For someone who hates packing and unpacking, I sure have done a lot of it in the last year or so. First came the Chicago apartment downsize that involved moving a haul of stuff to my parents' basement in Michigan and some of it to a budget-friendly month-to-month lease for the remainder of our time in the US. By January 2011, Claudine was off to Kathmandu, and weeks later I followed, only after yet another trip to Michigan, during which I ended up in a highway ditch.
And we are back to the States again, moving from Kathmandu to the US last month. If only it were that simple. Our relocation involved visiting family in Jersey, crashing with dear friends in DC (thank you, Todd and Lindsey!), driving to Michigan via a stopover in Virginia, flying to California for an apartment hunt, and driving from Michigan to San Francisco in a 16-foot moving truck. If you can't tell by now, we are not in the business of keeping things easy or boring around here.
Sound exhausting? It was. Please forgive our blog absenteeism, but between elbowing our way through the cut-throat SF rental market, driving coast-to-coast through 15 states (and one commonwealth), and swimming through moving boxes, we have been a bit preoccupied. The dust is finally settling and we are getting a chance to exhale and reflect on all that led us from Chicago skyscrapers to Himalayan hilltops and now to whatever awaits here in San Francisco (so far: hipsters and very expensive coffee). With all that we have experienced, "unpacking" the last year will take longer than emptying the moving boxes in our new apartment (no small task, mind you). For now, we are happy to be new residents of San Francisco and to have avoided certain death on a windy -- and I mean windy -- stretch of Wyoming highway. More on that later.
We are not yet sure of the new direction of this blog as we embark on our latest adventure. I do think we will continue to post and, like we have with everything this year, see where it leads. I hope to good places, but you will have to keep checking in to see.
Claudine captured this moment as we officially arrived in our new home after three long days on the road. Sunny and 70 degrees in February? That is quite a welcome mat you lay out, California.
And we are back to the States again, moving from Kathmandu to the US last month. If only it were that simple. Our relocation involved visiting family in Jersey, crashing with dear friends in DC (thank you, Todd and Lindsey!), driving to Michigan via a stopover in Virginia, flying to California for an apartment hunt, and driving from Michigan to San Francisco in a 16-foot moving truck. If you can't tell by now, we are not in the business of keeping things easy or boring around here.
Sound exhausting? It was. Please forgive our blog absenteeism, but between elbowing our way through the cut-throat SF rental market, driving coast-to-coast through 15 states (and one commonwealth), and swimming through moving boxes, we have been a bit preoccupied. The dust is finally settling and we are getting a chance to exhale and reflect on all that led us from Chicago skyscrapers to Himalayan hilltops and now to whatever awaits here in San Francisco (so far: hipsters and very expensive coffee). With all that we have experienced, "unpacking" the last year will take longer than emptying the moving boxes in our new apartment (no small task, mind you). For now, we are happy to be new residents of San Francisco and to have avoided certain death on a windy -- and I mean windy -- stretch of Wyoming highway. More on that later.
We are not yet sure of the new direction of this blog as we embark on our latest adventure. I do think we will continue to post and, like we have with everything this year, see where it leads. I hope to good places, but you will have to keep checking in to see.
Claudine captured this moment as we officially arrived in our new home after three long days on the road. Sunny and 70 degrees in February? That is quite a welcome mat you lay out, California.
