Trimming the Locks

The girls and I had a much needed round of haircuts Friday. It was Sophia's first haircut... fearing we were about to lose her baby ringlets, we documented the whole process. She seemed to grow up right before our eyes. Still some curls left so maybe they aren't gone yet.

Huge thanks to Wendi at Farouche for being so patient and taking good care of us!

Plotting the Course

Tonight we had the pleasure of enjoying a casual dinner with our children's Pediatrician and discussing tips and ideas for traveling Europe. Our doctor is well travelled and visits several times per year. In addition to great information, the evening brought back many very fond memories of my year in Germany, reigniting my "wunderlust." I've found myself wondering several times this week why we are doing this. Wouldn't it just be easier to stay home? Lots of progress on moving stuff out of the house and getting our laptops setup. We still have tons to do with only 10-days remaining (no, the house has not yet sold...yes, we will be looking for renters soon).

We tinkered with following path - keep in mind, all is up for renegotiation once we are officially under way. Our hope is that we will be able to join a tourist group in Helinski and take a guided side-trip to St. Petersburg. If we follow this plan, it's over 6.6k miles in 2.5 months - which is a little faster than I think we want to travel. No matter the course, it's highly recommended that we be south of The Alps by October. (Map source: AutoRoute 2007)

Feel free to post your ideas and comments - we would appreciate any feedback, "must-see" lists, etc.

Step 3: Wrap Up Professional Obligations

In what I can only describe as surreal, I had a final lunch with team members today. It was odd to sit around the table and realize I didn't have professional ties with them any longer. I've been on "vacation" for 2 weeks - so what I knew when I left is "old news" today. Strange to finally admit that I won't be interacting with these people 5-days a week.

It was a calculated risk in telling folks far in advance that my "career plan" was to take a break for a year or two. I can't thank the team enough for the support and encouragement they provided during the past several months.

Prior to lunch, I handed my badge back to HR and signed the "separation agreement" - surprised there wasn't a more structured set of questions for the company to obtain standard stats as to reasons for leaving. While the HR rep was friendly enough, it was a rather clinical appointment - sign here, hand over badge, good luck, leave.

I think what really got to me was the hour after lunch (card key is gone) where my colleagues have all gone back to work and I was sitting waiting for my computer to reformat. I suddenly realized that I had absolutely nothing work-related to do. Huh. What a strange experience - I paced outside my office for a few minutes - really, there's nothing for me to do - no meetings to prep for, no slides to make... no hallway brainstorming to be had.

The final walk to the car was odd. A part of me will miss the day-to-day grind - contributing at some level to the success of the coporation. A larger part of me realizes it will always be there. There's plenty of work, lots to be done and plenty of time to get back to it. Let's go! (after a visit to the ProClub Spa, of course... thanks team!)

Step 2: Pack, Pack, Pack

Realizing we're running out of time, we finally start getting serious and packing up.
Packing materials - rubbermaid containers with stickers on the exterior and a carload of liquor and grocery store boxes my nanny commandered for us.

Started tearing down the kitchen Friday, 20.July and finished sometime Sunday. When did we accumulate all this stuff? We're down to 5 sets of silverware and left over party goods (paper plates, napkins, red Costco cups) along with the basic cookware.

Dan's been shuttling stuff to Issaquah as I get it ready to go. I think he's ignoring his shop and computer stuff. =) My cleanup from last weekend has resulted in the standard response of "...it's in a blue bucket" whenever Dan starts looking for something.

Odd weather has made it humid and yucky. Everything feels thick with moisture that is unavoidable. In the meantime, we have a few house repairs to finish:

• Jetted tub in master - replace the water spout - which until Saturday, had only been slightly leaking into the tub. The seal finally gave out Saturday, resulting in a slow drip outside the tub. Not a good thing.
• Hot tub heater - still looking
• Replace some downspouts
• Touchup some trim (which is a project I'm ignoring)
• Finish painting the laundry room

As of tonight (23.July) we are largely finished moving the small stuff out - now it's time to focus on clothing and remaining furniture. Of course, we still have stuff to sell... primarily the M3, WRX, IKEA storage cab and some couches. 13-days to go.

