Thursday, June 7, 2012

One Week Left

Well, the movers have come and gone.  All of my stuff is packed into a few crates making its long slow journey to Frankfurt.  Packout was actually much easier than I expected.  As far as I can tell, they didn't pack any Embassy furniture or full garbage cans.

Now that packout is done, I have a week of saying goodbye before I start home leave.  I have modified my road trip plans.  Rather than purchase a car and drive myself to DC, I am going to rent a car and then fly out from Phoenix.  This way, I don't have to rush into buying a car, worry about licensing it and insuring it.  Plus, I will get to see my family again before I go to DC.

You can see the general route on the map below.  Highlights of the trip will include:
(a) Garth Brooks in Vegas
(b) Playing in the World Series of Poker
(c) San Diego Zoo and Sea World in San Diego - first trip to SD since I was 4
(d) Driving up the California coast on Highway 1
(e) Exploring the San Francisco Bay area
(f) Red Wood National Park
(g) Astoria, Oregon - where The Goonies was filmed
(h) Seattle
(i) first trip to Yellowstone National Park




If anyone has any suggestions for places to visit, things to do, restaurants to eat at, or any other suggestions, please leave a comment.
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4 comments:

  1. Al -
    I'm a Phoenix native that has been living in San Diego for many moons now. My partner and I will be taking the FSOT in Oct and would love to chat with you about the process & your experience as a Consular Officer, as we're both selecting that career track. We'd be happy to take you to dinner when you pass through San Diego. If you're interested drop me an email ast fsocons@gmail.com.

    Also, since you're a beer drinker make sure you visit Stone Brewery in Escondido while you're here. It's about 20 minutes west of the San Diego Wild Animal Park (not the zoo) and nothing short of amazing! There's also several brew tours in the area. Hope to hear from you.

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  2. Al

    I have been reading your blog for a long time now as I have thought about being and FSO for a while.

    I live in Sacramento and in SF try not to miss Mount Tam and Muir woods, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Heck a a couple of hours gets you to Yosemite! Depending how touristy you want to be: Alcatraz island for a day of exploring, Climbing up to Coit tower, the cable cars, after Hong Kong Chinatown may be a let down but fun none the less, walk over the Golden Gate Bridge, the Deyoung museum,pizza and gelato in North Beach, try to find Mexican/Salvadoran food that rovals what you had in Belmopan, the Sf zoon, wine tasting in Napa county or Marin, walking the streets of sausalito, in less then 3 hours you could be in Lake Tahoe for the day, And spend the day at the academy of sciences with the rain forest and roof top garderns, and aquarium.

    Enjoy your visit to my back yard!
    Kristina

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  3. From LA to SF, do some of the coastal highway (Route 1). It's considered the most scenic roads in America. I did it about 2 years ago and it was amazing.

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  4. Just realized you were a Pi Kapp too! I am going to be an OMS (July orientation) Hope to see you out there in the future maybe.

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