Off to Europe

I'm heading to Europe for a very quick trip beginning 7/30....here are two pics I took when I was there in June...the top photo overlooking the Thames River and downtown Paris from Yvana and Tom Stevens' family property in France...the photo below was taken from my hotel window in London overlooking what I thought was THE London Bridge...turned out to be 'London Tower Bridge'....cool nevertheless.

One of the perks of my job has been the ability to visit new parts of the world. Growing up, we didn't do much traveling as a family beyond the occasional trip to Florida or Michigan. Touring around the midwest and East coast back in the day to follow my favorite music was really my first introduction to 'traveling' (95 Phish tour the best tour I did). Traveling abroad is only something I started doing 3 years ago. Although touring Europe and hopefully someday Asia, 'exciting' life on the road can quickly turn into 'loneliness' and 18 hour work days.

Is traveling for work a perk? Or, is it something that turns into a burden when it comes to home and family? To think of being away from my family for more than 1, sometimes 2 weeks - in another country - on the other side of the planet - 8 or 9 hours ahead - away from my kids - away from my bed - away from my wife.......or to be in my wife's shoes - have her husband more than 5500 miles away - being alone at home with four kids - to wake up at 6 a.m. and immediately start thinking about when it is nap time - to be communicating/socializing with no one over four years old the majority of the day.....I am not sure traveling for work is a perk. But, it is the sacrifice that many of us make to hopefully better life in the future.