Boulder, Colorado, USA :: 28 days and counting

Hello and welcome to our newest travel blog!
We have decided to start our blog about a month before we fly out because so many of our friends and family are wondering what we are up to and how the preparation are coming along. We have named the blog after one of our favorite Indian breakfasts and how they offer it on the menus: toastbutterjam. It is quite compelling really, and with no real opportunity for just toast and butter, or for simply toast and jam. It is a package deal, baby. Take it or leave it. And Luke and I gobble it up.

So where to start? We got our flights on July 1 after Luke found us some great flights through Vayama. We fly out of Denver on August 27, 2008 and return January 6, 2009. I was always the goofy kid who loved to say, "See ya next year!" when leaving school for Christmas break, so I am tickled to be able to say that to friends again now, and in August no less! We are stopping in Munich for a few days on the way over to break up the flight and to visit our dear friends Amanda, Todd and Rider who move to Munich from Boulder in April. We cannot wait to see them and their new home!

Our India Visas

We sent out our passports to get our Indian visas and they just came back to us a few days ago while my folks were out for a visit. Luke's went into his passport that we used for our honeymoon travels and mine went into my newish passport that has my married name (Nurenberg-Miller) and a few stamps from our trips to Chiapas (2006) and Oaxaca (2007), Mexico. I was sad to retired my honeymoon passport, but glad to share a name with my sweetheart.

We were off to the Denver Public Health travel clinic today to get our last in the series of Twinrix (Hep A&B). Our nurse was so tender and fast with that shot--it was over before I could muster a tear. She dressed our wounds with Daffy Duck band-aides and sent us off to test our gastrointestinal fortitudes in the kitchens and water wells of India. We have decided to skip the expensive malaria pills on this trip because we will be in the Himalayas for such a large part of the trip and only in southern India for the last month. For the rest of the traveler's vaccinations, we got so many shots (I think I had 13) for our travels in 2005, that we are pretty much set for the next 20 years.

Tonight we met up with some friends and saw the movie Long Way Down. If you have the chance to see the series when it starts this weekend on Fox, do. Luke and I had already planned that our next trip (after this one) will be across the African continent; and after watching this movie, and seeing the sweet connection there is to be had with friends who we haven't met quite yet, we are all the more excited for our upcoming trip, and for the travels that will follow. It is a big beautiful world!