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Where did you go? What did you see?
We Travel. For Work. A Lot. We enjoy it (and as we have neither children nor a daily commute, kibbitz someone else's carbon footprint, mine is offset courtesy of a conference we attend every year). This year we went to...
Ignoring places we visited for a day or along the way (coffee shops in Atascadero and Malibu, or downtown Detroit for example), these are the places I stayed in overnight, in approximate order (places stayed in more than once this year*) (places stayed in for the first time this year)
Santa Monica, CA*
Palm Springs, CA*
Las Vegas, NV*
Mojave, CA*
Paso Robles, CA*
Campbell, CA*
San Jose, CA*
Willow Glen, CA *
Barstow, CA*
San Francisco, CA*
Hanover, Germany
Orlando, FL*
Passe-a-Grille, FL
Anna Maria Island, FL
Bradenton, FL
Atlanta, GA*
Santa Barbara, CA
Laguna Beach, CA
Santa Clarita, CA
Dearborn, MI*
Redmond, WA*
Anaheim, CA*
San Juan Island, WA
Bellevue, WA*
Los Angeles, CA*
Ojai, CA
Lake Isabella, CA
June Lake, CA
Mariposa, CA
Pismo Beach, CA
Benidorm, Spain (despite claims it was Alicante, it was definitely Benidorm)
St Helier, Jersey
Countries visited: US, Spain, Germany, Channel Islands
US States visited: California, Washington, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan
US States visited for the first time: Michigan
US States stayed in for the first time that we'd previously driven through: Georgia
Crazy road trips: taking six days to drive from LA to Paso Robles by going over the Sierras and across the Central Valley twice - other road trips sane for values of 'let's go from LA to Vegas via Palm Springs and 29 Palms' and similar.
Craziest commute: LHR-LAX-SEA-LAX-SEA-LAX (yes, we went through LAX six times in three weeks)
High point: I thought it would be 8,300 on Mt. Whitney Trailhead, which might be the highest new place of the year, but it's more likely Tioga Pass again at 9,945
Low point: haven't been that depressed this year, actually....
Airlines flown: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, BMI, Delta, FlyBe, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Iberia
New Ferry journeys taken: Anacortes to Friday Harbour, San Juan Island
New Cirque du Soleil show: Iris in LA
Donuts of the year: Top Pot in Bellevue keeps its crown against the robot donut maker in Pike Place Market and the cafe on St Catherine's breakwater but the specially less sweet Voodoo Donuts recipes at the J Lohr tasting get an honorable mention, as does the robot donut maker at the MAX conference party because it produced possibly the most welcome donut of the year
Best grilled cheese: Virgin Clubhouse, LHR - only on the menu for a month
Bands seen for the first time: Head and the Heart, Slacktone, Pollo del Mar, Ra Ra Riot, We Are Scientists, Weezer
Things 'I've been meaning to do for years' finally accomplished: stopping at the Lazy Daisy in Santa Monica for late brunch, dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Bellevue, lining my purple fake fur neckwarmer with bright green fleece, driving into Yosemite on the Tioga Pass in daylight so we could see it, moving our website to a system where we could make it work (Tumblr)
Things I said I'd never do that I did this year: visit CeBIT - just for a day, not that successfully, although I got work and useful contacts out of it
Things I didn't see the point of that I now really like: the Xbox, which has become a useful home entertainment integration point (still don't get console gaming but I do like Kinect), socks (I always went barefoot whenever possible, now I need arch support and get cold feet), Twitter
Things I used to do a lot that I did at least once this year: interview a science fiction author for publication rather than just as someone to chat to, went to the RFH on the South Bank just to hang out
Articles written: 210 (up from 161 in 2010, both counting all paid blog posts for a month as one article)
Articles linked: a lot more on Twitter than on LJ, which I must fix
Things seen for the first time: fireflies (in the rain!), a forked bolt of lightning (head on not out of the corner of my eye), Detroit
