The heart is a very fickle thing. Sometimes it wants one thing and then sometimes it wants something completely different. Put differently-- I sometimes want milk chocolate, while other times I want white chocolate. Strange. No rhyme or reason as to why my heart has these feelings, yet the heart knows what it wants in the end. Life sometimes presents difficult choices that fracture the heart. The more you struggle to try and put your heart back together the stronger the friction becomes. If the friction is not controlled, it can turn into a fire. A heart on fire burns slowly, blackens, and ruins without intervention. So, with this trip, the goal was to douse a heart on fire with an epic amount of water. An epic amount that could only be found at a waterpark.
Subtracting a Few; Adding Different People to August SoCal Events 2022
Best of San Diego
Can you go to Best of San Diego this year? Nope. What about you? Nope. What about us? Nope, we are busy too. For some reason, we kept running into the word “no” when it came to going to Best of San Diego this year. We originally had a trip planned that would have caused us to say no, but due to a fortuitist change in plans (our flight changing), we were able to make it after all!
After a 2 Year Hiatus Comic-Con is Back
June of 2022 was a tough month for Grant and me. The theme of the month was — “just get through June and July will be better.” I would often find myself just repeating this phrase over and over and over. July 1st hit and our lives didn’t miraculously get better, but it slowly over time.
Checking Off the Midwest
COVID is Over! Is it? No, but the world is moving on. This is the first flight of ours in over 2 years where masks were not required. It was great! Not that we were the best at wearing them in 2020 or 2021, but it is extremely nice not having to worry about an extra item to carry.
Nickel and Dime on Island Time - Aloha Oahu; From Cali to Maui!
Aloha! “You never come out and visit us,” said Uncle Robert at my cousin Victoria’s wedding. Little did he know! We sure showed him. When the opportunity came up to visit friends in Hawaii, those words found their way from the dark recess of my brain to the forefront. Fine, let’s do it. We booked a flight on Hawaiian Airlines to visit Honolulu and Maui. Thank God we booked our flight when we did because soon after gas prices skyrocketed and our affordable flight became ridiculous!
Out Of Practice in Guatemala
“Señor Luke Martin…Señor Luke Martin…will you please come to the terminal gate. Señor Luke Martin please come to Gate 4.” When you hear this— you are in trouble!
Both Grant and I took Friday off. Friday was going to be a travel day and Saturday, Sunday, and 1/2 Day of Monday were going to be fun in Antigua, Guatemala. We had hotel, transportation, tours, reservations— you name it we had it ready to go for this trip. Besides Mexico, this would have been our first trip out of the US in nearly two years. I was more pumped about this trip than any other we have had in a while. Something different!
Hollywood of the East and Miniature Golf - Wilmington, NC
For Christmas, I got Grant a trip to the one place he has been dying to go, but that I always said “no” to. Wilmington, North Carolina. Or as Grant likes to call it, “Tree Hill, NC.” With the entire world to be able to see you may be wondering— why in the world Grant would want to go there? It is home to Screen Gems, which has produced some of his favorite TV shows including One Tree Hill and Dawson’s Creek as well as the latest Scream movies and many others.
Grant’s 36th Birthday Bash in Denver
What happens when you put friends of Grant on a plane, ship them to Denver for a three-day weekend, and Grant helps plan the weekend? The answer a really great time, full of laughter, food, and a lot of single dollar bills. On January 7th, Grant turned 36. Just for record-keeping purposes—I (Luke) am only 34 so this makes Grant 2 years older than me. He is now in his late 30’s and I am still pathetically clutching on to the fact that I am still able to consider myself in my early 30s. Grant wanted me to clarify that it will only be for two more months then I am officially old like him.
Wedding in Morgan City. Where is Morgan City?
Christmas bells were not the only bells ringing the week before the 25th. My cousin, Victoria, the only girl in our cousin pool, promised Conner she would marry him. Where is Morgan City, Louisiana? Good question that I had to google myself. It’s about halfway between New Orleans and Lafayette. Which means—it is in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by swamps. This is where the groom was born and raised so it makes sense as a destination for the wedding.
