Day 2 - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - Indianapolis

Visiting with my daughter, Leslie, her husband, Lincoln, and my 2 granddaughters Lauren and Lillian (7 and 4) . . .

The household was up early at about 7. The girls and I were going for a "surprise breakfast" at Dunkin' Donuts - but surprises around this household don't last long!!!! So "Mommy" went with us too. Lillian got a free donut hole.

We dropped Mommy (Leslie) off for her exercise class at the Y and went home to play. Then off to "Dance Summer Camp"! (Children do keep you busy!). I picked Leslie up after dropping them off and then had a conference call with the condo lawyer about our billings. We went to Lillian's group before noon and she performed what she had learned - cute, cute, cute.

We went to McAllister's for lunch (Lillian's favorite) and she got a cookie for her big-sister. Then home for a while to play. Lillian re-performed her "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" routine with the pre-programmed music on their piano. Then we went to Lauren's group a little before 2 to see her performance - they danced to "Dancin' in the Rain" and a "Highschool Musical" number to which Lauren knew all of the words.

Back home to play. I ended up taking out 4 more of the stitches in my hand - feels better - and redressed it. We played "Sorry" twice and Grandpere lost both games even after leading early on. Leslie and Lauren were merciless to me during the game!

We played "Pirate" outside - Lillian was "Captain Lily" and I was "Captain Smee"! I got all of the treasures and took Captain Lily's ship too!!!! We had fun. Lillian loves to swing and we connected for a while during her swinging. That was so much fun.

We were planning to go to O'Charley's tonight but the girls decided that we'll go to Vito's instead. Italian with wine - yeah!!!!

It has been absolutely beautiful here today and comfortable. A great family start to my around-the-world adventure. Tomorrow will be an early start and I leave Indy for Chicago and then on to Tokyo Narita.

World - here I come!!!!

Day 1 - Tuesday 6/29/2010 - Ft Lauderdale to Indianapolis

The first day of my 2010 adventure - Around-The-World Trip #4.

Flights 1 and 2 of 17. About 1,000 miles. Still in the eastern time zone.

It was an early morning with lots of last minute things to do, but actually yesterday was worse.

I had a hair appointment at 7:30 am but we started early and I was home before 8. Tim took me to the airport on his way to work.

Everything was on time today. The plane arrived in Charlotte early and I had a NC BBQ lunch in between flights. Good. Then off to Indianapolis. I finished reading my novel and then started studying my guide book on Tokyo. It recommends 2 weeks to see Tokyo! I'll be there 5 days. Oh well, I always keep things to come back and do on subsequent trips!

Arrived in Indianapolis early. Retrieved my luggage and got the rental car and headed to Greenwood. The granddaughters, Lauren and Lillian, along with daughter Leslie greeted me and we headed out for a late afternoon "treat" - ice cream at Dairy Queen - YUM!

We played some after that and then I took 2 of my stitches out in my right hand. Hope I did that right. Lincoln got home and we tossed a coin for places to eat tonight. Heads it was Texas Road Side, or tails it was O'Charleys. It ended up heads. It was kids night and there was a magician there who did magic tricks for the girls. They liked that. Lillian didn't like the person dressed up in an oversized cowboy outfit with huge head - so he was requested NOT to visit our table. Too much to eat.

It's 9:30 pm and the sky is still very light - we are at the very edge of the eastern time zone. The girls just went to bed, I'm updating my blog, Lincoln is napping, and Leslie went for a walk as she was "over" on her calorie count for the day!

Off to bed soon as it was a very early day - but a fun, fun day with the granddaughters to start off my around-the-world adventure #4.

Thursday June 17, 2010 - Preparation for Around-the-World Trip #4

It's hard to believe that I'm getting ready to head out on my 4th around-the-world trip. I leave in 12 days for Japan, Bali, Thailand, Poland and Greece. It will be a good change of pace and mostly warm places.

I've already started laying out my clothes and supplies so I can weed some out before the final packing. I always take too much!

A lot to do but I'm getting excited. Hello world - here I come!