Patrick and Mary Go Round

We made it back to the USofA from India without any hangups, at all. We asked for free upgrades (not expecting much) and sweet-talked our ways into business class from Delhi to Doha, Qatar. From Doha to NYC, we sat in poor man’s first class, which was quite spacious in a Boeing 777. After we arrived from India, New York City was the cleanest, freshest, most welcome sight for our sore eyes noses. We spent time with Jerry and Caitlin, laughing and decompressing from the trip. After a quick stop through DC, we were glad to be arriving back in Rochester.

Before we unpacked, before we’d reactivated our cell phones and before we’d had a chance to even leave the house, Mary and I bought a puppy dog. Her name is Chitchen and she’s the cutest, sweetest, little creature that’s ever existed! She’s 9 weeks old and was born on the first anniversary of our engagement: 22 Feb. 2009. She’s a pure-bred beagle, is mostly black with white feet and tail. On her face and huge droopy ears, she’s got some brown colors mixed in. Her name is pronounced like a combination of ‘Chicken’ and ‘Kitchen’… it’s totally unrelated to the Mayan Pyramids found in Mexico. Here’s some pictures from her first day as the newest, littlest and (arguably) cutest addition to our family:

Mary and Chitchen

Chitchen Napping

Puppy and Patrick

The time has come — Patrick and I are shoving off once again, this time for South East Asia and India.  We are very thankful that Patrick has been able to totally recover from his pesky organ episode, and that our family and friends have been there for us in this unforeseen extended stay in Rochester.

In realizing it’s time to go, a most important question has popped up — what the heck time is it there?  Our flight leaves from JFK to Hongkong on Thursday at 1:30 pm, and after switching planes in Hong Kong, we’ll arrive in Bangkok at 11:55 pm on Friday night.  So how many hours will we be traveling for?

After consulting wikipedia’s world time zone map, we have learned that Bangkok (and the rest of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) are all 12 hours ahead of our time here in New York.  So, with some math, we figured out that when we arrive into Bangkok at 11:55 pm on Friday night, it will only be 11:55 am on Friday morning back home on the East Coast.  So a mere 24 hours of travel to get there, nothing we haven’t done before.

Then, to look ahead to April 9 when we fly into India, it looks like we will be just 10.5 hours ahead of the time here at home.  I’ve never heard of time zones changing on the half hour, so we will have to see that with our own eyes.

So it’s time to go, and good to know what time it is.

I was awoke a little after 7am this morning by people chanting. The area outside was packed with people. Here are a few pictures.

An early look at the parade route. They had not yet let the parade views access to the route.

This is the view from my perch looking North along 7th St. NW.

President Obama was sworn in around 12pm.  Like most, we watched on TV to get the best view.  The difference is that We could hear the crowd roar from the Mall.  The energy was flowing everywhere.  His address had many powerful broad themes.

Around 2:30pm we went up to the roof to watch the parade.  My first observation was the temperature.  It was COLD up there.   All of the law enforcement and security men protecting this event are owed a debt of graditude.  With the wind, it feels like 16 degrees.

We had a nice view from the roof, and were able to grab a few shots.  More will come when I get them off my good camera.  Until then, here are a couple from my point and shoot.

The Presidential Limo. This is a brand new vehicle. The security package around him was very impressive.

Here is an early shot of the President and the First Lady in the parade.

Hi there. I am pretty excited that Patrick and Mary asked me to share my first hand experiences from the 56th Presidential Inauguration.

I arrived here in Washington on Monday afternoon, and quickly got settled. I am staying right in the middle of the action on Pennsylvania Ave, right in between the Capitol and the White House. I stepped out with the intention of picking up the mail and hitting the deli for some food. Instead, I went on a three hour tour of the area with my camera. This is a sampling of what I saw.

First, to say that people are excited about President Obama, is a huge understatement. Emotions are running high, and people are happy. Spontaenous “Obama” chants were the rule, not the exception.

I walked out across Pennsylvania Ave. on 7th street toward the mall. At this point I think I realized just how much media is focused on this event. Its easy to say the world is watching, but seeing TV trucks lined for blocks along the mall from cities across the country really brough it into focus.

