Final Days Before Departure

The cats are in preparation mode - Cairo in a hotel waiting to fly to Pennsylvania to her new home with Elizabeth and Don.

Macha is watching Chakra help Rowan pack.

Macha is getting in a box to go with us.

The storage unit (one of two, the other being very full) is getting the last of our things for a year and a half.

Dropping Off the Cars to Sell After We LeaveAnd the cars are both ready to be sold by Daniel at International Fine Automotive in Culver City

And the coup-de-grace is Jennifer, our next-dor neighbor, who is being "Auntie Jenni-fur" for Macha and Chakra for as long as we are gone.  Thanks, Jennifer!!!

Shocking Shots

We have now completed all the immunizations that are required for our trip.  Those include rabies, polio, tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, meningococcal meningitis, and typhoid (the only oral one).  We really got wiped out by the typhoid, which required 4 doses 2 days apart.  We discovered that one gets scars and should use alternate arms to decrease the pain of the inoculations. 

And speaking of pain, Rowan visited both the dentist to repair a loose cap and the endodontist, who finished a root canal this week.

The Race Begins

We are starting to prepare and discover a travel consultant, Pam of The Art of Vacationing, whose mission in life is to help people use the airline miles they have worked so hard and paid so much to accumulate.  Whereas our efforts yield two enhanced economy seats fro Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia (our proposed first stop), she contacts our airline (British Airways) and discovers another way to do it.  So we are off to Tokyo in First Class on American Airlines on June 16, 2011, and we will stay there for 9 nights, and then we travel business class on Japan Airlines to Sydney on June 27.