Patrick's Blog » Travel

Cape May

Patrick — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:12:50 +0000

A few weeks my wife and I took a little mini vacation to Atlantic City and Cape May to visit the Jersey shore. Although I liked the outlets and the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, Cape May is definitely the place to go to see the shore.

Here are a few pics from the trip…

Cross country gas expense

Patrick — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:32:36 +0000

Just did a quick calculation of all the gas we spent going cross country. After traveling almost 3100 miles in our little Prius, we spent about $163.76. Not bad. Of course, this doesn’t include money spent on food and lodging, but pretty good. Not doing another cross country road trip anytime soon.

12 Days and 14 States

Patrick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:40:35 +0000

We finally have arrived in Philadelphia. We drove over 3100 miles, through 14 states. I can’t believe we made it.

Despite it being a great experience, I think this will be the last cross-country road trip in a long time. It just takes too much out you. I have no regrets though. On the way, we go to see so many people that we haven’t seen in a while, got to meet new people, and just see America.

My favorites:
As far as siteseeing is concerned, Zion National Park was probably the most beautiful. Of course, it was probably the only place that we planned to go siteseeing. The rest was mainly to visit people and get across the country. The best part of the trip was definitely the hospitality and the blending with the saints. In every city, all the saints warmly welcomed us. We were able to go to two Lord’s table meetings, and one home meeting. I would just like to say that the saints are so dear wherever you go.

My not so favorite parts:
Driving was definitely the down part for me. Wyoming was a little painful to go through the I-80 Freeway. There wasn’t much to see for hours. Then, through the mid-west, it was a little better, but there were corn fields for miles and miles. When we got into Pennsylvania, we stopped by Hershey and Chocolate World. We only had time to go to the Museum, but there wasn’t much to do there. It was a little disappointing, but I realize that there is a lot more to do in the Park area itself as well.

Overall Thoughts:
The one thing that kept popping up in my mind is that the Lord needs people to move to all these different places to support His move in so many campuses. Why wouldn’t more move out of Southern California? I realize that there is a comfort level there and it’s hard to get out of it. Believe me, I know that it’s going to be an interesting transition in the coming days. That transition time won’t be forever and life outside of California (other than the weather) is pretty easy. Real estate is cheaper, people are very friendly, and people everywhere are hungry for God’s word.

Road Trip Day 11 – Last day before Philly

Patrick — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:01:15 +0000

Today, we went to the meeting in Columbus, OH. This is our second time here. Most of the saints were at the college training, but it was still a sweet meeting. Today was just a relaxing day… fellowship, board games, the usual in the church life. Tonight we went to Graeter’s for some ice cream. Very good ice cream. It just so happened that it was the Graeter’s 140th birthday. That means, two scoops for the price of one. The only problem was this… Here’s how I ordered…. I like a double scoop… Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip… then he goes to scoop up the ice cream. I expect him to come back and ask me what I wanted the next scoop to be. Then he says, “here you go” and hands me a double scoop of Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip. It was good, but that was a lot of one flavor.

I can’t believe tomorrow we are finally arriving. I don’t think the fact that we are moving to Philly has hit us yet because we are flying back in a week to ship the rest of our stuff, but it’s just the fact that we are almost done with our cross country journey. I will say that we aren’t taking a long road trip like this for a very long time. It just takes too much out of you. Sorry, no pictures today, but tomorrow we should have more. We should be stopping by the Hershey Factory tomorrow. I’ll do a wrap up of my entire trip later this week.

Road Trip Day 9 and 10

Patrick — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:57:33 +0000

We left Champaign, IL today and now are in Columbus, OH. We had a sweet time in Champaign. The home meeting was sweet. It was awesome seeing old friends and meeting new ones as well. This morning we had brunch with Seth and J Liu, mini team reunion. We are around the 2400 mile point of our travels. Our little Prius has been good to us. We actually had some time to take the car in for it’s regular maintenance in Champaign. At the end of the trip, I will give the total amount spent on gas for the entire trip. I can’t see it being more than $120, but that’s just a guess. Going cross country like this is definitely an adventure everyone should experience at some point in their lives. Not many pictures these past couple of days or least ones that I will post but hopefully more to come soon.

Road Trip Day 8 – Lincoln, NE

Patrick — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:13:31 +0000

Not too much to report today. We are in Lincoln, NE for the night. Thanks to Sharon’s parents for letting us stay at their house. We’ve had a sweet time here. The drive here was very similar to the drive to Fort Collins… a lot of the same thing for hours. This time, it was a lot of corn. We did go past the half way point as far as mileage is concerned. We are getting closer to our destination. Tomorrow we will be in Champaign, IL for one night.

Road Trip Day 7

Patrick — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:55:59 +0000

Another relaxing day in Fort Collins. Tomorrow, we will be on the road again, but today was a time to just to relax and have dinner with the saints. This morning we took a short drive to Horsetooth Reservoir. It turned out to be a very nice day today. We went to old town after that to have lunch. Here are some pictures from Horsetooth Reservoir.

Road Trip Day 6 – Greetings from Fort Collins

Patrick — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:15:54 +0000

After a few days in Salt Lake City, we finally made more progress eastward. We are now in Fort Collins, CO. This is a beautiful town. It is Money Magazine’s 6th best place to live in the US. Today was mainly a driving day and a relaxing day… oh yeah, and some work as well. We spent most of our time from Salt Lake City to Fort Collins on the I-80 freeway. Most of the drive was through Wyoming. Let me just tell you, there wasn’t much that changed on that freeway. Everything looked the same. Here are some boring pictures from today.

This pretty much summed up the day. Tomorrow we are planning to see some more scenic things in Fort Collins. Tune in later.

Road Trip Day 5 and the rest of the schedule

Patrick — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:53:53 +0000

Just mainly a work day today. Dinner with Daniel and Irene and kids today and then went to visit some saints. Just a normal day. Okay, to answer some of the more common questions I am getting…. we are NOT in Philadelphia yet. We are arriving in Philly next Monday. Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the trip, starting tomorrow.

2 Days in Fort Collins, CO
1 Day in Lincoln, NE
1 Day in Champaign, IL
2 Days in Columbus, OH
and then we arrive in Philly.

We’ll be there for a week and then fly back to SoCal to take care of some practical matters and ship our stuff out. By the way, for those of you just tuning in… yes, we’re moving to Philadelphia. Explanation coming later or you can email me or IM me when I’m online to ask me.

Sorry, no pictures today.

Road Trip Day 4

Patrick — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:18:59 +0000

The Lord’s Table meeting this morning was very sweet. Very small, but sweet. We watched message 11 of the Summer Training and then went out for a short drive around Salt Lake City with Daniel and one of the little ones. We mainly went to a place called Alta. This is where all the pictures are from below. Played a little basketball tonight. Overall a relaxing day. Tomorrow will be another full day in Salt Lake City but mainly a work day for me. We’ll see what the wifey does. Here are today’s pics.