2015

August

Cruise around Europe, with my wife and parents. Left from Barcelona and visited: the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Nice, Monaco, Palma de Mallorca. Stayed two more nights in Barcelona. This was a good “introductory” trip to Europe.

December

Sydney for work. Stayed for three weeks in a hotel room. I packed terribly for this trip, probably a big inspiration for packing more efficiently.

2017

March

Sydney for work. Two weeks, one for a company conference and one working with the team. With some tips from coworkers, I managed jet lag much better this time. The 17 hour flight from Dallas lands in Sydney at 6 am. Last trip I arrived on Sunday to acclimate before work, but I ended up bored and tired and feel asleep too early. For this trip I arrived on Monday and went straight to work. I went for a walk in the middle of the day to refresh. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but I slept well and mostly reset my internal clock.

Scottsdale for a guys weekend. I remembered this trip, but I had forgotten until right now that it was only a week after getting back from Sydney. Yikes.

May

Barcelona, traveling with my wife on her work trip. We had a great time in Barcelona previously, and this extended time was even better. While my wife was at a conference one day, I took a train to see Montserrat. It was pretty amazing to see the sanctuary and hike around the mountains as the clouds rolled in. I still have some very fond memories of that day.

July

Branson for the 4th of July. Also went to a wedding for my wife’s friend.

September

Disney World.

2018

This is when I started keeping a real log of my travel.

May

Minneapolis for a guys weekend.

June

Disney World, with my entire family; eight adults and six children. A bit stressful at times to manage such a large group, but overall it went really well.

July

Branson for the 4th of July.

November

Branson for Thanksgiving.

December

San Francisco for work.

Breckenridge with my family over Christmas. We rented a nice house and the kids got to play in the snow for the first time. I got to go skiing for the first time in a while.

2019

January

Disney World. At 2.5 years old, our son actually showed some interest in being at Disney World. That seems like a good youngest age that I’d recommend normal people taking their kids to Disney.

February

Sydney for work. With two kids at home, I only stayed for a week. I would not recommend doing 17 hour flights a week apart from each other. By this point, I had invested into some travel-friendly clothes and gear. I didn’t check a bag, and it was wonderful to speed through the airport and not worry about a huge bag while riding the train to my hotel.

April

Iowa for Easter, just me and my son. When we landed in Dallas for our layover, I saw that our next flight was cancelled. That’s not what you want to hear traveling with a three year old. He managed pretty well while I talked to customer service. I ended up changing my destination and having my family pick my up somewhere else, which got me home at about the same time but avoided a longer layover. Since it was just for a long weekend, I was traveling with a single bag and didn’t have to worry about any checked luggage being re-routed.

June

Branson for a week in the summer. The kids are almost getting old enough to enjoy some of the tourist spots in Branson.

August

San Antonio for a quick vacation. The River Walk is nice, but our kids are wild and there are no railings. Also one of the first times our whole family stayed in the same hotel room. The kids slept so terribly the first night that we considered leaving early so we didn’t have to spend another night. We ended up staying and it was better, but decided we could do without hotel rooms for a while.

September

Trip to Washington DC to visit friends. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid, so it was great to see the National Mall and some of the museums. The DC Metro system is really nice.

October

France with my wife, my sister, and her husband; no kids. Two nights in Paris, two in Strasbourg, two more in Paris. Always nice to get away for vacation without the kids. We had an awesome time, but we were always going. In hindsight I wish we could have relaxed for a day, but I’m not sure what I would have given up. I guess I just need to have longer vacations. The Paris Metro system is amazing. We never waited more than 3 minutes for a train, which is still pretty incredible to me. It was a little rainy and cold while we were there. I got in my own head while packing, trying to be fashionable for Paris. My rain coat wasn’t quite warm enough and I decided not to pack my warm vest at the last moment. I definitely could have planned a bit better on my clothing.

November

Iowa for Thanksgiving.

December

San Francisco for work, a quick 3 day trip. Despite only being 3 days, I ended up packing two bags for this trip (still carry on, not checked). I probably could have packed less, but I didn’t have a single bag to hold my laptop that still fit my stuff. For my laptop bag, I used my messenger bag that I take to work every day, and that was a poor choice. On the day I was planning on going to the gym after work, my bag didn’t have enough room for my gym clothes and work stuff, so I had to make an extra hotel trip. On the night we went to dinner after work, I had to carry a heavy laptop bag around on one shoulder while walking around the city. When I got home I did a bit of research and decided to purchase a bag that would have served me well for this trip, and all of my work trips. I’ll write more about that soon.