07 August 2011

“Born to fly.”  This is the motto for Condor Airlines, the latest international carrier to start flying out of Seattle and the one that will carry us to Frankfurt tomorrow for the start of our 6 week cycling tour.  I like the phrase.  It implies confidence.  Like Bruce Springsteen was Born to Run and Zig Ziglar was Born to Win and Gina’s mom was Born to Shop.  Know your purpose and act on it.  For an airline, its purpose is to fly, so better yet that it believes in that from its first baby breaths.  The graphic on Condor’s home page announcing this new service is quite cutesy too, only I dunno, do you think the little sky-writers look like actual flies?

I can’t be sure but I think they bear a strong resemblance.  I’m not convinced that flies in advertising sell all that well, but then again they worked on us for it’s Condor’s tickets we have in hand.

Six weeks cycling in Europe.  No five words go better together except maybe for “you just won a million” or “your shoes will arrive tomorrow.”  We are counting our blessings once more that we have this time to enjoy.  It’s been a fantastic 7 weeks in Seattle re-connecting (Gina’s favorite new word after organizing and spreadsheet) with family and friends and re-establishing a home base, but now it’s time for one more big, traveling hurrah.  We’ll start in Frankfurt and from there head to … Belgium? Luxembourg? France? Switzerland?  No solid itinerary at this point, just a plan to saddle up and ride.  Born to Bicycle, I suppose.

So until we have internet again, here are a few pics from the past week that remind us of the many great days we’ve spent back home this summer, from Happy Hours to Blue Angels to Sister Shelley’s visit.  Even the blue sky came back for a Seattle send-off.  Chalk up one more blessing.