Goal is to be out of the house by 31.July - though it still hasn't sold. Keep your fingers crossed and your warm wishes directed our way.

Step 1b: Sell Stuff

While Dan was off enjoying a peaceful, relaxing drive across the United States (yeah, right), I was home, frantically getting ready for a garage sale (Fri/Sat) and open house (Sun 1-4).

As the week's focus had been on getting the RV ready to go to Baltimore, we didn't do anything to prep for the garage sale. To top it off, I pressured our new real estate agent in to having an open house on Sunday, 15.July. Oh boy. If anyone can over-commit, it's me.

Had a series of errands to run Thursday afternoon. Of about 5, only 2 were done, since our nanny forgot to leave the car seats with the grandparents. (!) Urgh. The kids had been promised a visit with "Passive" (our old cat) - so being the good ol' mom, I took an unplanned drive out to Issaquah to deliver car seats.

Made it home in time to gobble some dinner, then off to my 6pm appt. Home again around 8pm - informed the neighborhood has only one garage sale sign board, not the 2-3 I had expected. Charlotte arrived with the girls off at 8:30 and stayed so I could run out and get more signs at Home Depot.

Thursday night - pulled as much stuff down to the garage as I could.

Friday morning -

• 7:00 am - continued pulling stuff down to the garage - nothing is priced.
• 8:30 am - crud! It's 8:30. Gotta get signs out (still nothing priced).
• Posted signs backwards (from our house to the street) - by the time I got home, had three sets of people already at the house (still nothing priced... nanny outside trying to figure out what I'm thinking)
• Rest of the day pretty much went the same - every time I thought I could sit down, something else happened.... a phone call, a test drive of a car... another garage sale shopper
• Pulled more stuff downstairs - kid's toys, furniture, etc. At some point, Sophia was sitting on the front porch pointing to stuff and saying, "...and that's mine, and that's mine...." aww - poor thing.

Saturday -

• 9-4 same story except I was by myself with the two kids until about 10:30. Huge thanks to my mom for coming up for the day to help me - I don't think I could have done it without her.
• 5 - Oh! I have an open house tomorrow. Criminy. Start moving (keep moving?) - cleaned off the bookcases that are being picked up the next evening; cleaned off Dan's work bench (covered with electronics stuff); cleared out one bay of the garage and move Dan's car in.
• Bedtime - Sophia walks into her room and realizes virtually everything is missing - "Where my kitchen? Where my rocking chair?" ...
• 1:30 am - Fall in to bed

Sunday - Open House Day! Goal is to leave by 12:00....

• 7:30 - feed kids (neither eats) - put on cartoons
• Start frantically doing stuff .... dishes, vacuuming, making beds
• Make brownies (which don't cook through as I find out at noon)
• 10:30 - oh! gotta mow the lawn ("girls, I'm gonna be outside...." dull, TV-glazed eyes briefly blink at me, then return to the brain drain)
• 11:00 - I stink - gotta shower
• 12:00 - crud! brownies are goopy and look gross
• - pack up the kids,
• Shoot! Forgot about the bags of stuffed animals and miscellaneous bedding I moved out into the driveway - quick - cram it in the M3 - will it all fit? Is there still room for the kids?
• Run to the store, buy stuff and run home.
• leave kids in car (yelling at each other and me) ... put snacks out... call Andy to open the gate (which was still closed)
• 12:55 - jump in car and start down driveway - almost hit the realtor as he's coming up

At the end of the day all this effort results in lots of stuff being sold, 3 parties walking through the house, and the first proclamation that I ruined Megan's day...

After having promised the kids that we would go out to lunch (yes, Megan, you may have pancakes) and to the Children's Museum, I had to cancel the plans. We head north... traffic is bad. Finally get to Denny's at about 1:45 (what does this say about us that our kid's favorite place for breakfast is Denny's? I'm kind of embarrassed). I realize that by the time we finish eating lunch, we will have only about an hour to play.... for $15 admission? That's insane.

