The $32 Post

It’s been about a year since we posted on this blog. And we pay around $20/year for the domain and $12/year for WordPress. So at $32 per post, I hope you enjoy this one.

Of course a lot’s happened in the last year, so I’ll take a travel-oriented approach at summarizing.

Thanksgiving in Connecticut/New York

Last November, we headed back to New Canaan for Thanksgiving with Cath’s family. Before heading out there we did some family history research and, based on Ellis Island immigration records, found out that some of Catherine’s ancestors (the DiVastas) listed 112 Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy as their destination address. So we headed into the City for what’s become our annual tradition of shopping and the Met and had a homemade pasta dinner at the restaurant right across from 112 Mulberry.

112 Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy

Another highlight of our trip to New York/CT was this super cool couch/chair in the furniture wing of the Met.

Moscow (and Kiev and Istanbul)

In march, I (Kevin) headed over to Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia to visit the Microsoft subsidiaries there and help land Office 2010. Olga and Elena of the Moscow office were kind enough to show me around Moscow after work one evening. Here’s me in Red Square.

In May, Cath and I both headed down to Peru for a couple of weeks. We spent the first day in Lima where I worked with the Peruvian subsidiary and attended the Office 2010 launch event. Cath got her adventure on and headed into the older part of Lima on her own to explore.

After our brief sojourn in Lima, we headed inland to Cusco, Puerto Maldonado, and Machu Picchu. A highlight (and low-light) of the trip was a 5-day trek through the Andes on the Salkantay trail. We began a couple hours outside of Cusco in the high desert and ended at Machu Picchu. We enjoyed a couple days of intense cold and rain (on what was supposed to be a sun-filled hike) and huddled for a picture at our highest point of 15,300 feet.

Here are some photos from the trip:

Exploring the Amazonian Rainforest

Day 2 of Salkantay

Enjoying the weather at 15,300 feet

Machu Picchu

Of course there have been a lot of great happenings over the last year that have nothing to do with travel. But there aren’t as many pictures to choose from to illustrate those. Here’s to another year of keeping you posted on our comings and goings at CathandKev.com. We’ll try to write more often – if for nothing else than to better amortize our $32 investment.