Favourite purchase of the year: lime green fedora hat
Thankfulnesses: too many to count, most of them to friends new and old
Ignoring places we visited for a day or along the way (coffee shops in Atascadero and Malibu, or downtown Detroit for example), these are the places I stayed in overnight, in approximate order (places stayed in more than once this year*) (places stayed in for the first time this year)
Santa Monica, CA*
Palm Springs, CA*
Las Vegas, NV*
Mojave, CA*
Paso Robles, CA*
Campbell, CA*
San Jose, CA*
Willow Glen, CA *
Barstow, CA*
San Francisco, CA*
Hanover, Germany
Orlando, FL*
Passe-a-Grille, FL
Anna Maria Island, FL
Bradenton, FL
Atlanta, GA*
Santa Barbara, CA
Laguna Beach, CA
Santa Clarita, CA
Dearborn, MI*
Redmond, WA*
Anaheim, CA*
San Juan Island, WA
Bellevue, WA*
Los Angeles, CA*
Ojai, CA
Lake Isabella, CA
June Lake, CA
Mariposa, CA
Pismo Beach, CA
Benidorm, Spain (despite claims it was Alicante, it was definitely Benidorm)
St Helier, Jersey
Countries visited: US, Spain, Germany, Channel Islands
US States visited: California, Washington, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan
US States visited for the first time: Michigan
US States stayed in for the first time that we'd previously driven through: Georgia
Crazy road trips: taking six days to drive from LA to Paso Robles by going over the Sierras and across the Central Valley twice - other road trips sane for values of 'let's go from LA to Vegas via Palm Springs and 29 Palms' and similar.
Craziest commute: LHR-LAX-SEA-LAX-SEA-LAX (yes, we went through LAX six times in three weeks)
High point: I thought it would be 8,300 on Mt. Whitney Trailhead, which might be the highest new place of the year, but it's more likely Tioga Pass again at 9,945
Low point: haven't been that depressed this year, actually....
Airlines flown: Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, BMI, Delta, FlyBe, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Iberia
New Ferry journeys taken: Anacortes to Friday Harbour, San Juan Island
New Cirque du Soleil show: Iris in LA
Donuts of the year: Top Pot in Bellevue keeps its crown against the robot donut maker in Pike Place Market and the cafe on St Catherine's breakwater but the specially less sweet Voodoo Donuts recipes at the J Lohr tasting get an honorable mention, as does the robot donut maker at the MAX conference party because it produced possibly the most welcome donut of the year
Best grilled cheese: Virgin Clubhouse, LHR - only on the menu for a month
Bands seen for the first time: Head and the Heart, Slacktone, Pollo del Mar, Ra Ra Riot, We Are Scientists, Weezer
Things 'I've been meaning to do for years' finally accomplished: stopping at the Lazy Daisy in Santa Monica for late brunch, dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Bellevue, lining my purple fake fur neckwarmer with bright green fleece, driving into Yosemite on the Tioga Pass in daylight so we could see it, moving our website to a system where we could make it work (Tumblr)
Things I said I'd never do that I did this year: visit CeBIT - just for a day, not that successfully, although I got work and useful contacts out of it
Things I didn't see the point of that I now really like: the Xbox, which has become a useful home entertainment integration point (still don't get console gaming but I do like Kinect), socks (I always went barefoot whenever possible, now I need arch support and get cold feet), Twitter
Things I used to do a lot that I did at least once this year: interview a science fiction author for publication rather than just as someone to chat to, went to the RFH on the South Bank just to hang out
Articles written: 210 (up from 161 in 2010, both counting all paid blog posts for a month as one article)
Articles linked: a lot more on Twitter than on LJ, which I must fix
Things seen for the first time: fireflies (in the rain!), a forked bolt of lightning (head on not out of the corner of my eye), Detroit
Favourite purchase of the year: lime green fedora hat
Thankfulnesses: too many to count, most of them to friends new and old