limestone karsts jutting straight up from the water forming tiny, uninhabited “mountain-islands.” As the massive blood orange sun set behind the jagged islands the boat staff taught Seth to catch squid off the side of the boat with a handheld net (which was then steamed up for dinner).

 


2.0 Gigabytes of Goodness

By: leelefever on November 28, 2005 - 1:41pm

This just came in today and I'm pretty excited about filling it up with music and photos across devices. Here's to hoping it doesn't get lost!



Every Penny Counts, Literally

By: leelefever on November 28, 2005 - 1:26pm

Last night we marked a few more things off the to-do list and one of which was counting an old stash of spare change. It always amazes me how quickly miscellaneous coinage can build up over time.

Once we were done, we had about $120 in spare change, plus casino chips, foreign currency and a driving range token.   
Do you know what $120 can buy in India or Thailand? 

 Of course, we didn't waste money with Coinstar, those machines in grocery stores that count the money and take a %.  It took us about 30 minutes to package all the coins in the little sleeves.  Every little bit counts when you live the monetorium.


Filed Under: | | |