Two weeks until the big trip. Oh crap. Quite a lot needs to be done before we go. Thankfully Hilary is (mostly) disengaged from school by now. Aaron will not be very helpful during the week.
On the plus side, we were in Hawaii last week. We went all over the Big Island vising waterfalls, jungles, beaches, volcanoes, cacao and coffee farms, a winery, and some historical sites. Every other day included something on the water. We snorkeled at Kealakekua Bay. Aaron snorkeled again at Garden of Eels Cove (right off the tarmac of the Kona airport) while Hilary went diving there; we did two hour-long stints in the afternoon and evening and got to see lots of manta rays. We both went diving at "Ripoff Reef" which is near the Honokohau Marina. It was Aaron's first dive; major thanks to Matthew and Kara D'Avella for the experience. Perhaps we'll have to make a stop-over on the way back from New Zealand.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Packs: utility vs. airline regulations
Having some difficulty choosing a pack for Hilary. Her regular backpacking pack had a component fail on our trip to Pt Reyes, so back it went to REI (we love their awesome return policy and usually helpful staff). Now we're debating whether to bring a 65 L backpacking pack on the plane and hope they let us carry it on (it's about 25" long, so technically a bit too long), just checking it, or bringing a slightly smaller 60 L travel pack instead (smaller hip belt, less rigid frame) that does meet carry-on size regulations. The bigger pack would be great to have with us when we get to NZ, but having to check it is kind of a pain and thousands of miles from the US is not the place we want to lose a bag, if that should happen.
Aaron's backpacking pack is much too big to even consider carrying on, and will be left behind when we leave the US. He's got one of the 60 L travel packs. So we could always check Hilary's bag and carry on Aaron's.
Right now we bought both. We might bring them with us on the US trip and see how useful the travel pack is for small overnights. If the backpacking pack proves to be totally worth it, maybe we'll chance the airline being stingy about the 3" extra length.
Aaron's backpacking pack is much too big to even consider carrying on, and will be left behind when we leave the US. He's got one of the 60 L travel packs. So we could always check Hilary's bag and carry on Aaron's.
Right now we bought both. We might bring them with us on the US trip and see how useful the travel pack is for small overnights. If the backpacking pack proves to be totally worth it, maybe we'll chance the airline being stingy about the 3" extra length.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Insurance and wills, aka "in case you are hurt and/or die"
Hilary has been doing most of the legwork on these. Domestic health insurance for after employer benefits end, foreign health insurance (including evacuation coverage, how fun!), travel insurance, pet insurance (in case the cats are sick while we're gone), and of course the normal car insurance and renter insurance. Aaron took care of those last two, o yeah!
And the wills. We should be signing off on those on Wednesday. I'll leave it as a surprise who gets the cats. :)
It's kind of weird making plans for decision making, our stuff, etc for after we are incapacitated, lost forever in the Amazon, or certifiably dead. We rather hope it's all just an exercise in paper pushing, the trip will be much more enjoyable if we get to come back in one piece.
And the wills. We should be signing off on those on Wednesday. I'll leave it as a surprise who gets the cats. :)
It's kind of weird making plans for decision making, our stuff, etc for after we are incapacitated, lost forever in the Amazon, or certifiably dead. We rather hope it's all just an exercise in paper pushing, the trip will be much more enjoyable if we get to come back in one piece.
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