Now in the middle of the National Mall, I saw the MSNBC booth. They were broadcvasting live from the Mall. A huge crowd had gathered to see the production, and maybe get on TV. This is where I heard the loudest “Obama” chants.

At this point, I thought about heading back, but became inspired to see how close I could get to the Capitol where the Oath would be given in the morning. It took me a while, a bunch of walking, and a few fences hopped, but I got very close, and was able to get some excellent shots if the building after dark. It was very grand, and again, you could feel the excitement in the air.

With this goal reached, it was finally time to head back. I decided to Penn Ave. back to where I am staying. Security had closed it to cars, but I was still able to walk down it. It was a pretty cool experience to walk down the street that President Obama would walk down just the next day.

I don’t know much, but I know that Tuesday is going to be a special day.

Note: I will update with pictures soon. I left the cable to get them off my camera at home.

I am writing this just a mere 12 hours away for the moment Barack Obama will become our President. The best two words to sum up this moment in history are - historic and hopeful.

Patrick and I are still hanging out up here in the freezing snowy land that is Rochester, but my brother, Jerry Votava, has braved the crowds to spend inauguration day right down on Pennsylvania Avenue. Jerry arrived in Washington, DC this afternoon and has already spent the evening walking the streets to witness all the anticipation and preparation for this moment.

Jerry has very kindly accepted our invitation to share some thoughts about tomorrow’s festivities right here on the blog. Just like in the United States, on our trip thus far we have met people from all over the world who care very deeply the outcome of this election and we think it is very fitting to be able to share an eye witness account of Barack Obama’s inauguration with everyone here in the U.S. and around the world who cannot be there. I am very proud that the whole world will be watching us tomorrow.

Thanks for the patience in our hiatus. We will be back on the road soon…

[Note on us: Patrick has been healing up from his surgery really well. We are so thankful for all the progress he has made. We are safe to get back out on the road and plan to do so on February 5 for a flight to Bangkok, and another three months on the road. Before then, we'll also do a little domestic test-travel, with a trip next week to Austin, TX and Minneapolis, MN to check out some new possible homes and law schools.]

Went to see the surgeon and got some good news about continuing the trip. We’re green-lighted to resume our travels, which is most fortunate that nothing will be severely messed up with our plans to visit South East Asia. I am allowed to fly on long plane rides, eat weird foods, fight off the infamous “Bombay Belly”, swim, sunbathe and go trekking. The only thing I need to watch out for is to ease back into carrying heavy loads; previously, I was restricted to stuff only less-than-10-pounds. My pack weighed something like 35 lbs. in South America, so we’ll take it slow in getting the abs back into tip-top-hauling-stuff-around shape. I uncovered a picture of that fateful Christmas Day that we all spent chilling in the West 6th (AKA surgical wing) of Highland Hospital.

Enjoy:

This is definitely good news and we are starting to look at the calendar, predicting how many more days the old man needs to recover and talking up our travel agents to change our original tickets. One thing that has been helpful during this process is our travel insurance company, TravelGuard, who have been very helpful during this slightly challenging time. Also, I think I’m speaking for both the patient and his nursing staff when I say: It’s time to get off the couch and back out into the world!

We’re starting things off with a quick overland, weekend trip to the land of DC to see our friends and family down in the dirty District.

What a week it’s been… well, technically 2 weeks, but a whirlwind nonetheless. We started with some stomach pain at the ER in Huaraz, Peru and wound up in the OR at Highland Hospital in Rochester, New York. Everything went smoothly and we are very fortunate to have made it back to the USA for surgery. Here’s what happened:

We talked to the Peruvians about the prognosis and Dr. Antignano (of Rochester Gastro and a family friend) who recommended a rapid return to Rochester, ASAP. As we’ve posted before, we were able to make it home from Peru with the help of our Travelers’ Insurance and without ANY help whatsoever from LAN airlines. Plenty more ranting about LAN and how oh-so-unhelpful they were later…

Needless to say, we’ll never fly on LAN and would highly recommend that nobody else does either.

