Bellevue Girona

... to tell people that Starbucks is just a simple coffee company, but behind closed doors, there's a Starbucks laboratory inventing next year's drinks. "It takes our beverages from the state of ideation to the actual development that you see going on right now," explains Jim Donald, the company's CEO, as he showed the 60 Minutes team around. What is the state of ideation? "State of ideation. Beverages have to be created. And they're created by looking at what ...

... show you a photo, but oh wait, no, no I won't.... The next day we took the train up to Salem which was nice and pretty cool what with halloween fast approaching. It was very quaint there and seemed a ice little town. We headed to the Salem witch museum and got the background on the 1692 witch trials and hangings which was all very interesting and good fun. Next day more looking around Boston itself and then the bus to Montreal. It was a seven and a half hour ...

... on the blow up tube and eating everything Sheila gave us! We had the best time and it was all too short. It beat everything we had done in the States (mainly because we got spoilt rotten for the weekend) and it was nice to get off the beaten track. Thanks Bruce and Sheila - you'll be sorry you ever met us - we are definitely coming back! Stacy and Travis - see you in 2010.

... Garmin was working properly. Unfortunately the Garmin would not last the whole way to Seattle...more about that later. The hotel in Minneapolis was interesting... when we arrived at 11pm there were lots of people wandering around dressed in swimming togs which was unusual given that there was still snow on the ground outside. We later figured out that there was a pool in the hotel. We ventured down to the bar for a drink and found it was full of extras ...

... or they thought they were serious riders. Two things we noticed in France were the numbers of riders we saw each day. Second a huge percentage were older men 50+ all kitted out in their favorite team. Overall women made up about 2% of the riders total. Seems to be more a male thing here. Deb could easily crush alot of the riders here :-) So the descent down from Tourmalet was a little cool but dry and fast. St Marie de Campan is a tiny ...

... to Goodwill, dancing at Eastlake, conversations with Gillian and H, picnics with Kathy, ...and I wouldn't trade a moment of it. Complete perfection. I look at who I was in January and am startled by my development, the shift in my internal energy from heavy to light, the complete need to live larger and larger, to take more risks, have more fun, laugh more than I ever have, let go, be present, grow up, take responsibility, I am grateful for every single moment of it.

... on an episode of the "Iron Chef". At times, we did find ourselves wondering when the dinner would be over - it took close to 3 hours to finish everything. And we also kept wondering "Are we ever going to get any cooked food?"<br><br>Completely stuffed, we hobbled back to the car and drove back to Girona's old town. It was pretty tranquil so we took only a short walk before returning to the hostel. All in all, a very memorable night.

Today we went to Safeco Field to see the Seattle Mariners play the Boston Red Sox. Safeco is a fabulous stadium, and today was a perfect day for a baseball game. It was hard to believe we were in the home of the Mariners, as there was a sea of red in the stands - and the cheers of "Go Red Sox" were loud and frequent! Safeco field is the stadium that has the ability to close its roof in inclement weather, but today it remained open, providing a beautiful ...

Now what? So you set a goal and accomplish it. So you overcome the hurdles. So you have a log of all the planning, the anticipation, the event itself, even the homecoming. Now what? Some folks may use a travel blog for bragging, for show-off-man-ship. I guess I like TravelPod for that, myself. A million visitors a month, wow! And, I thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with the family while I was out-of-pocket, way down there in ...

... the orchid room is wet. I traveled all around the world today, in just one room! Clime to clime, and then a back-door exit, to the outdoor research plots. Go through the monkey gate, monkeys now cast in stone, and tied securely to the posts. The frat-boys used to steal them, move them here and there. First garden here, plants meant for shade. Past the fig tree, a garden in the sun. Someone working there, cleaning out the summer's end ...