Just after the New Year I traveled with Sincerely to Maui on a workation—sort of a working holiday/retreat. It was surreal to spend what was then only my third week of the new job, not to mention my first time, in Hawaii. By the end, the trip proved to be an invaluable bonding experience, and jumpstarted my acclimation to the team.

The incredible view from our rental house

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I like collecting unusual animal crossing signs (previously: kiwi, cow, bears & deer, bighorn, and elk). I don’t know why.

Wild boar crossing sign, just south of Carmel

Flying over a solitary boat in the Mediterranean

After two satisfying weeks with Stephanie’s family, we were on a plane, flying home to San Francisco. It’s funny because it was at exactly the same time last year—almost to the day—that we boarded the Hanjin Palermo for the final leg of our journey around the world. That we’ve been back in the US for a year—a year!—did not go unobserved.

A table and chair on Rue de l’Orbitelle

Together with her mom and aunt, Stephanie and I took the narrow-gauge Train des Pignes to visit the medieval walled city of Entrevaux. After stopping first to visit the town of Annot, we arrived in Entrevaux just in time for lunch. In true French fashion, our basic three-course meal at L’Auberge du Planet stretched out over two hours, leaving us less than an hour to explore before our train left for Nice. So we neglected the citadel perched high above the town, preferring instead to wander in the shade of Entrevaux’s narrow streets. Which was all well and good, as it was blazing hot that day.

Last Thursday, Stephanie and I set off on our annual pilgrimage to France. In the hopes that we’d acclimate to the nine hour time zone difference sooner, we spent the week before the trip waking up two hours earlier than usual, and then four hours earlier on the day of our flight. But of course we couldn’t just sit around the house in the dark waiting for the sun to rise. Which explains why we were wandering around San Francisco at 4am.

South Beach Harbor before dawn (previously)