Day 62 – Next Topic!

I haven’t blogged in the last few days. I haven’t really had any coffee reflection time, either. After we got back to Chicago from our vacation, and into the land of internet, we also went into warp speed trying to finish up everything at our jobs in preparation for our move to California. It was a crazy several days, culminating with a very delayed flight yesterday. We were on the tarmac for three hours due to weather delays, and then had a four hour flight when we finally were able to take off. By the time we landed in San Jose, all three of us were worn out and pretty much done! Especially Baby Girl, who had been fighting a little bit of a bug, too.

After a good night’s rest, however, I’m feeling refreshed. I had time to sit down and enjoy some coffee this morning! We are temporarily living in corporate housing until we find our own place here, which I hope will be soon. After weeks of living on the road, and then a month or more of living in corporate housing, I’m sure we will be ready to have our own place again! Mr. Coffeebeans starts his job on Monday, and I’m in the process of looking for a job for myself since I wasn’t able to transfer with my firm.

Since I didn’t have time to have coffee or reflect on anything over the last several days, I’m just ignoring the last few days entirely and moving on to day 62 and the next topic! I enjoyed researching natural wonders over the last month, and it sparked my travel bug, but I missed the more intellectual level of research of the first month when I researched art. So, I decided to try something different and attempt a little more intellectual look at travel. There are many, many countries I want to visit, but I don’t necessarily know a great deal about those countires. So I want to pick a few countries I’m especially interested in and spend several days in a row learning more about them. Not just about their top travel spots, but a little bit about their government, history, and culture. So, stay tuned tomorrow as I decide on the first country I will look at! What countries are you interested in learning more about?

One more thing… I would be remiss if I did not congratulate the Germans on winning the World Cup today! Mr. Coffeebeans was very excited about that! It was a long, close game, but Germany prevailed!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 61 – I Almost Feel Badly Talking About Brazil Today…

So as I said yesterday, today I’m going to finish talking about the seven natural wonders of the world. I’ve already discussed six of them, and the last wonder on the list is the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (also known as Guanabara Bay). Those of you who have been paying attention to the World Cup know that Brazil lost horribly to Germany in the semifinal today. Germany scored seven goals to Brazil’s one, which is almost unheard of in soccer. And to make matters worse for Brazil, the game was in Brazil. Of course, Mr. Coffeebeans and Baby Girl were excited since Mr. Coffeebeans is German. Well, Baby Girl didn’t really understand why she was excited, but Daddy was so she was!

Despite Brazil’s humiliating soccer defeat today, I’m still going to talk about the last natural wonder I haven’t discussed- the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro means “January River.” The Portuguese explorers who discovered the Harbor named it for the date they discovered it- January 1^st (in 1502). It’s not actually a river, though, but rather a huge bay. This Harbor is the largest bay in the world based on water, and was created by erosion from the Atlantic Ocean. Granite mountains surround the Harbor, including the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain, from which you can see panoramic views of the Harbor. Visitors can see the Harbor by air tour, boat tour, or traveling to the top of one of the mountain peaks overlooking it.

The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro is interesting among the seven natural wonders list, because instead of being in a remote or very natural location like most of the other wonders, it is in a big city. This means that it can be harder to have a “natural” world experience when visiting this wonder, but it also means visitors can see a natural wonder while enjoying the culture and comforts of a big city. You can read more about the Harbor here: http://sevennaturalwonders.org/the-original/harbour-of-rio-de-janeiro/ and here: http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/rio.htm

That’s it for this month and the Natural Wonders! Stay tuned tomorrow for the start of a new month and new topic!

Xoxo,

Diana