Expensive Afternoon

As followers of my blog know, my countdown is moving closer and closer to zero hour.  The time I pack up (again), sell off everything else (again), and move across the ocean (again).  This time, however, I will not be going direct.  Since I am starting a new job in mid-September that promises to be more demanding (and hopefully more exciting) than my current one, I decided to take a vacation first.  Well, more of a trip, really.  I am going to South America for 18 days prior to moving back to Chicago.  I booked my tickets this afternoon.  I'll be flying from Hawaii to Chicago, dropping off some bags, flying the next morning to Lima, Peru, hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, going over to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, and then heading back to Chicago to start my job.  It'll be a whirlwind trip, but I'm looking forward to it.  Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for quite a while, so I can't wait.

Back from Chicago

I went to Chicago last week and got back Sunday night.  So the lack of blog posts was because I was busy enjoying deep dish pizza, 312 beer, and Cubs games.  The first couple days in Chicago represented everything that's great about that city.  The weather was warm.  The Cubs were playing.  People were out walking around enjoying the city.  The beer and food were flowing like water.  And the parks were crowded with people playing community sports.  The last couple days, however, made me happy to come back to Hawaii (temporarily, at least).  The weather literally went from 78 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday to 43 degrees and rainy when I left on Sunday morning.

As far as my triathlon training, I did a fairly decent job keeping up with it.  I worked out a couple days, but not as many as I would have liked.  I ate healthy, but couldn't control myself all week so I enjoyed a few unhealthy meals/snacks/desserts.  Nonetheless, I am back at it and things are going pretty well.