the laanba blog

Gamboa

My life is weird.  I keep saying that on Twitter and it is true.  I'm going to Panama.  In November.  Yes, a mere 5 months after my last visit.  When I was looking through my old Mirror Projects I found this entry about Molas. In it I talk about never having been to Panama as an adult.  If I had told that girl three years ago that I would go to Panama three times before the end of 2011 she would have thought I was crazy.  Of course she would be talking to herself so she might be a little crazy.

This time it is my aunt's trip.  She really wanted to go back and she even mentioned to me before I went in June that she wanted to go back and was talking about going in November.  I thought she was just talking like people do when they say they want to go somewhere.  But no she was serious and tonight the reservations were made.  

We are going to be staying outside of Panama City this time.  Our reservations are for the Gamboa Rainforest Resort.  The rainforest!  I saw pictures of this resort ages ago and I can't believe I'm actually going to be there.  They have hammocks on the balconies where you can lay and look out over the river and the trees.  This is going to be a much more laid back and nature filled trip and I am looking forward to it.  Actually that is not true.  My brain is still in shock at the idea of going so it hasn't quite processed yet.  But when it does I will be looking forward to it.

I worry about how I'm going to balance family visits when I won't be in the city. This will be a decidedly more touristy, American visitor type trip. But I think that my worry is an American and Laurie thing more than anything coming from my Panamanian family. Here is a video from the resort. Touristy focus to the max. It looks great!

Panama

Hey, did I mention that I'm going to Panama?  Well, I am.  Today.  This trip has a completely different feel than the other one.  The other one was full of weight and meaning and significance as I met my family for the first time in 35 years and visited the country of my birth.  This time I feel like I'm just going on a vacation.  Albeit a vacation in another country, but a vacation nonetheless.  I'm glad for that.

I'm hoping that is the reason that packing has felt so much easier.  Last time I went in the middle of the school year.  I was stressed because of that and because of the nature of the trip.  None of that is with me now.  It's nice.  I just hope I'm not forgetting something in all this la dee dah packing I'm doing.

I did not blog my trip last time, not like I did my Chicago trip.  I actually wrote everything down in notebooks with the intention of blogging them, but when I got back I felt like I had written down everything already.  I want to blog this trip, but I'm not sure how I'll do it.  I may just do some bullet points or I may feel like I have more time to write when I get back since I am on summer vacation.  Or I may do a voice recording.  Who knows.  But you can follow along while I'm there on Flickr, Twitter and here.  

Eeep

As you know I do things IN ORDER so I haven't given Chicago too much thought.  A passing musing here and there.  I mean why think about it when I had a visit from my aunt and a visit to Austin first.  But all of a sudden the Austin trip is in the past, my aunt has come and gone and now Chicago is right around the corner and I'm not ready!  

I'm avoiding it a little because now it seems so overwhelming.  I don't know where to start.  I'm trying to make sure that while I do make a plan that I don't over plan or over think it.  I'm very bad about doing that.  I want to have room in my schedule for some spontaneity in the way that a day unfolds.  The problem is I'm terrible at it.

I think I need to make some lists (I'm big on lists).  A list of things I want to see, places I want to eat, things I want to do and I'll get to what I can.  I know that I will see the bean, I know that I will take the architectural boat tour, I know that I will go to the art museum and I know that I will go the Wait, Wait taping.  That's all I know.  I have a lot of gaps to fill in.

Eeep.  Trying not to freak out.

A place to rest my head

I've booked my hotel for Chicago!  Woot!  It is hard to believe that this is really happening.  I look back at that post I wrote in January when I could scarcely believe that I could pull it off and now here I am!  Oh, and did I tell you that I *did* get tickets to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me! This trip is going to be awesome.

I used Priceline to book my hotel.  What I really like about Priceline is that it is all paid in advance.  I don't have to worry about having that money with me when I go.  When I travel to San Antonio for conventions I always ask to pay the day I check in.  That way it is taken care of and I don't have to worry about it.  I had it in my head that I would be ok paying $70 a night.  I don't know where I got that number from, but it has been in my head for a few months now.  I know that I could have spent forever manipulating the Priceline system and if they had rejected $70 I would have had to rethink it, but they didn't.  

