The Thursday Ramble: A Quick Travel Year in Review

I started off 2024 with my last day in the office, I am still occasionally surprised to realize that I made it to this point in life.  I think I have adjusted well, to being in charge of my schedule.  A couple of days after leaving the office we went to New York to visit friends including lunch with Mitchell, Sean and Jeffery. The end of January - first of February I went to Louisville to spend a few days with my fellow older lawyers. In early April I was in Cincinnati for a few days on a consulting project.  The end of April we went to Miami and boarded a cruise. Next stop the Canary Islands, then Spain. We took a train from Barcelona to Provence and spent a couple of weeks exploring. Then a train to Paris, and home with a change of planes in London.  In early August we went Chicago for a few days.  Shortly afterwards we drove to Cleveland for a few days. Then flew back to Cleveland for a funeral. Then back to New York to see friends again. Then in mid September we did a two week road trip, Cleveland, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and back home. Shortly after that we were back in Cleveland for another Funeral.  All in all I spent 73 nights away from home this year. We traveled by planes, trains, automobiles and ships.  

It was my most active year of travel measure by the number of nights away from home, and yet I don't feel overwhelmed by it. Back in my working days, I had a couple of years of traveling so much that I hoped the next year would be less travel.   Travel plans are underway for 2025 and are adventurous but not as many days as 2024. 

I checked a couple of bucket list items off in 2024. Crossing the Atlantic by ship had long been on my list, and we really enjoyed it. A week at sea was very relaxing.  A couple of weeks in the south of France was a long term dream item. And on the trip home, I got a flight on the upper deck of an A380 - the largest commercial airliner ever built.  In September we visited the Air Force Museum and walked through the Presidential collection - something I had wanted to do.  

There were not any super special hotels in the year. We did enjoy a new Hilton brand, Home2Suites. These offer a bit larger room, and unlike most of the all suite brands have rooms with two beds.  The Novotel in Nimes was nice, but not over the top. We enjoyed the Gite, I would like to find a vacation apartment that was in the heart of a small town - more walking less driving.  Both visits to New York were fun, this last trip we stayed a dozen blocks south of Times Square and enjoyed being out of the center of the world. For the cruise I booked a cabin with a balcony, and we did use the private outdoor space enough to make it worth the extra cost.   

We explored some great museums this year. We returned to the Guggenheim in New York, the building alone is a work of art. We spent an afternoon in the Cleveland Museum of Art, an amazing collection. The "children's zoo" in Fort Wayne Indiana was surprisingly fun. 

We saw some great friends while traveling.  Mitchell, Sean and Jeffery, Kent, Justin, Kell, and Bob.  And a ton of family in Indiana and Ohio. We really need to find a reason other than funerals to get together with family.