"Vacation - all I ever wanted... Vacation - got to get away!"

It's almost time for my annual summer vacation, and I've been really procrastinating on making plans! I've finally started to map out my trip to the Pacific NW, and here's how it's looking so far:

First off, as I mentioned I'm going to Eugene next weekend for frisbee. I was considering going directly to Seattle from Oregon, and just hanging out there for 2 weeks through Potlatch, but I've decided not to do that. Instead I'll be flying back and forth a little bit, but in the end it'll work out better this way.

Friday the 26th I hope to find good plane tickets (I'd better get on that!) which will put me in Seattle in time to rent a car and get to Red Robin at Redmond Town Center around dinnertime (5ish). Ideally some or all of my friends in Seattle (Sean, Mohan, Runjith, Alex, Jeremy, Amelia, Julie, Peter, Renee, Matt...) will be able to meet me for dinner there, then we could go to Uncle's Games for their Friday night game night. Last year that worked out really well and was a great start to my vacation.

I hope to spend the weekend with my friends, hanging out, playing games, doing whatever. I believe there's a game night on Saturday night that I might go to, and I will play pickup ultimate at Marymoor park on Sunday.

Monday there's a frisbee pickup game on Microsoft campus, I went to a couple of those last year and they were fun. I met a guy who played at Nationals against the Barrio team from Tucson, who just happens to work in the office next to my friend Peter!

After frisbee (and a shower) I would like to drive up to Vancouver. I've never been there but have been meaning to go. I hear it's real nice, and that there's good frisbee to be had, though I'm not sure I'll get to play any frisbee in Vancouver this time. Instead, I will meet up with Jay, who I met at the GAMA trade show. I really enjoyed hanging out with him in Las Vegas, and Tasty Minstrel Games will be publishing a game of his, so I'll be working on it with him - I'm looking forward to that. I liked the game when I played it at GAMA.

I'll stay with Jay for 2 days, then I'll head back down to Seattle on Thursday, when my Potlatch teammates should start to arrive. I'll be all about frisbee through the weekend, camping on the fields, playing 3 days of Ultimate, and hanging out with a ton of cool people. Potlatch is by far my favorite tournament of the year, and the team I have been playing with has been a lot of fun. It's about 40% people from the Sacramento area, 40% people from Canada, and 10% people like me from here or there around the country. I met most of these guys when I went to Acapulco for frisbee, which I did 4 or 5 times - though not in several years now. The Acapulco trip was also a fun one, but Potlatch is a better trip overall for me because I get to spend the week in Seattle vacationing.

After Potlatch on Sunday I hope to visit with my sister, brother in law, and brand new Nephew! Jonah Reuben Titelbaum is gong to be about 2 months old by then, and I would like to meet him already!

I'm not sure how long after Potlatch I'll stay in Seattle. I keep thinking that if I stay through Wednesday or Thursday, I might as well stay through the next weekend - but then I have to find things to do all week. There's Microsoft pickup Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Sean said there's a group that meets at Google offices to play games on Wednesday nights (I wouldn't mind seeing Google), and last year I remember going to a game night at a Microsoft building as well with Christopher Rao (someone who's into game design). I could probably visit with my sister a lot as well, maybe help her out with whatever I can - I understand it's hard to do stuff with a baby!

The down side is that I'd miss an extra week of frisbee league, and 2 weeks is a really long time to leave my kitty alone, even if Mandy will happily watch my DVR the entire time I'm gone.

So I'm set through Potlatch weekend, I just have to bu some tickets, which means I have to figure out when to come home. It's looking like a great vacation so far though!