That's What Jenni Said

2009 has come and gone! I hope you holidays were cheerful and provided a welcome rest from the busy pace of our everyday lives.   Not only were we lucky enough to have snow over Christmas, the DC Metro area has been hit with two major storms since the new year. But enough about 2010. This entry is about 2009.   Jon and I maintained a comfortable routine in our careers over the past year. We are both with the same companies, although I've moved to a telecommute office arrangement with mine, giving me a more flexible schedule and the ability to work from anywhere. This is my project team's last contract year with our government client so it is possible I will find myself job hunting in the summer.   Things on the homefront have been steady as well. Jon and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary in May and are still going strong. I am counting down to our big 70th wedding anniversary in just another 56 years. Jenna is now 13 and holding on, although she's expec

NoVA Travelers took its final trip of the year for 2009 on the weekend immediately following our return from San Francisco.   Lets recap - from the east coast to Venice/Greece in mid November, back to the east coast for a few days, then to the west coast for the SFO trip, then back to the east again for a work week, then back to the west for our trip to Aspen. I'm pretty sure my body was losing all sense of time and direction by the second week of December.   After all that whirlwind activity across the Atlantic and across the country, it was time for a relaxing break. No can't miss tourist sights, no walking tours, no historical did-you-know teaching moments. Just a weekend of relaxation and playtime in a snowy wonderland.   I took off for Aspen a day early to work around my job schedule, and spent the night in Denver. I had a free stay coming from The Curtis that was given to me in a gesture to prove that the hotel had solved its noise problems (loud 20somethings at 3

The first weekend in December, just after returning from our Mediterranean trip, NoVA Travelers were off again; this time to San Francisco.     There were five of us on this excursion and my job as the organizer was to expose the members to as many facets of San Francisco life as I could during our short stay. The first jaw dropping moment of joy on this trip came with the view of our hotel lobby. We stayed at the Sir Francis Drake and the historic hotel is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The hotel is a Kimpton property and as usual their standards for customer service set the bar high. We were treated complimentary cocktails each evening to be taken either in the impressive lobby bar or the famous Starlight Lounge that gives a 360 degree view of San Francisco from the 21st floor.      After a delicious dinner in the hotel restaurant (the butternut squash ravioli is superb), we spent time the first evening exploring Union Square and Powell street, watching the neighborhoo

Every year Jon and I lead our travel group on at least one extended vacation, in addition to our typical weekend jaunts around the world. In 2008 that vacation was to Paris over the Christmas and New Year holidays. If you have not read it already, you can view the trip report for that vacation here: http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/47153/Day-1-Paris-1 . I prefer to document longer trips on travbuddy.com because it has advanced features such as the ability to automatically generate a map of your itinerary route and embed videos, but you'll always find the shorter trip reports directly on my blog/facebook/trip report emails.     The Mediterranean Trip Report can be found here: http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/66476/summary     Just click on the first entry to get started. I've uploaded pictures and videos along with the journal entries. Enjoy and I'd love it if you left comments!