Blogs from Burlington, Washington, United States, North America

TRAVEL DURING COVID In order to allay my daughter’s fears about my bringing home Covid from my trip to Mexico I followed suggested guidelines from the Covid Prevention Center while traveling; avoid crowds, wear a mask, and keep a safe distance apart. As an additional precaution when I returned to the United States, I decided to self-quarantine, camping alone for two weeks in a State Park. (The weather was so nice I actually stayed 21 days). I am a backpacker and have hiked in the Cascades in Washington State for almost thirty years. Usually, my trips are in the high country. Sometimes I hike with my daughter and sometimes with friends, but I often hike alone. This is however, a high-density camper area and I am rarely truly alone anymore. Someone is always passing me on ... read more

The event that we have been awaiting for over a year has finally arrived. Our German friends from Haigerloch have now joined us in Washington! After much planning, preparation, anticipation and building excitement, we were ready to welcome them into our homes. After months of emails and Skype chats, it felt as though we were welcoming lifelong friends. Our group slowly trickled in to the area outside of the "A" gates starting at about 10am. By 11, we were ready, en masse, excitedly waiving handmade signs and eagerly asking every departing passenger which city they were coming from, hoping beyond hope they would reply "Newark", thereby signaling our friends imminent arrival. Eventually one of our group exclaimed, "I see blue, there they are"! It was true, they had arrived. A tired but excited group emerged from ... read more

Alright folks, it's just about "Go Time"! I am sure you have been packed a ready for several days now, and none of you are scrambling to put everything together at the last minute. Regardless of where you might be in the packing a preparation process, here are some links that may help, and that you might find interesting as the group departs. For those of you who may be wondering "Can I pack my air soft gun in my carry-on baggage?", or "Just how many pounds of candy and snacks am I allowed to cram into my carry-on?"; here are a couple of links to help. First, the official TSA Packing Guidelines. Next, the packing guidelines provided by Iceland Air for Carry-On Baggage and url=http://www.icelandair.us/information/baggage-information... read more

And we're off! Twenty-five anxious and excited host families met at the airport in eager anticipation of our guests arrival, welcome signs in hand and smiling wide. Our friends from Haigerloch, Germany have arrived in Washington for their two week visit! All of the preparation and planning is complete thanks to the leadership of our own Heidi Herder and we are ready to rock! After the blue clad Haigerloch crew had collected their baggage, we were off in separate directions (mostly north of course). Some took the opportunity to explore Seattle on this beautiful and mostly sunny day, a truly rare occasion here lately. The obvious first stop of Dicks Burgers was a popular one for many in order to partake in some uniquely Seattle artery clogging goodness! Pike Place Market, the Seattle Underground Tour, the ... read more

As we prepare to depart in just a few short days, I thought I would provide some links and tips to help you all prepare. First, travel guru Rick Steves' packing list . Second, HERE is an interesting article published just yesterday in the Seattle Times about parents compounding homesickness by "tech hovering". Not that any of our groups parents would do this of course, but still an interesting read. Here is a site devoted to tracking flights. Follow us all the way to Hamburg via Flight Aware . The Airport code for Seattle is KSEA, Hamburg is HAM, Reykjavik is BIKF. If you would like to actually listen to the air traffic control tower feeds online, you can do so url=http://www... read more