Two years ago today, Tim sat down at his first day of training at United. The culmination of years of hard work. And on Sunday, we’ll celebrate 17 years since we got married. I’d like to think that we’ve learned a few things along the way. Since we’re currently on another airplane flight, I’m inclined to think of those lessons as a traveling analogy. Tim and I met when we were both living in England, and by the time we’d been dating a few months we’d traveled all across Europe together. So you could say that traveling is hardwired into our relationship. We strive to be adaptable and curious. To plan when we can, and change course if opportunity knocks. We like to see the headline tourist spots, but we’re even more curious to taste what the locals taste, see where the locals live, and understand what’s unique about the world they live in.

We’ve already had to flex our adaptability muscle on this trip to adjust our schedule for some overdue dental appointments for the kids. But that was okay – we used that time to extend our visit with my sister and her family, who we haven’t had a chance to see since before we moved to Guam. We all went up into the mountains to Idaho Springs, an old gold mining town. We ate some delicious pizza at a restaurant named Beau Jo’s, browsed some shops along Main Street, and took a tour of a mining operation from the turn of the century.

Now we’re on our way to Dulles, where we’ll pick up a flight to Athens. By Saturday night, we hope to be set up in our cabins on a yacht. If it all goes according to plan, by the morning of our anniversary we’ll be embarking on a seven day adventure to explore the Greek Islands and the Aegean Sea. And if it doesn’t go according to plan… we’ll just figure it out and have fun anyway.