Eat…Show…Eat…Show…Sleep….Show… Show…Eat… Sleep…Show…Airport
Having a low attention span— Grant and I have to constantly be stimulated with something new and exciting. New, Now, Next. That is the reason why we love to go to New York City. Even when we have nothing officially planned— we can somehow do a little bit of research and map out an entire trip—during the trip.
Don’t Ask Me For Directions in Chicago
This is how we choose our travel destinations. Grant randomly searches GoogleFlights and finds a spontaneous sale on a nonstop weekend flight to Chicago in November. He turns to Emily and me at dinner in Cafe Coyote (San Diego) and goes “want to go to Chicago? He waited a few seconds to make sure no one objected and the response was pretty quiet. Which was his queue to proceed with “I am going to book three flights.” Once again no major objections. And just like that…we are on an adventure to Chicago.
The Horrors of Our October 2021
This post is way past due, but I figured…why not! Life has been crazy and we had a very up and down October. But it is still worth memorializing what happened as there were some really fun moments that we will want to remember.
Celebrating Erica’s BIG 50 in Alaska
Alaska was originally owned by Russia in the late 1800s as a fur trading colony. When the fur-trading dried up, Russia was saddled with a liability rather than an asset. Looking to dispose of this territory, Russia reached out to the US a fledgling country to acquire the land. At the time, Canada was not its own country and the territory was owned by Great Britain. Russia and Great Britain were at odds with one and other and there was no chance they would allow their greatest rival to gain more land. After acquiring Alaska, it sat dormant for quite a while until finally in 1959 it became a state.
Planning for the “Unplan-able” in Mexico
As a planner, you do things in advance. You attempt to anticipate any problem and attempt to solve the problem before it originates. In heading to Mexico, we booked our flight, hotel, car rental, etc. — easy for us with as much as we travel. I did my homework and found what forms were necessary to avoid delays and we were off to Mexico without any issue.
Continuing The Tradition With A Few New Faces in San Antonio
Like clockwork, every year we find ourselves in New Braunfels, Texas to go to our favorite waterpark – Schlitterbahn. This is not like a traditional waterpark as it is a mega-park where the whole experience is divided into 3 sections that you can only connect to by bus. There seemed to have been more water in this area than in all of California!
Return To Normal (Events With Friends) in San Diego
COVID is still here, and while it was looking like things were turning around the Delta Varient is causing a bit of an uproar. Most of our friends have been vaccinated and feel comfortable being in social gatherings. Events are beginning to transpire again including our annual tradition of Best of San Diego and Cinespia’s Slumber Party.
Incline Jail, Paintball Gun, and Getting Soaked Under a Waterfall at Niagara Falls
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? The answer in our case is Yes, Yes, Yes, and let's add a few more stops just to make sure we hit everything possible. This elongated weekend had us departing on Friday night to Pittsburgh and making our way up to Buffalo to depart back home. Our style of hitting the highlights of the city and moving quickly to another proved valuable in a trip that had us visit— Pittsburgh, PA, Sandusky, OH, Cleveland, OH, Niagara Falls, NY, Buffalo, NY, and somehow as I type this stuck in Chicago, IL with a layover that seems to never want to end.
Back to Basics in Vegas
Some people have been sheltering in place for a year and are just now coming out of hibernation. For us, it has only been a month, but like standard Grant and Luke shenanigans we definitely packed in quite a bit. At this time, we have decided to pause the adoption process and have been riding that emotional roller coaster. We are looking at different options to pursue, but giving ourselves a break for a bit to figure out what we want to do.
The Answer is Six— Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine
A delayed birthday trip to New England sounded like an amazing way to ring in the huge milestone of turning 34 years old. You only turn that random age once so why not do something equally as random like visit Boston during a pandemic. After a 5.5 hour direct flight from San Diego to Boston, we were there to embrace whatever we could.
With the World Closed the Republic of Florida Remains Open
The United States is closed, but Florida has decided to secede from that idea. Upon landing in Florida we were greeted with hundreds if not thousands of happy travelers ready to enjoy the Disney World or the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference with keynote speaker Donald Trump. However, we were not in town for either of those events, but rather our friend’s (Debbie and Andrew) wedding.