The backstory is that The August 2012 Holiday was a trip to celebrate the completion of 4 years of hell by Wifey. She is now a law school graduate. This trip was a Congraduations Trip. Completing law school and taking the bar exam is by far the biggest accomplishment of anyone I know personally. I have been telling people that she “just finished” law school. It recently occurred to me that I should be telling people that she “graduated”. When I say “just finished” it sounds like I am married to a 22 year old (super hot idea), or a dummy that took 15 years to complete law school.

Day 1 & 2:

The journey from Philadelphia was bad. Not the kind of bad that leads to awful, but the kind of bad that leads to inconvenience and sleepiness. We were delayed in Philadelphia for several hours. Luckily we were delayed in the airport and not while on the plane or runway. We landed in Paris with just enough time to run to the next gate and make our connecting flight. Not even enough time to pee after a 7-hour flight. Even though the physical Sellers Clan made it to the final destination of Rome, the luggage did not. We assumed there was no way for our bag to have ran to the next plane as fast as we did. We reported the luggage immediately upon landing, assuming the luggage was not going to make it. They told us it would show up on a later flight that would arrive in 3 hours, and then immediately the entire airport went on strike to protest our inconvenience. Since our next destination was pretty far away we decided to wait at the airport rather than risk not having the bag delivered to our hotel before our boat split from port the following day. We killed some time by taking the train to the Rome Termini and having some lunch. After some food, coffee, and fond memories of last summer in Rome we rode the train back to the airport. It was almost perfect timing for the next plane landing. I went to the luggage carousels with absolutely no expectations or hopes of ever seeing our bag again. I glanced up and saw the gold embroidery and was shocked. I actually did one of those movie double takes. Saw it, didn’t’ believe it was ours, looked down, then looked back up with bugged out eyes. I grabbed the back and quickly jogged back to the train station where Wifey was waiting. I faked that I did not have the bag. That made me laugh. We then boarded another train to make our way to Civitavecchia. We knew that would be an adventure with at least 1 stop on the rail system. Unfortunately we ended up at a terminal that apparently has a lot of trains that do not run on Sunday’s. We had to wait an extra hour or so for the next train that actually went into the town we needed to get to. We finally made it alive to Civitavecchia and did the mile walk from the train station to the hotel. The hotel we stayed at before the boat left was the Hotel Traghetto. It was tiny but had a bed. We slept like corpses. The next morning we scouted out how to get to our boat. We could see the marina from our hotel, so it could not be that far. We made it a much bigger deal then it should have been. We should have taken our bags and went straight to the boat. Instead we made 2 dry runs followed by the actual boarding of the boat. It was a lot like being in Vegas. “Hey, I can see the hotel, it’s right over there. Let’s just walk there.” An hour later you are still walking toward this accommodating mirage and it is somehow getting further away. Up until this point it did not feel like much was going in our favor. Finally we were on the boat and at this point everything was out of our hands and all the details rested on the shoulders of others. Having been on a Seabourn boat before we knew we were in for a treat and would be without a worry or care in the world as long as this boat didn’t sink in Italy. We got settled into our room and had something to eat and drink. We went up on the top deck at 5pm to see the boat off, had an early dinner, and got back into our bed shaped coffins.

The boat is small compared to other cruise ships. There are only 200 passengers. We are way out of our element with the crowd of people. We don’t talk the same, dress the same, or act the same. There is a chance we may be the first people ever thrown off this boat for not acting appropriately.

Pictures from the first couple days here.

Spoiler alert…we are home safe and alive. As for whether or not we are disease free I will leave that a mystery. I cannot wait to sit down and start writing about our travels and experiences. I know I say this a lot, but this really was the greatest trip of our lives. The last week in Africa makes everything else I have ever done pale in comparison. It seems a shame that I have to recap for myself the first 2 weeks just to get to the last week, but it has to be done for the sake of chronology and to keep the record straight. I have finally had a chance to start going through the pictures. We took almost 3000. I am going to post them as I get through them. Right now the first 2 days are up here. My recaps of each day will hopefully follow soon.

Safely back in America after the greatest experience of our lives. Thank you Londolozi and Seabourn. I can’t wait until I get the time to go through, post our pictures, and write about our experiences. Hopefully all that is coming very soon.

