Zoikes – it’s been a long time. I guess my life got really busy, and I stopped writing.
The later part of the year really ramped up in terms of travel and excitement. We drove across the country after visiting Tom’s parents in VT, visiting my brother and his growing family in OH, and then making a bee-line across the country, stopping in CO and then visiting a few National Parks that we’ve been meaning to hit for years – Arches, Bryce and Zion. It was such a quick visit, that we made many promises to return again later.
Then, we flew to China with my parents and my aunt for a 2-week tour of several of the National Parks. That was an amazing experience for us. As it turns out, we aren’t really into group bus tours, but still we saw some amazing things and were blown away by the growth of the Chinese economy.
After that, I had a week-long trip to Las Vegas for work – attending a User Experience conference. Thankfully, Tom was able to come along. The conference itself was fascinating and I learned a lot during the day, then in the evening Tom and I wandered the strip, splurged on a Cirque du Soliel performance, and had dinners with friends (including a crew from PubCon which was meeting in Las Vegas at the same time). Overall, it was a fantastic trip, in spite of the bling bling and the maze-like casinos.
As the year wound down, we ended up staying a little closer to home – spending the holidays in Yosemite, and taking advantage of the fresh snow to do a bunch of skiing.