Cool, Cool Summer

I'm not even sure where to begin to describe the summer of a lifetime.  Hello, and welcome back, dear reader.  I got a bit behind in chronicling the last of my adventures in Southeast Asia.  I was very lucky to be joined by friends for the last three weeks of my trip, and somehow eating locally caught seafood on the beach and drinking mojitos under the stars with friends sounded a lot more appealing than writing a blog.  But my notes and photos on these awesome subjects are vast and the memories are still vivid, and I will be shortly be retroactively documenting these intrepid adventures.

But back to the summer.  I had the summer of my dreams planned.  Drenching my weary legs in hot springs in Iceland, escaping with a good book to Parisian cafe culture, and following steep trails down cliffs in Portugal are a few of the placed I had hoped to wander.  But a number of happy unforseen opportunities caused me to change my plans, and I filled my travel quota with trips around the great U.S. of A and Oh Canada.

The surprise wedding of a dear friend, an invitation to join friends for a rustic long weekend in the Canadian woods near Lake Huron, the celebration of another dear friend's milestone birthday in Chicago, and getting to see my best triathlon training buddies (albeit remotely) realize the fruits of 9 months of grueling training as they crossed the finish line of an Ironman triathlon.  I was able to see my family in California and get my beach fix in.

Oh, yes, and then there was the wedding I've been planning for with my best friend and partner of 12 years.  How I ever thought it possible to plan a wedding from Europe is beyond me.  My fiancee and I had endeavored to keep things extremely simple; we really wanted to throw a small cocktail party and invite our closest freinds and family.  Who knew that even at the simplest of weddings that there could be so many decisions to make! What color of linens on the tables?  What song should be played after the "I Do's?"  Smoked gouda or havarti on the cheese table?  Neither of us could have cared less about most of the details, but SOMEONE had to choose them.  Oy vey.  And then to top it off, I was able to spend my honeymoon getting gnarly on single track mountain bike trails with my new hubby in Utah.  With 4 of my best girlfriends.  Haha.  It's just how we roll.  And it is Utah, after all!

I write this at 30,000 feet above Latin America on my way to Phase 3 of KK's Gap Year.  Shortly I will touch down in Santiago, Chile to begin two months of backpacking through South America.

Join me back here atKK's Gap Year for more tales of adventure.  In case you need something to whet your appetite, I had to use a squat toilet with a 50 lb pack on my back.