Mountain bike riding and Geocaching have been the tools I used most to get me through the past 2 months of bar exam preparation. If it was not for these activities I am not sure where I would be. I’d probably be a murder victim at the hands of Wifey. Studying and exam taking are officially over for her. She feels like she did pretty well, now we just wait until October for the results. I have nothing but confidence she did fine and will soon be brining in the big money. I have never been more proud of another person I have known. As stressful as it has been, I’m just glad I had my activities to keep me out of her hair.

One thing I am a bit disappointed about is that I found these 2 fun activities in the twilight of my life. I have now spent countless hours riding on the Fair Hill trail system and I am sure I still haven’t seem most of what is out there. Every time I think I get somewhere that I recognize I am lost again. There are so many ruins in the middle of nowhere. Buildings that once were and animal bones that once lived. Each ride and hike I am in constant amazement of the scenery and surroundings. I can’t believe this is in my back yard and still only a recent discovery for me.

I bought a handlebar camera mount for my video camera. It got used today for the first time. I’ll have to fine tune it and figure it out, so far it only produced worse than Blair Witch shaky cam videos. If I figure it out the good news is that I can produce more horribly boring first person videos.

Hopefully I may soon have some Geocache finds in other countries and two other continents. I put a lot of the pictures I have taken of the things I have seen riding and hiking HERE

A Mexican friend of Wifey’s took this video the other night. It contains so many of our favorite things…under water, snakes, murder, and Ramones. I do miss scuba diving and knowing that I am missing out on things like this. But I also know that I am not going to have my face eaten off by an under water dinosaur monster.

Nature and everything about it so amazing. Us humans are so completely insignificant in the big scheme of things. And we are so pompous to think we could ever have even an ounce of impact on nature or this giant rock hurtling through space that happens to be the rock appropriately distanced from the Sun and source of energy, life, and light. I heard it said once and I agree, when the earth is done with us humans it will shake us off like a case of fleas.

I never imagined I would be saying something like this, but I just recently figured out what was missing from my amazing, whirlwind Winter Carnival tour. It has occurred to me a couple months too late, but the one missing piece was geocaching. I had heard about this several times over the years and each time I made a mental note to look into it. It seemed like something exactly perfect for, and designed for me. Now that I have finally taken the time to look into geocaching, the greatest opportunity for enjoying it is still visible in my mental rear view mirror. Dammit.

Geocaching is completely nerdy and ridiculous for any adult person with real life responsibilities or problems to take part in…again, perfect for me. It is a worldwide, high tech, space age, treasure hunt/scavenger hunt done with the assistance of GPS coordinates. It is exactly something that could have set The Winter Carnival apart from anything else I have ever done. Wait, that even felt stupid typing. It would have been great this past winter though.

I finally started riding the bike for this season recently. Biking and geocaching seem to go hand in hand. I have been having a great time and it is just another excuse I need to get out there, do something, and see things. I can’t wait until the time when Wifey’s life allows her to participate with me.

I did not have to rally the entire student body to the quad, but I would have! The worlds next soaring legal eagle graduated on Saturday, Wifey. I am so proud of her. I don’t think I have ever been more proud of anyone. Graduating law school is definitely the biggest accomplishment of anyone I know, and I know people who coach little kids sports, fly planes, do math real good, and play softball with one eye.

We have been graced by the presence of my Texas Out-Laws throughout the weekend. They are leaving soon to spend the week down at the beach. The Williams’ clan made the northeast drive to be a part of the graduation and big celebration party yesterday. The party went off without a hitch. It was a lot of work and prep, but I think a good time was had by all. Wifey was happy, that is really all that mattered, the rest of the people could have fell and broke their necks in the bouncy house as long as she was happy.

Now begins 8 weeks of intense preparation for the bar exam by her and 8 weeks of sitting silently twiddling my thumbs for me. After I master the art of thumb twiddling it will be time to sit for the bar exam. After Delaware’s most ferocious testing of useless intellect, it is skyward bound to the east (right) for an amazing August Adventure. I still can’t get over how proud of her I am. If all goes according to plan, I can retire in about 3 years.

Yoinks, proof.