1500 Days to Freedom

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Vacation Consternation (And The Best Pizza In The World)

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I cannot sit still. When I had a job in an office building, I’d get up every couple of hours, go outside and walk around for a while. Same thing at my home office where I’d walk loops around the block in between writing computer code. And I don’t even like being in town for long periods of time. I live to get out of the house and on the road.

However, I think we overdid it this summer.

Trip 1: Cuba

Mrs. 1500 and I took a cruise to Cuba. Cuba was hot, but fun. The people were warm and the beer was cold. What more do you want?

 

Trip 2: West Coast Roadtrip

A couple of weeks after Cuba, we loaded up the car and headed to Moab, California (Manhattan Beach and San Diego), Las Vegas and finally Zion National Park.

Moab

Manhattan Beach
Waffles with the WoWs
San Diego
Outside Las Vegas
Observation Point, Zion National Park, Utah

 

Trip 3: NYC and Philadelphia

The girls and I tagged along with Mrs. 1500 on a work trip to Podcast Movement. Before the conference started, we headed up to New York for the weekend.

In NYC, we met up with Mr. and Mrs. Crazy Kicks who brought some spectacular beer to sample

Mmmmm, pizza. It’s not Chicago deep dish (the best in the world), but still pretty damn good
Benjamin Franklin statue showing him on of his famous inventions, the skateboard
Chinatown
The Franklin Institute was incredible
What goes around comes around

 

Dad, No More Beach!

In San Diego, Younger Daughter started whining:

Daaaad! I don’t want to go to the beach again!

Have those words ever been uttered by a human before? I don’t think so! But the complaining continued in New York:

Daaaad, I’m sick of walking. Can we just go back to our Airbnb and sit for a while?

At first, I was dismayed. Then, I realized Little Daughter had a point. I was getting a little sick of life on the road too. At this point, feel free to tell me to shut the hell up:

Dude, you’re complaining about being on vacation?

Yep.

All of the planning… Moving around every couple of days… A stifling hot Airbnb… A moldy Airbnb… Beach sand in all sorts of crevices…

Regarding that last one:

  • Mrs. 1500: Why are you walking funny?!??
  • Me: Ummmm, ummmmm….

We had been away for a long time and perhaps I was missing my routine? And then I thought of a quote I had read a long time ago:

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell. –George Shaw

And it hit me. I was missing work. Not the 40 hour/week type of work. Hell no, I don’t miss that! I won’t EVER miss that. Let’s not get crazy now.

I was missing the work that I usually do when I’m at home; typing on this blog, building and fixing stuff around the house, messing with the cars, watering the plants, etc.

I get a little nuts if I don’t get to do some work every once in a while and being with my children full-time doesn’t allow for that.

Next year, we have a one week trip planned to the Midwest. In Chicago, I’ll sample the best pizza in the world:

So, so beautiful. I love you Mr. Deep Dish Pizza.

After that, we’ll head up to Cheeseland (Wisconsin) for some more heart destroying food. Deep fried cheese curds anyone?

We’ll stay in Chicago and Wisconsin longer and take it easy. Hopefully Younger Daughter doesn’t complain.

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Comments

  1. I was just in Chicago and you’re absolutely right about that being the best pizza in the world. I hit up Rosati’s Pizza (Elmhurst) and Giordano’s (downtown)….man….off the chain! And I also totally get being on vacation too long…my offset to that crisis is finding a local bookstore the first day and going to my favorite fallback when not engaged in sightseeing, etc., but eventually even that ends. Sounds like you guys had a great time….
    JRobi recently posted…New Goal, New Challenge and Some Morning Motivation….My Profile

  2. It’s not pizza — it’s a CASSEROLE! But it sure is incredible.

    Your post is timely for me: we’re heading to Berlin for almost two weeks next Friday. It’ll be the first time we’ve spent more than four nights in any one place on vacation. I’m hoping it sets the tone right for some relaxation; I’m looking forward to living like locals, and hope the experience gets my wife fully onboard with the FIRE-to-slow-travel path I’ve semiconsciously plotted out. Still not yet convinced it’s worth taking laptops, though. 😉

    • Haha, it may be even more than a casserole! Whatever it is, it sure tastes good. Just have a defibrillator handy!

      Berlin! Whoah, that is a bucket list item for me! Have a wonderful time! I haven’t been able to pry the laptop out of my travel backpack yet, so if you do end up leaving it home, you’re one step ahead of me!

  3. Ok, but what do you consider the best deep dish in Chicago? (As I’m sure you know, there are totally correct and incorrect answers to this!)

    Fried cheese curds are one of the best foods known to man. I highly endorse the Dairy Consumption Plan.

    I love to travel, but I agree there have to be plans for rest along the way to allow time to develop a bit of a routine. Whenever we took vacations as a kid, my mother always designated 1 rest day per 3 “vacation” days. That was the day we were allowed to watch TV at the hotel while laundry was done, go to a mall for unstructured walking around, spend time chilling by the pool, etc. I tend to be always going during vacations, and I’m glad for my husband, who has taught me how to slow down to a sustainable pace and settle in to a city instead of scratching its surface.

    • Pizza! I LOVE Pequod’s! However, I think Gino’s East and Giordano’s are pretty great too. How about you?

      “I’m glad for my husband, who has taught me how to slow down to a sustainable pace and settle in to a city instead of scratching its surface.”

      That’s great advice. Reflecting on our travel, I think that it would have been more fun and rewarding to do just what you said; go deep in one place instead of trying to see stuff all over the country.

