Leaving, on a jet plane, I don't know when we'll back again!

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go... Graduation and work are done, we've left our humble abode at Ivy Gardens where we've enjoyed an amazing last two years with our great friends in Charlottesvile, our apartment is crammed into Uncle Mark and Aunt Kitty's basement, and tomorrow at 2:45pm we will depart from Dulles airport for the first leg of our trip! It is amazing that it is already here. The last month has flown by just as Sammar had predicted and now it is time to tackle the trip that we have been planning for over 2 years.


It's hard to describe our feelings right now. We're sad that we have just left our friends in Charlottesville. We are excited about spending 3 1/2 months exploring the World. We are anxiously reading the news about Thailand's military coup and praying that it will not throw a wrench in out plans. We are wondering what it will feel like to step into the airport tomorrow and sing "leaving, on a jet plane..."

I am sure that our trip will be filled with jaw-dropping sights, phenomenal foods, long plane, train, automobile, boat, and even elephant rides, moments of pure joy and moments of pure confusion. But to steal a line from one of our favorite movies: we hope.

We hope that the mountain vistas in Sapa are lush, vast and green. We hope that Angkor Wat is as mighty and magnificent as described and that it truly is a wonder of the World. We hope the military coup in Thailand does not stop us from seeing the amazing country. We hope the sun shines down on us on the white-sand beaches of Bali. We hope that the animals are aplenty as we cross the Serengeti, that we can sing Tenacious D in Zanzibar, that deep blues and greens of Lake Malawi's waters provide a moment of serenity, and that the pounding falls of Victoria make our legs shake. We hope that the Turkish seafood melts in our mouths and that we enjoy precious time with Sammar's family in Cappadocia and Istanbul. We hope that Italy doesn't run out of Cannolis after we eat our way through town, that my mom and dad enjoy every moment of our visit to the birth country of my Great Grandmother Santa Ianello, and that the vistas from the trails of Cinque Terre are so amazing that they make us forget that our pants are unbuttoned since our wastelines are no longer fit. We hope that we remember enough Spanish to express our feelings after jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet. We hope that you can follow us along this amazing journey, right here, and leave comments so we don't forget the great friends and family that we get to return to when this trip is done!

Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies (bonus points if you can name the movie, Stace & Core, you better get this!), so we're hoping that this trip is everything that we've dreamed, and that Sammar's hard work(really, she did 99% of the planning) and my Delta miles turn into 3 1/2 months that we will never forget.

Signing of for now, first stop, VIETNAM!

Kyle & Sammar