19 days and counting!

My sabbatical is quickly coming upon me. I thought that the days would drag by, but lately I’ve been so busy at work I hardly think about it. I’m sure the closer it gets, the longer the days will seem.

So, the big question everyone has been asking me is, “What are you going to do with all that time off?”. That question is easy enough to answer, I’m going on a photography expedition! As my good friends know, I love photography and traveling. As for deciding where to go on this expedition has been, to say the least, difficult. First I wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand, then I changed my mind and was planning to go to Tibet. After that, I thought about back packing through Europe. But in the end, I figured I’d stay for most of it here in the States and a short side trip to South America.

I know what you’re thinking, why stay in the States? Well, I’ve been fortunate to have a job which has sent me all over the world. I’ve been to China, Puerto Rico, Ireland, UK, Brazil, Hong Kong and Malaysia. All of these countries have been great and I would love to see more of the world, but there is SOO much of the U.S. that I haven’t seen. This is the perfect chance for me to see some of the great national parks of the U.S.

So, I don’t have an agenda set in stone, I like to have a loose schedule with general targets of areas I want explore. I plan to pack up the car with a tent, sleeping bag, camping supplies and of course my camera/netbook and just drive. With that said, here’s some places that I’d like to see:

• Crater Lake Sure, It’s close to home but it’s on the way.
• Northern California Redwoods I haven’t been here since I was in middle school.
• Yosemite National Park I’ve been told you can’t go to Cali without seeing Yosemite.
• Sequoia and King Canyon
• Death Valley It’s on the way to Southern Utah / Northern Arizona so I might as well drive through.
• Zion It seems not a lot of people have heard of this park in South Eastern Utah but I’ve been told it’s well worth the trip.
• Bryce Canyon I’m drooling over the sunrise / sunset photo possibilities here.
• Grand Canyon It’s big, enough said.

It’s a lot to see in around 4 weeks, hopefully I’ll have enough time!

After my big road trip, it’s off to Bogota Colombia for my good friends, Sylvia and Hernan’s wedding. This will be my first trip to Colombia and I’m really excited about it. There is a group of us gringos going and we’re planning to share an apartment while we’re there. The cool thing is that I used airline miles to purchase my tickets. 75 bucks to fly to Bogota is pretty darn good if you ask me.

Anyways, thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you stick around for this great adventure of mine. I’m planning to blog as much as possible, but considering I’ll be camping for most of the trip, the posts will come in bunches whenever I find an internet connection.