Breaking the news results in a total melt down and the first ever Megan proclamation of "You ruined my day. Why did you ruin my day?" Tried and failed to reason with her. Park + ice cream kind of helped, but not really. Oh well. Life is tough and I'm tired.

Got home to two messages from my sister, asking if they could come out and pick up the bookcases - sheesh. Yes. Come on over. Disassemble, finish clearing off --- guys arrive and move it out.

As I'm getting ready to fix dinner, a family that wants to rent the house shows up for a tour. Oh. This will never stop. Fortunately their son is 6 and he and Megan hit it off - manage to keep each other amused for the entire visit.

See the entry "Step 1: Ship RV" for how the rest of the evening went. Needless to say, I slept well and Monday morning came all too early.

Step 1: Ship RV

16.July we had a hard deadline - the RV had to be at the dock in Baltimore, MD and as we found out the morning of the 16th, cleared by customs. Dan spent 4 days driving to Baltimore, basically stopping long enough to sleep and eat.

Jump to Sunday, midnight EST - I'm on the phone with a dejected Dan, who was turned away from a campground because it's too late. Thanks to an internet connection, MapPoint, and Dan reading street signs to me, I was able to find and direct him to a WalMart in Ellicott (just outside of Baltimore).

On a gut feeling, I called Dan first thing Monday morning (7:30 am PST, 10:30 am EST). "Sherry's Superpages" came in handy again, providing directions to Patapsco Valley State Park which was about 4 miles away from the WalMart. I had called in advance to be sure he could dump the tanks there and to Dan's surprise, they were expecting him when he pulled up. This would be the foreshadowing for the day.

I spent the next 2 hours making other various phone calls, mainly attempting to see if I could help Dan clear customs in a timely manner. We needed to take our original title with us (normal process is the shipper keeps it, after the vessel sails, they mail it to the shipping agent who sends it back to the owner. With a phone call to our shipping agent, we found out there was no way this would happen prior to our departure of 5.Aug.)

During these phone calls, I learned the shipping company had already extended their deadline for our RV and Monday was the LAST day they would accept it. I was duly warned that if customs decided to inspect a vehicle and it could be delayed about 3-days for inspection, followed by about 3-days to release, meaning we would miss the 21.July sailing.

I spent the next hour or so trying to reach the customs export office and was finally successful after calling the import line and explaining that exports was not answering their phone. I explained the scenario ("I'm in Seattle, my husband's on his way ... if we don't clear customs today and get the RV to the shipper, we miss our sailing... and our agent didn't disclose all this.... how can I help with the process?") - to which the gentleman on the phone responded, "assuming the paperwork is in order, I stamp it and he's done; takes about 30-seconds."

The time spent on the phone was beneficial - we had more knowledge about what to do than we had prior and Dan was expected at his various stops at the dock. 1) Go to security at the docks; 2) get directions to the customs office; 3) provide customs with the documentation (original title + 4 copies, 4 copies of the dock receipt); 4) they stamp all copies; 5) get in line at "lane 2." Oh, and do it all by 3:30 pm.

That done, I took off to work to start training my replacement. It was impossible - my mind was in Baltimore and every 30-45 minutes, I'd get a truncated call from Dan that went something like this: "I'm at the dock - oops, gotta go. Will call you later." or "Get me a taxi. I'm on Child's Street." Punted the training session to Tuesday, which was fine (it's on my paid vacation time anyway) and after finding a taxi that could pick up quickly at the docks and accepted credit cards, got the call back that a port security employee offered to take Dan to the airport.

Insert huge sigh of relief - RV is where it needed to be today; deadline met. I get the next call, "are you picking me up from the airport tonight?" ... here we go again.

Only bummer of the whole thing really is that we adhered to the "no personal goods" rule - shipping an empty unit with only the linens on the beds, a basic toolkit, a first aid kit and a broom. No one cared. No one inspected the unit or the storage compartments. Sure would have been nice to have a few other essentials (think dishes, hiking gear, school books) on board to save us the hassle of shipping or buying new in Europe.

It's good to be able to partner and offer support along the way. Key lessons:

• Don't forget to account for the time zone changes
• Toll roads in Chicago kill your progress
• A navigator is a good thing to have (even if remote)
• Plan your end-game

Kicking Into High Gear

With the 4th party over, we're starting to really kick everything into gear.