After getting screwed by LAN, we bought tickets from Lima to NYC on Spirit Airlines and connected to LaGuardia through Fort Lauderdale. Sticking to the BRAT diet while traveling is pretty challenging and we were ohh-so-glad that Jerry and Caitlin brought fresh supplies when they picked us up from the airport. We drove direct from NYC to Rochester and got in at about 7:30PM on the 23rd — a mere 36 hours after beginning our trip home from Peru. American showers and some good food got us all ready to crash in our bed for the first time in 3 months. Unfortunately, I woke up to some pain in the middle of the night and was able to get Dr. A on the phone for some cross-country medical advice. I developed a fever on Christmas Eve and spent the afternoon writhing in pain (again) in the Emergency Room. I must have failed whatever their ‘tests’ were and spent the night prepping for surgery at Highland Hospital. They did an excellent job with the Christmas Day surgery and Dr. Burns’ team told us that the old man’s gall bladder was super-infected and about a third dead by the time they got in there. Fortunately, they kept it all laparoscopic, which halves the recovery time, overall pain, etc.

I spent 3 nights in the hospital on antibiotics and some groovy pain meds before they entrusted me to the top notch care of my at-home nurses. Since then, Mary and my whole family have been taking good care of me while I rest-up and recover. The prognosis looks really good from here and I feel much stronger everyday. Also, the constant visitors have kept my spirits high (also getting off the Vicodin really helps me feel normal again). While I was saddened to leave Peru so suddenly, it’s obvious to me that it was good to take Mary’s advice and get home — fast. If it weren’t for her, I’d probably have stayed in Peru, needing to have the surgery in Lima or somewheres worse.

Thank God that she’s got such a good head on her shoulders!

We’re leaving to head over to JFK in about 15 minutes.  Jerry is dropping us off at the airport and our flight leaves at 10:20, this morning.  Next stop?  Ecuador.  It was awesome to get together with the NYC crew, Caitlin and Jerry, McFeels, Jess and Mark and Meagan Mahar.  And now it’s time to go.  Tonight, and for the next couple, we’re staying in Quito’s Old Town in a hostel called the Secret Garden.

I weighed my pack last night and it comes in right at 35 pounds with my carry-on weighing 7 additional pounds.  Mary’s pack weighed in at 25 pounds and her carry-on weighs 5 pounds.

I believe there has been some doubt on whether or not I would be contributing to this blog. Well, I am here to say that the trip finally began today and I’m ready to post.

We left Rochester this morning and have arrived safely in New York City. Jerry and Caitlin have been gracious enough to let us stay on their couches for the next three nights until we fly out on Sunday. We took the Amtrak train from Rochester to Penn Station today - which is really quite civilized - and were lucky to be able to meet up with Jerry and McFeely for dinner and drinks at Stout in Manhattan where one of our fave DC bands, Scythian, plays from time to time. McFeely is fabulous and we had a great time planing out her future conquests.

We are looking forward to spending more time with friends over the next couple days before we head south. It’s slowly sinking in that we’re off to do something relatively crazy.

But anyway, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the wonderful world with Amtrak with you:

1. A Heineken and a nip of scotch costs an alarming $11. [According to my friendly co-passengers]

2. A lot of people talk to themselves, but it’s so loud that you’re actually wondering if they’re talking to you, which can be quite confusing and awkward.

3. Shockingly [or not], the fashionability dramatically increases as the train moves along from Buffalo to Albany.

4. The seats and aisles are so wonderfully spacious that one could almost live there.

5. The trip to the snack car is very exciting, but the arrival is sort of a let down.

5. Newsweek has been covering way too much of the Sarah Palin story [this actually has less to do with Amtrak and more to do with the two issues of Newsweek that were left in our seats] I get it, she’s a mom, she’s never really had reason to care all that much about foreign policy, her daughter is preggers, she was voted mayor by 615 people. And this all matters to me why? Just stay in Alaska. They like you there.

6. Ride Amtrak, it will “change how you see the world.”

Here we are on Amtrak

Mary and I are leaving to catch a train this morning. We’re headed from Rochester to New York City via Amtrak and will officially begin our trip this morning at 8:20. Our bags are all packed (maybe a touch heavy) and our excitement is high. We hit the Dinosaur BBQ last night for our final ROC meal — delicious. This evening, we’ll stay with Jerry and Caitlin in Hoboken, in preparation for jumping off US soil. Time to go meet at the station… will the train arrive? Will we be on it? Should I drink a fourth cup of coffee? So many unanswered questions…