      • Pequod’s, Lou Malnati’s, and Giordano’s are my go-tos! You have pretty good taste. 🙂

        The earliest trips I planned, I was a city-hopper and rarely stayed in one place more than 1-2 nights. I try to shoot for at least 3-4 nights now, and I love booking in to places with a kitchen so I can explore the markets and make food at home instead of going out all of the time. Slow travel is a lot of fun, more relaxing, and significantly cheaper!

  4. Your travel sounds like a lot of fun, but tiring too. We went to Iceland and then California earlier this summer. It was a ton of fun, but I”m all worn out now. I didn’t blog while I was on vacation and it’s really tough to get back into the routine.
    This is why I don’t think I can be a digital nomad. I don’t want to do anything when I’m on the road. Traveling gets old after just a few weeks. For us, being home is much better than being on the road constantly.

  5. hell man, that’s a lot of driving. did you eat at the kettle in manhattan beach? i used to like that late night dump. our friend we rent our cabin from just called and said he had a cancellation for a week before our week. asked if we wanted it and i didn’t even have to think about it. yes. 2 weeks in one place on a quiet lake? i might never come back. and montreal is an hour away if we decide on a little day trip. we like putting our stuff down and chillin’. i’m glad your family didn’t conduct a mutiny.
    freddy smidlap recently posted…Good Eats for Cheap #3 – Black BeansMy Profile

  6. First great to have all of you!!! It was a ton of fun!!
    Second, we learned this on our 6 week trip through Europe where we spent no more than 3 days in one city. by the end we were spent. It was awesome but exhausting.

    We learned our lesson. So now we do a minimum of a week places, if we can. We did 2 weeks in the same place in Cape town and it was fantastic. Gives you time to relax and enjoy the place, not just cram everything in.

  7. Great pics, and good times!

    I gotta agree, travel is a lot of fun, but also takes a lot of energy. We’ve been taking a break from travelling this summer to relax and work on projects around the house. Sometimes it’s just nice to spend your days watering the garden, making meals, researching mushrooms, and getting a good nap 🙂

    Take a break, and you’ll be ready for more travel soon enough. Maybe another trip out to the east coast…. You at least gotta give Connecticut pizza a shot before you name the best in the world!

  8. Long vacations can certainly be fun (yours certainly looks like it!), but I definitely get tired of sleeping in hotel rooms, driving around to attractions, and eating junk food from restaurants. It’s not a healthy lifestyle for me.

    I definitely like that feeling when “I’m finally home”. A good night’s sleep, good food, and some mental/physical activity.
    Mr. Tako recently posted…Roasting Your Own Salsa – For Big SavingsMy Profile

  9. Pizza and beer. Yum.

    Maybe a future post topic…beer seems to be high on your list of entertainment/hobbies.

    As I get older, 1 or 2 beers (especially the micros) has a larger and larger impact on me.

    I am very curious if beer consumption (as a hobby) should be de-prioritized at some point. If it was smoking cigs or marijuana it would be a more striking questions. My dad had quadruple bypass after 50 years of smoking.

    Maybe more of a “things I enjoy” but are doing me no good in this long run.

    Thanks for the update!

    • “As I get older, 1 or 2 beers (especially the micros) has a larger and larger impact on me.”

      Me too. I wake up in the middle of the night after the alcohol wears off and can’t get back to sleep. I also sweat like crazy in bed. Very recently, I started limiting my consumption to social events, maybe 2 per week. Thinking now, I haven’t had a drink in almost one week and will probably be dry this weekend. I’d rather sample small quantities of really good beer with friends.

      Plus the man gut. Ugggh.

      The good part about FIRE life is that I now get waaaay more time to exercise which should counter those high-octane craft brews!

  10. Fun vacations, but I echo the others – you’ve got to try the ‘slow travel’ thing…
    You can’t reasonably see everything, everywhere you go… trying picking one key thing to see or do per day and leave the rest of the time for spontaneity and chillaxin’
    Even better if you spend 4+ nights in the same location and live like a local
    Younger Daughter was wise to try to slow you down – stop and smell the waffles! (the food, not the people – that would be weird)

  11. Yay! You’ll be in my neck of the woods next year (WI)! 🙂

    Complaining about to much vacation is a great spot to be in. Means you are doing something right (or not? haha!). Someday I hope to be able to make the same complaint (I like to be a slow traveler)! However, I don’t know if I could ever get sick of the beach.. I deal with Lake Michigan (big sigh – it is what it is), but enjoy other beaches as we visit them (hello Mexico and Bermuda – DIVINE).

    • I LOVE Wisconsin! If you’re in the area (Madison?), I’ll buy the first beer or round of cheese curds.

      Lake Michigan is pretty great. Cold, but great! It takes me about an hour to get in that water. One time when we were living in Chicago, it was early June and the air temperature was in the 90s, but the lake was in the high 50s. I had just finished a long bike ride and was really hot, so went in the lake. Let me tell you, that was a one-time experience. I’m pretty sure that I was the only one in the water.

      Never been to Bermuda, but now I want to go!

  12. Dude, are you serious? I guess even paradise gets boring if you get to be in it every day. Have some pity on us corporate road warriors please.

    This is what what your post sounds like to me when I am at LA airport now waiting to catch a 16 hr long haul flight to Asia! Can we trade places? I will throw in a 6 pack of your favorite beer too.
    Roman recently posted…Mystical FIREMy Profile

  15. Your travel feels like numerous fun, however tiring too. We went to Iceland after which California earlier this summer. It turned into a ton of amusing, however I”m all wiped out now. I didn’t weblog whilst i used to be on vacation and it’s without a doubt hard to get lower back into the routine.
    this is why I don’t suppose I can be a digital nomad. I don’t want to do anything when I’m on the road. touring receives old after only some weeks. For us, being domestic is much higher than being on the street constantly.