Stuff in process/completed:

• International Drivers Permits yesterday - just a little booklet that basically translates your license into several different languages.
• International Camping Card - if you don't have one of these, the campground asks to keep your passport!
• RV Liability Insurance - Takes about 30-days to process. Many companies to select from - we're using Thum Insurance.
• Health Insurance - Takes about 30-days to process. Many companies to select from - we're using IMG.
• RV is booked to sail - Baltimore, MD to Bremerhaven, Germany. Many companies to select from, we're using Carex.

Stuff we still need to do:

• Sell the house (!)
• Get notarized copies of the RV title
• Renew RV tabs (can do 6-months in advance)
• Prepare the RV for the cross-country drive & shipping - in other words, Dan gets to drive in it for 4-days with no personal goods inside - the unit must be empty during the shipping process.
• Find a new hotel (now that we're picking up in Germany- need to change our plans a bit)
• Book the first campground
• Check into changing flights - we booked on a good airfare, but didn't make the RV shipping arrangements in time. Means we ship the RV to a different port - in this case, about 200 km away from Brussels. The devil is in the details.
• Plan what to pack; what to ship; what to buy there -- for future reference, any personal goods we wanted to ship should have been sent about 2 weeks ago. It takes about 5-8 days for your goods to be put on a ship once they arrive at a shipping company. From the West coast, it takes over 30-days to get to Europe. We've been advised to pack what we can in our luggage and use FedEx for the rest (this being a small move - we're talking several boxes at best - not a container load).

Annual 4th Bash

Good food, good friends... lots of loud "booms" - the annual 4th party was a blast. Many thanks to Yet for sharing the pictures (more can be found here).

Sequence below: before, during, after.

Ahhhhh summer!

What better place to enjoy a last pre-departure get away than Lake Chelan? Snuck out of town Friday for a quick 2-nights at the Lakeshore RV Park. The park is much better than the web site alludes to - at least in terms of proximity to the lake, playground and other recreational options (skateboard park, tennis court, watercraft rentals, putt-putt golf). Free wireless internet was a nice surprise as well.

Had we stayed longer, it would have been fun to rent a boat or jet ski but it wasn't on the agenda this weekend. We basically took an all-round "quiet before the storm" approach, warmed up and soaked in some sun. Despite the cold water, the kids were happy to splash around and play in a bit of sand we found. The weather was fantastic - perfect for clearing out the Seattle webbing between my toes.

After quick clean up and getting things ready to pull out of the RV, we headed homeward Sunday. Leavenworth provided a nice place to stop and stretch our legs. It was hot out, making ice cream the order of the day. Sophia made it about half way through her bowl of sherbert when she finally asked (in her high-pitched little girl voice), "why you eating my ice cream, mom?"

Best change this trip was the addition of a memory foam mattress pad. It was no small feat to unfold the king-sized foam pad that had been double vacuum sealed (admittedly easier than trying to wrangle a new king sized mattress into the RV). After 2 days, it still has a little expanding to do on the sides. It made a very bad mattress feel pretty good for a fraction of the cost to replace the mattress.

Focus for the immediate future:

• Finalize the arrival port for the RV (most likely will be Bremenhaven, Germany)
• Few additions to the RV - including a ceiling vent in the master bedroom.
• 4th of July party - the last in our house?
• Dan's cross-country drive to get the RV to Baltimore by 16.July
• Get rid of or store anything we're not taking with us
• Supply drop for our friends who are hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) via Lady of the Lake ferry

Itinerary status: In progress. Someone should have warned us that the youngest in the family have difficulties making decisions. We spent a fair amount of time trying to decide how to structure our travels to make the most of mileage (gas is expensive), experience, potential visa issues, and meeting common goals.

In this week's version, we're looking at heading straight for Norway, Sweden, Finland - trying to slip in a tourist excursion to St. Petersburg from Helinski... then follow the sunshine for the winter. Looks like Oktoberfest may have to wait a year.

Stay tuned.