Jan 8th, 2007
Julee and Lou’s Radical Sabbatical
Hi!
Julee and I are kicking this year off with some traveling. We are taking advantage of a window of opportunity (between consutling gigs) and over the next 2.5 months we will literally be traveling “around the world”.
Using the airline miles that I have been so preciously hording over the years, we will be traveling west from Chicago and visiting various places in Southeast Asia, South Africa and South America.
We are bringing a laptop and we will be posting photos and blog entries along the way. All photos will be posted on my flickr account. Blog entries can be found on my website at www.loupy.com. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to get email notifications when new entries are posted. To do this click on subscribe on the on the loupy.com homepage.
We know it sounds crazy, so here are some answers to the questions that we’ve been asked:
F.A.Q.
Q. How many frequent flyer miles was it?
A. Each “Around the World” ticket was 190k miles. This was for Business Class seats. Coach was about 40k miles less but we decided that a trip of this magnitude required the extra comfort. Our average flight time is 10 hours.
Q. Was the entire trip booked using miles?
A. Almost, to qualify for the 190k we purchased some of the smaller cheaper legs that would have put us into the next award category (220k miles). Ex: We bought Johannasburg – Capetown Round trip on the equivalient of South Africa’s Southwest Airlines.
Q. Where are you most excited to go?
Lou A: South Africa, both Capetown and the Safaris
Julee A: The Glacier in Argentina, the Safaris and The Sumo Match in Tokyo
Q. How much luggage are you taking?
A: We each get one roller bag and one day pack. Julee wanted to use backpack and stay in hostels. Our travel agent told her she was a grown up and needed a rolly!
Q. How long will you be in each place?
A.
Japan 5 days
Thailand 8 days
Singapore 3 days
Hong Kong 3 Days
Cape Town 6 days
Safari in Kruger 5 days
Madrid 3 days
Argentina 9 days
Chile 9 days
Peru 6 days
Q. How did you pick the destinations?
A. Since it was the middle of winter we wanted to stick in the Southern Hemisphere and catch their summer weather. We also wanted places that neither of us had been to before.
Q. Are you meeting anyone else on the trip?
A. We will be meeting up with our friends Chuck and Anne in Peru to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Piccu. We will also be seeing Julee’s college friend, Jen Angeles, in Tokyo. They were housemates senior year at Michigan.
Q. How can you take this much time off work?
A. I just finished a 5 year contract at my last client. Julee has built up an excellent staff and she is confident that her business will be in great hands while we are gone. We will also be pretty well connected along the way.
Q. How did you plan all this?
A. With a ton of guide books (our living room looks like the travel section at borders), lots of internet research and our excellent travel agent Julia the owner of Jet Set World Travel. She is now officially 1 of 45 Virgin Atlantic “Space Agents” and already has has us on a layaway plan for a trip to Mars.
Q. When do you leave?
A. Tuesday morning, 1/9, at 6 AM.
Q. Which comfort food will you miss most.
Louis A: Barnaby’s Pizza
Julee A: Bagel Dogs
We’re excited, nervous and frantically trying to get ready.
Happy New Year to everyone and we’ll see you in March.
Lou and Julee
4 Responses to “Julee and Lou’s Radical Sabbatical”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Have a wonderful time – I’ll look forward to your updates!
Call me from the top of a mountain!
Hope things are going well so far; can’t wait to see some pics.
I have been soooo busy working 10 jobs that I haven’t been able to sit down and follow your trip. With that said, I have finally caught up on your adventures and quite frankly feel that I have vicarioulsy traveled through you both. Thanks for the much needed vacation!!!! I can’t wait to see where we go next