So since my last blog post I made it to New Hampshire, where I met up with my mother and spent 4 days visiting the family. From there we drove to Cleveland where a friend of mine, Molly, lives and spent two nights with her. The three of us (myself, my mom, and Molly) then drove back to Minneapolis. From when I left Minnesota for Georgia on September 29th and when I arrived back in Minnesota on October 30th, I drove over 4,600 miles and went through 21 states, listed here:
Minnesota
Iowa
Missouri
Illinois
Kentucky
Tennessee
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
West Virginia
Maryland
Pennsylvania
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Vermont
Ohio
Indiana
Wisconsin
I drove by a few others, most of which I've been to, but a couple of which I haven't (Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan). Looks like I might have to go on another road trip next year.
Once I got back to MN I spent most of my time catching up with friends and family. Here area few of the highlights from my last 3 weeks in MN:
- My cousin's surprise birthday party at WhirlyBall in Maple Grove. While there we played Laser Tag and I was the grand champion of the family. I go just over 10,000 points and the next highest player had somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do when I get back from my world tour but it looks like professional laser tag player may be an option.
- Dinner with the MoneyGram ladies at Olive Garden. I go together with my cube mates from MoneyGram, Stephanie, Kristine, and Tammy, for dinner at Olive Garden at West End and we all got to catch up on each others lives. Stephanie and I no longer work at MoneyGram and Tammy was recently moved to a new desk so now the entire quad has been broken up. Its sad that we are all doing our own things now but it's always fun to look back and think about all the fun we had together!
- Night out with the book club ladies. On Friday, November 15th the book club ladies and I went out on downtown for my last (well technically second to last) night in Mpls. We went to the Union and Cowboy Jacks and just had a blast. Here's a pic of a few us from that night.
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| Left to Right: Sarah, Anna, me, Allyson, Cristina. |
I am already looking forward to my welcome home party :)
-Thanksgiving Dinner. On Saturday, November 16th, we had a pre-thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. We had a few family members and a few family friends over. My mother and I (well mostly my mother) cooked everything from scratch except the dinner rolls. We have next personally cooked so much food for thanksgiving so it was a big undertaking, but it all turned out great! Except the first pecan pie but we threw that out and made another. The most popular dish was the Sweet Potatoes. Here's a link to the recipe.
So now for my trip to Australia:
I left my house at 8:40 am on Sunday, November 17h (CST) and arrived Kelsey's apartment in Sydney at 8:30 pm on Monday, November 18th (CST). It took me almost exactly 36 hours to get from door to door. Here's how it happened:
Flight #1:
Minneapolis to Denver. Departed Minneapolis at 10:30am CST on 11/17 and Arrived in Denver at 11:20 am Mountain Time on 11/17.
90 minutes lay over
Flight #2:
Denver to Los Angeles. Departed Denver at 12:55pm Mountain Time on 11/17 and Arrived in LAX at 2:15 pm Pacific Time on 11/17.
8 hour lay over
Flight #3:
Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji. Departed Los Angeles at 10:30 pm Pacific Time on 11/17 and Arrived in Nadi, Fiji at 6:30 am Fiji Time on 11/19.
2.5 hour lay over
Flight #4:
Nadi, Fiji to Sydney. Departed Nadi, Fiji at 9:00 am Fiji Time on 11/19 and Arrived in Sydney at 11:30 am Sydney Time on 11/19.
It was a very long day with little rest but it's finally over and I'm finally here.
For a bit of commentary on the trip:
- LAX has an amazing international terminal. It's fully of high end stores and great food options. If you have the opportunity to fly through LAX's international terminal, get excited!
- Fiji Airways, which I took from LAX to Sydney, was amazing! The plane looked like it was brand new and the service was great. Plus, the flight I purchased from LAX to Sydney, one way, was only $575 so they are quite reasonable as well. If you are headed to the south pacific, I would highly recommend this airline!
So now I'm in Sydney. Kelsey took me for a brief walking tour of the Bondi Beach area (where she lives and where I'm staying for my first two weeks in town) and it's just beautiful. The weather is nice, in the 70s, and it's sunny. The days are long and the trees have green leaves on them. It is so nice to be here, where it's just transitioning to summer, over being in Minnesota with winter on the way.
Its Wednesday morning here right now (Tuesday afternoon in Mpls) and I think I'm going to spend my day at the beach. Tonight we are going to a comedy show where one of Kelseys' friends is performing so that'll be fun. Then on Saturday we are doing pictures with Santa on the beach.
Okay, that's all for now. I'll try to take a few pictures today and post them soon so you can see just how beautiful it is here.
Later!
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