Schedule Changes and False Starts!

Day one of our trip and we are getting a taste of chaos already! Yesterday afternoon, we received news of some pretty massive changes to our itinerary (due to Air Madagascar's decision to no longer fly to Kenya) and spent the latter part of the day working with our travel agent to readjust things so that our time in Madagascar and Tanzania wasn't shortened. We will now be returning from our adventures on June 10, instead of June 7. The other changes are reflected in our schedule on the right side of the blog. The good news, though, was that both of our cars arrived intact on the car carrier from Seattle, so we were delighted that Nelly and Gus actually made it safely to Peachtree City before we took off! Another good thing is that last night, on what we expected to be our last night in the country for a good while, we met Peter's ex-colleague Don in Atlanta. He is in Atlanta for his first time from Seattle attending a death-penalty conference, so we went to Mary Mac's Tearoom together to sample some authentic southern cooking. We had a great time with him, reminiscing about not-so-old times.

One of the major schedule changes was that the flight out to Guatemala moved from 10:10 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. this morning. My very patient parents agreed to wake up at the crack of dawn and still take us to the airport, so with very little sleep (I think I got none because I was so excited!)we set out at 5:30 a.m. for the Atlanta airport. When we got there, though, we ended up standing in an excruciatingly-slow line for an hour and a half while the surly attendant waited on the six people in front of us (yes, that's right--she was processing people at a rate of one every 20 minutes!). During our wait, we learned from other travellers that our 7:30 flight was cancelled, but that there was a possiblility of getting on our original 10:10 flight. We were frustrated to say the least. I took some solace in the little six-year old girl in front of us playing with her dog. But then, the dog climbed onto my backpack (holding all of my possessions for the next 3 months) and peed! That's pretty much how the morning went.

When we finally got up to the counter, the surly attendant informed us that we would be missing the only flight to Guatemala for the day, which left Fort Lauderdale, FL at 10:40 and that there would not be another until Monday. We resigned ourselves to flying to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, so that this same scenario would not repeat itself on Monday (and to save my parents another early trek to the airport). We then came back to Peachtree City, drowned our sorrows in fried chicken breakfast biscuits and went back to bed.

Keep your fingers crossed that we get to Guatemala on Monday!

Winding up the Details

Well, no pictures to post this time. Since we took the bar, Peter and I have been busily preparing for our trip and trying to lay the groundwork to really settle in Atlanta once we get back. This process has seen us touring homes, sending out job feelers, getting travelers' checks, buying sunscreen, re-packing, and finalizing hotel and plane reservations. . .so much to do! We really thought that after the bar, we would have more of a break, but it's been more hectic than we thought. It's been really nice, though, to be with my mom and dad and their dog Cokie during this time! Tonight, we are going out to meet a friend of a friend and start the process of making new friends in Atlanta. The rest of the week, we'll just be finishing stuff up and then on Friday, we fly to Guatemala! Peter and I have been talking and dreaming of this trip for almost three years. . .it's amazing that it's actually happening.

We will try to post here as often as we can to keep everyone apprised of our adventures. And, we'll look for your comments, as well, when we have internet access. When the connection is good, we will post pictures, so you can see what we're up to. Thanks so much for all of your support and well-wishes! We're so excited about our trip and will be very excited to visit and share pictures and stories once we're back!

Love,
P&R

Last days in Seattle

Here are some more pics from our last days. ..

Sayonara Seattle!

Leaving Seattle was very hard. For almost four years, my husband and I had a wonderful life there, full of sincere, kind, and interesting friends. We really agonized over our decision to move elsewhere, but in the end, the value of living closer to family seemed worth the risk and we decided to make the jump while we were still young enough to have some flexibility. So, on February 1, I left my job as a public defender and on February 6, Peter also left his job and we spent the next 20 days furiously packing our apartment, saying goodbye, cancelling utilities, and studying for the GA bar! (When we had originally hatched the plan, we had thought we'd hire movers, which would have given us more time for study. ..unfortunately, we had to combine both activities after we found out how exorbitant professional movers are!)

All of this culminated with some farewell festivities on the 22nd of February and a flight out the next day. Once we hit Atlanta, though, we still had 48 more hours of study and 8 grueling hours of testing ahead of us. We don't know if we passed (and we won't know until the end of May!), but we are relieved that it is at least over for now!

Now, we're getting ready for the next phase of our plan. ..we decided that the transition and resulting unemployment would be a good time to travel together. Even though we've been together for five years, and international travel used to be a big part of our lives before law school, we have never travelled together. For the next three months, we will be exploring Guatemala, Mexico, Paris, Madagascar, and Tanzania--the idea was to show each other some of the places that were most formative to each of us and to have a big adventure together before we got a mortgage, new jobs, and all that that entails. . .

We're planning to update this blog frequently from the road with thoughts and pictures, so if you want to know where we are, please check here! We will also be checking our personal emails, so feel free to drop us a line with your news or write a comment here!