So what did Priceline find for me?  *drumroll* The Hyatt Regency Chicago on Wacker Drive.  Just look at it's location on Google Map.  Look at it! I'm excited.  

We have been cleared for departure

Guess what I did today?  I booked my airline tickets for the Chicago trip!  Woo hoo!  It is REALLY going to happen.  I'm sure some of you were thinking that I may change my mind or back out at the last minute with some flimsy excuse.  Hell, I thought I might do that.  But there is no going back now.  The dates have been picked, the flight has been booked ($237 round trip thanks to Southwest Airlines).  Now just need to work on the hotel and the itinerary.  I'm excited.  Thank you to everyone out there for all your little pushes.  

Moving the Details Forward

My head has been swimming the last 24 hours with trip plans, but things have finally started settling down and decisions have started falling into place.  I failed to mention that I was also trying to think of a place to go for a quick overnight trip during Spring Break.  Somewhere here in Texas.  So I had three trips running around in my head.  One overnighter in March, one three nighter in July and one week in a foreign country in November.   

I started by buying travel guides to Chicago and Panama.  I imagine that my father will dictate a lot of what I see in Panama, but I want to know more about the country and want to be able to suggest places that I want to see.  

I have to remind myself that I can't see everything when I go to Chicago and that I need to just pick out a handful of things to do and everything else will fall into place.  That is a very hard thing for an extreme planner like me.  I'm definitely not a fly by the seat of her pants, show up and see what happens, type of girl.  I'm going to have fun looking at the guide regardless.  In fact I have several of the Houston area because I love looking at them.

So the decisions that have been made in the last few hours?  

Panama.  Right now I'm just going to be reading my guide book.  Nothing terribly exciting right now.  

Chicago.  After going over and over and around and around I've decided to book a hotel through Priceline.  I think if I use their four star rating and set my price I'll be ok with wherever they put me.  I've read up on it (of course!) and it doesn't seem to matter when you book so I'm going to squirrel away the money and bid as soon as I have it ready.  There are whole websites out there where people compare winning bids and reading through there has helped me feel good about this choice.  Now I can start keeping an eye on airline flights.  I'm not 100% on the dates and I know I need to choose soon.  I'm either looking at July 7-10 or July 14-17.  At this point I probably just need to flip a coin.

Goliad.  As I said in my New Year's resolution post, I want travel to become part of my life.  Even a  quick overnight trip somewhere.  Overnight because I'm not a big fan of driving so I know I would be tired and cranky if I did it all in one day.  I've been toying with this idea in my head and when I saw this photo at Flickr the destination was sealed.  I am a big fan of history and Texas history and have always wanted to go to Goliad anyway.  It will just be a quick jaunt down there and back with a stay in Victoria.  The Presidio La Bahia, which is in the area, has this incredibly cool thing where you can stay there over night, but from what I've seen it is more than I want to spend right now AND I wasn't wild about staying in the middle of nowhere by myself.  Ok, fine, I'll admit it.  I started reading about ghosts and the thought of staying in the middle of nowhere by myself with possible ghosts running around freaked me out a little so I scratched that idea.  Not that I really believe in ghosts, but the thought is a little unnerving.  Maybe one day I'll have a partner who likes travel and/or photography and we can head out there and stay in an old fortification in the middle of nowhere by ourselves.  I think it sounds terrific.  For now I'll just photograph it during the day.

So there you go.  I'm really making progress on resolution #4.  1, 2 and 3 need some work.

Decision Paralysis

I'm having a hard time nailing down details for Chicago.  I wanted to find a calendar of events to make sure I don't pick a date that coincides with a big event, but the calendars available don't tell me much.  Either the information is scare, or the navigation is bad or they haven't submitted for something as far away as June or July.  I'm starting to focus on July 13-16ish range.

