Everyone’s been clamoring for an update, so here’s the long story long of the past week:

Now that we’ve been in Kenya for four full days, our last weekend in San Francisco, which was a last minute comedy of errors, feels like forever ago. We had a great going away party at our empty loft, and felt much love in the fun sendoff celebration.

We made our guests participate in a bunch of activities, including Map Activity (see image), Drinking Activity, and Take Our Crap Cool Stuff Activity.

Folks came with beer and left with toilet paper, poster paper, a night splint for plantar faciitis, an orange hard hat, a big clock, Gatorade powder, a 2,000 piece puzzle of Cinque Terra with the colors already separated into ziplock bags, cleats, mini easels, an adult coloring book, and so much more!

Saturday was a day of packing, prepping for the last trip to the storage unit, and cleaning (gotta get that security deposit back!). We had Chicago style deep dish pizza for a late lunch before we went to hang out with some friends and their home brew beer. Then we played in a night time indoor goaltimate tournament. It was really fun to run around and play some high level goalty to momentarily forget the stress of moving.

Sunday morning we picked up a uHaul and packed it full with the remaining odds and ends that didn’t go to the storage unit during round 1 with all the furniture. We unloaded everything at StorageMart in Oakland (a creepy place where murders have 100% happened), and it all fit! I also found my colleague’s coat that got accidentally left at our place then got accidentally packed up then got accidentally put in storage. Back in SF I dropped Oskar the Fiat 🚗 off with his temporary new mom and went to a super bowl party after halftime. Sunday night we slept on our camping pads.

So far so good.

Then Monday. Our flight time was 1:45pm so we had the whole morning for everything to go not quite right.

Bill had an early morning breakfast meeting while I dealt with my last minute things that were completely avoidable if I had just done them earlier: car insurance stuff (that can only be done via talking to a customer service rep) and unlocking my phone from ATT (which required another many phone calls though it shouldn’t have). I should have also called my bank to tell them I was traveling so my credit card wouldn’t get declined in Frankfurt when I tried to buy a big pretzel on our layover, but there wasn’t time… because as I went to zip up my suitcase for the final time, the zipper broke. Not only did the zipper break but the whole zipper strip came off the suitcase and was no longer attached. It had a great run that old suitcase. Sigh. Anyway, a mild panic set in. It was only 9am, so there was time to Uber to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a new one (with a 20% off coupon!). I got a bigger one, which at first was good, but then later proved a bad idea.

While I repacked from the broken suitcase to the new one and did the last trash haul and cleaning, Bill went to the bank because we forgot to store our piggy bank (a box of loose change from the past 3 years). There was over 40 bucks of coins, but Bill had to hand roll all of it in those paper rollers, which was a great use of his time an hour before we have to leave for the airport. After he got those two crisp Jacksons, one of which helped pay for the big pretzels during the Frankfurt layover, he had to go to FedEx to send back our sonic internet router. But first he had to print out the shipping label. Which was in his email. Which has two factor authentication set up. Which is normally the best. Except he had already unlocked his phone from his carrier. Meaning he could no longer receive text messages. Text messages with the code for the second factor authentication. He also couldn’t call me to tell me what was going on. More mild panic. Luckily he searched deep in his phone for saved email records and somehow was able to get the shipping label printed, then he sprinted home.

We head off to the airport at 11:30. We arrive exactly 2 hours before takeoff, with our two checked bags each, a carry on, and a personal item. So in other words, a lot of crap. There’s also a 50 pound limit on all checked bags, and a $200 overweight charge. And yup, you guessed it, 3 out of 4 dentists recommend Colgate and 3 out of 4 of our suitcases were overweight. Remember that new bigger, better suitcase from a couple paragraphs ago? Yeah. Not so great now at 70 pounds. So now we’re in the international terminal next to the kiosks and scales with all of our bags open frantically trying to rearrange. And I’m a meticulously OCD packer – very organized and strategic, socks in shoes, soles of shoes not touching nice clothes, next outfit on top ready to go – so this was a real test for me. #personalgrowth

We repack, check the weight, check the time. Repeat. Not stressful at all, no. Then my Patagonia Black Hole Duffle Bag comes to the rescue, which was folded and packed in a suitcase! We transfer 40 pounds of crap essentials to the duffle and pay $200 for an extra checked bag. $200 for 5 bags was the cheaper option than $600 for 3 overweight bags. We high five then fly through the Pre-Check security with enough time to buy a snack, fill the water bottles and pee. Then we were off and I watched/slept through so many movies! #11hoursthen7hours