As I mentioned in our recent Chicago blog, that was the beginning of a bunch of travel for us, especially if you’re Dan. That was just a few weeks ago for Memorial Day weekend. This weekend we met in Los Angeles for an 80th birthday celebration for his mother. We both flew in to LA Friday evening, and stayed two nights at the Hilton LAX.

Yesterday we just hung out: breakfast in the lounge, then took Lyft over to Manhattan Beach. From there we walked through Hermosa and Redondo Beaches along the beach, admiring the interesting architecture (at least for us) of all the houses that face the Pacific Ocean. We walked back to Manhattan Beach via the Veterans Parkway, and 3.7 mile trail that’s laid out over defunct railroad tracks. Through all that we managed to walk over 9 miles.

Dan’s niece, Irene, picked us up at the hotel around 5pm and we met his family at a place in Koreatown. Yongsusan is not a typical restaurant, at least not in a sit-down-and-order-off-the-menu sort of way. It only hosts parties, everything is sectioned off into rooms, and the menu planned in advance. We had a decent sized room as it was a decent sized party, as the photo below indicates.

The food was amazing and we had a nice time visiting everyone, especially his nieces and nephew.

Tradition requires that I do a little Pre-Departure entry. I think I did the first Pre-Departure entry for the 2nd trip, just as a way to create the blog address and send it to people who had expressed an interest in following but who weren’t on Facebook or Google Circles. I wanted to send it before I got so tied up in getting ready that I forgot. Somehow it just became the thing to do; over the years this entry has grown to function as a little teaser.

Over the years. Seems odd to say because it’s all gone by so fast, but our first trip was in 2013; this is the 5th year in a row we’ve gone to Europe and the 6th trip. People have said “wow, you must really like Europe – when are you going to go somewhere else?” It’s a good and fair question. The first 3 trips were all tied to Dan’s work so that’s what drove those. But somewhere during that time we made broad plans about all the things we wanted to do in Europe, and we’re still not done. So for now we’re just kind of committed and even when it’s pure vacation – like this trip and the prior two have been – we’re still working our way through our Europe list.

About a week from now Europe time we will have just landed in Istanbul. I can honestly say it would never have occurred to me to go there, but it’s been on Dan’s list for awhile. I didn’t get interested in it until we went to Rome. It’s hard to be in the birthplace of Western Civilization and the Catholic Church without picking up on what happened next (you know, after Rome fell), and there’s this guy named Constantine that played some heavy parts in history oh around 300 AD. Constantine –> Constantinople –> Istanbul. My interest grew when we were in Dresden last year, because there were some interesting Turkish ties there. And now I can’t wait.

We will be there for 5 nights. Turkey’s economy is such that things are pretty cheap compared to what we’re used to, and we realized we could stay at the Conrad there for less than we’ve paid in other places for not nearly as nice. Conrad, if you’re not familiar, is the high end of the Hilton chain. And they’ve upped the game a bit, offering a sweet deal to upgrade to something that should be very nice. So we’ll see how that plays out. Dan may be as excited about the hotel as he is about Istanbul in general.

People who’ve never been say “isn’t it dangerous?” Others who have say “you’re going to love it and it’s totally safe.” We’re not very worried. There have been terrorist incidents in many cities we’ve been in: London, Brussels, Paris, NYC; our attitude is if we stay home in fear the terrorists win. So we go. But we’re not reckless. Syria, for example, is not on our list…

After Istanbul we fly back to Heathrow and are doing something we’ve never done in Europe before: renting a car. When we were in Edinburgh in 2014 we did a day tour by bus of the Scottish and English countryside and loved it so much we hatched this idea back then: rent a car, and just drive from town to town. Because we also love cathedrals and castles, I’ve described this as a Cathedral & Castle Hop through Southern England. We’ll hit Canterbury, Dover, Salisbury, Bath, Cardiff, Oxford. Of all of that, I’m most excited about Dover. It will combine my love of castles with our appreciation for WWII history: Dover played a major role in the Dunkirk evacuation. (Watch for the movie opening in July – the trailers look Amazing.)

Six nights of that. And then we’re doing 2 nights in NYC on the way home. We’ll be staying at the Millennium Hilton. The only “for sure” thing we’ll do is the World Trade Center memorial, and after that will see where our mood takes us. We are within reasonable walking distance to Chinatown and Little Italy in one direction, Brooklyn Bridge in another, Ellis Island in yet another. I’m thinking we’ll find stuff to do without much planning.

So there you have it: the preview. I’m ready for a big trip and a vacation – last time for either got me home last Labor Day. And of course, traveling is now how Dan and I connect so very much looking forward to 2 weeks together. (And no, still no updates on that front…) As always, we love it when you join us and will see you there next week…