The bigger issue is the hotel.  I don't know why I'm having such a hard time narrowing the field, but I have this fear of picking a dump.  I don't know where this is coming from since my mom and I stayed in a different hotel almost every time I went to San Antonio for many years and I loved trying them all out.  I guess when I am picking from a conference list I feel confident that I'm not going to end up in a roach motel.  Also, before I started looking into this travel thing I would have thought that airline flights would have been the most expensive part.  I mean people talk about getting good airlines deals all the time.  But who cares how cheap the flight is when you have to pay a lot of money for a hotel once you get there.

Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago Skyline
Originally uploaded by swisscan.

The latest contender in the "where should I go when I finally actually decide on my trip" is the Windy City.

I'm not sure when Chicago started worming it's way into my thoughts. I think I started thinking about the Field Museum (Yes, my first thought was of a museum. Gah I'm such a dork) and then I thought of the bean. Can you imagine anything more wonderful to visit for a reflection nut like me than Cloud Gate? I think I could spend the whole trip parked in front of it and call the visit a success.

And of course the merest possibility of being able to see a taping of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me has really skyrocketed Chicago to the top of the list. Unfortunately I can't plan my trip around taping dates because apparently they only make them public about 6 weeks in advance. I'm going to have to take a chance. But if I can go it would also be worth it on that aspect alone.

Now the hard part. Pulling the trigger. The part where I step out on a limb and say this is what I'm going to do and figure out the rest of the money details from there. Funny that I just had an exchange with a person on Flickr who had the following to say about travel

I had to accept the fact that I was going to have to spend more money than I wanted to anywhere that I went, but it always ends up being worth it!

So, I'm going to live with this idea for a few days and see how I feel about it. Then I might need someone to give me a push.

Or maybe....

Seattle, Washington
Originally uploaded by fddi1.

That's where my money goes

White Sands New Mexico
Originally uploaded by radzfoto.

I'm considering taking a trip during Spring Break. The biggest thing standing in my way is money. My assistant and I talk about this sometimes. Where does our money go? While we are teachers and not exactly rolling in money, we aren't exactly poor either. When this topic comes up and she laments not having money to do things she wants to do I remind her where her money goes. She is a major foodie. Each of us have things that we are willing to spend money on. For her it is food. For me, well, I think it is the details of life.

I don't buy anything big or expensive (unless I'm forced to), but I spend my money on lots of little things in between. Movies, eating out, festivals, books, perfume, etc. If I want to do something I generally go and do it, not worrying about the money. A lot of these things range between $5-$20 so I don't feel like I'm spending that much at any one time, but it all adds up. I have to remind myself of these spending habits when I see people who go on trips regularly or buy new camera equipment on a regular basis. These are two things I would really love to do, but just don't feel like I have the money. My first reaction is to assume that they make more money than I do, but that may not be it.

I might have the money to do these things, but it would be a big change for me. I wasn't disciplined enough to save for camera equipment or to pay off my credit card (something that I really want to do) before now. Do I suddenly have the strength to do it now? I really don't think I could give up going to musicals or buying books. Those are two things I can't live without. But can I give up all the other stuff? For example, I would like to get a new DVD player to take advantage of my new HDTV. I could easily afford one right now, but now I'm thinking I should wait. That would be a portion of an airline ticket right there. Or I always go to Goode Co. Seafood at least once during a vacation break. I was going to go tomorrow, but that could be the equivalent of a meal on vacation.

What I like right now is that I'm not restricted in what I do. If I want to buy a book I do. If I want to go to eat out, I do. I'm wondering if I will really discipline myself enough to save money for a trip, especially one right around the corner. And I'm talking about small trip to New Mexico for just a few days. Nothing extravagant. I definitely know my financial limitations.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do yet. I just know that when the wanderlust thread went up at Assignment: Houston, it was painfully obvious to me looking through my photo archives that I haven't been anywhere in a very long time and I want things to be different.