I’m going to keep this brief (or my version of brief) as I’m already in Kyrgyzstan after spending 15 days in Kazakhstan and am falling way behind. I hope to keep the blog going while in Asia but it’s getting harder by the second; especially since I’m traveling with my buddy Ken for the next two months and have less time for writing these stories. There’s a real possibility that it becomes like my 2022 travel blog where I got stuck in Quito, Ecuador forever and never finished writing about the last 2.5 months of the trip. But for now I will do my best to plow forward.  

After Brazil, I flew to Sarasota to celebrate my grandpa’s 97th birthday and have a family reunion on my Mom’s side. It was a nice soft landing from travel to be with family in a comfortable setting at my parents’ home. It’s always a pleasure being Funcle Colin with my brothers’ kids. I love spending time with them and watching their unique personalities grow. 

Besides enjoying my time with my immediate family, it was also great to hang out with my cousins and see them in both parent and party mode. 

And of course I was so happy to spend time with my grandpa and see the spark of life and energy he got from having the whole family together. 

My week back in Sarasota went way too fast and in the blink of an eye I was off to New York with my repacked big backpack (the biggest change being this time I packed my tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad for backcountry hiking in the Stans) for two very social weeks spending four nights total in NYC with a bachelor party in Hunter, NY and a wedding in way upstate NY in the Thousand Islands sandwiched in between my time spent in the city. I hung out with friends from Tulane, Denver, studying abroad, and years of following Phish. It was a time capsule of friends I’ve made throughout my life and a nice opportunity to catch a glimpse of everyone’s current life. It was super fun but also very exhausting. I wish I had given myself a few days after the New York trip to chill in Sarasota before flying to Kazakhstan because I came into Central Asia exhausted and rundown, but such is life. 

New York City truly is the best city in the U.S. for things to do, food to eat, diversity of people, and nonstop action. Right when I got off the plane and took the AirTrain to Jamaica station, I heard my three favorite languages being spoken – Spanish, French, and Portuguese (amongst a slew of other languages). Walking the streets of NYC, you see people from every walk of life and get to witness a very brief moment in the day in the life of tens of thousands of people. It’s an international melting pot of the world – people, languages, cultures, food.

Rather than go into full details on my time in New York, here is some bullet points of the places I went and people I saw (more for my own personal memory when I read this years down the road).

8/29 – Phish at MSG with Paul and Garber (Tulane friends)

8/30 – Lunch with Paul and Joe (Tulane roommate); walked around Midtown Manhattan; train to Port Chester to stay at Paul’s dad and stepmom’s house; went to some of his favorite food spots he’d been raving to me since college 

8/31 – more of Paul’s food spots then he drove me and Fayne (Tulane friend) to Hunter, NY in upstate for Garber’s bachelor party. House with indoor pool, hanging, drinking, playing games 

9/1 – Day two of bachelor party. Limo to Cooperstown – not your typical bachelor party destination with all the teenage baseball kids but I did like the room with the plaques. Played a wiffle ball game. Steak dinner into late night hangs 

9/2 – went to NJ suburbs and saw my friends in family mode – both have two kids. The Durgans: studied abroad in France with Sara and seen a lot of Phish shows with her husband Jared and the Krims: Jared and Annie used to live in Denver. Seen a lot of Phish/other concerts with Jared and Annie is Sara’s sister. We did dinner at the Krims and I stayed with the Durgans

9/3 – Back to NYC to spend two nights with my college roomie Joe. I met his lovely fiancée Rebecca for the first time. I’m sad to be missing their wedding because I’ll be traveling in Asia, but am so glad I had the opportunity to get to know her over drinks and dinner with just the three of us. She’s a real shining light and compliments Joe perfectly. I’m so happy for both of them

9/4 – Walked along Riverside Park. Dinner and drinks with Joe, Ben (Tulane friend), and Joe’s friend Josh

9/5 – Train to Saratoga where my buddy Steve, the groom of the wedding is currently living (used to live in Denver, where we met). His soon to be wife Rachel is from Saratoga. Boys night with Steve, Kevin, and Benson (two other Colorado friends). Fun city – a lot of people out drinking on a Wednesday night 

9/6 – Steve drove us to Thousand Islands – his parents have a house on an island that faces Rachel’s parent’s place on a different island (this is how they met as kids before their love story developed many years later). Groom and bridal parties stayed on a different island. I wasn’t a groomsmen but there was extra space in the house and some of my best Denver friends were also staying in the house (Yen, Shay, Julie, Paul, Kevin, and Benson). It was an incredibly beautiful location for a wedding celebration but also a logistical nightmare because you had to boat everywhere (the houses rented a few and they hired drivers for wedding day). The boys had to help move tables and chairs from island to island in preparation for the wedding (punishment for our pre-wedding boys night?). Then we partied.

9/7 – hung at house all day drinking and swimming in the river; welcome drinks at the marina bar on the mainland; after party at our house

9/8 – I had to boat a few people back to the mainland in the morning. Grooms party got ready at our house. Amazing wedding celebration at Rachel’s parents’ house; after party at our house  

9/9 – Sunday boat party day

9/10 – Got a ride back with Denver crew to Syracuse; took a 7 hour train from Syracuse to NYC; got hotel in Queens by Jamaica station to make life easier going to airport next morning 

9/11 – flight JFK > Doha > Kazakhstan