Guess Who's Back?

UPDATE 4/7: Theme switched! I like this look a lot more. Thanks to Mario Carboni for designing it.

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If you're reading this post, congratulations! You're extremely hip and up-to-date. I'm starting back up the old blog here at "sarah. word." Give me a few days to settle on a new theme and layout, and we'll be good to go. I thought I liked this one, but something about it bugs me. Maybe the text is too small?

As for "sarah. on the run.", it's not going anywhere, but activity will halt until the next time I travel.

Soooooo....

Many of you are already familiar with sarah.word.'s sister site, sarah.on the run. But for those of you just tuning in, things will be slowing down around here as I finally get up and "running," so to speak. Hardy har.

Unfortunately, I think sarah.pic. is also going to suffer during my world travels. Reliable worldwide service just isn't on T-Mobile's roster yet, and I sort of hate my Sidekick II anyway. I want to thank Textamerica for being awesome hosts for my camera pics all these years, especially the handsome and intelligent Jade. You guys are awesome.

But the good news is alive and well in the adventure just beginning for me and my brand-new husband!

Our new main site will be "brendanandsarah.com", complete with photos, contact info, FAQs, and links to:

sarah. on the run. - Sarah's travel blog

Brendan Moran's Exciting Travel Adventures - Brendan's travel blog

The Traveling Morans- Our future Pulitzer Prize-winning video podcast

This site will stay up and I will certainly check in periodically, but I think it's safe to say the commotion will be elsewhere until I have a desk job again.

Hope you guys enjoy our adventure! I'm pretty sure you will.

Love,
Sarah

iWeb is for Dummies.

And thank goodness for that, because I am really, really rusty.

Despite my HTML skills of swiss cheese, I still managed to turn a new homepage for sarahlane.com live today! It's not much more than a skeleton at this point, but you get the idea. I have quite a bit of fussing left to do. Which is great, because I love to fuss.

New domains that point to sarahlane.com:
brendanandsarah.com (the overall name for now)
brendanmoran.tv

My blog will remain on Typepad for the time being. I have no pressing reason to leave what I consider to be a reliable and intuitive blogging engine, though I wasn't kidding about giving it a new look. That's my next project.

Unemployment? Bah! I've never been so busy!

:)
s

Donning a New Skin

I've spent the better part of the last few days reading other folks' travel blogs, trying to get some inspiration for our own site redesign. sarah.word. has always been my personal outlet, but as it will soon serve as a base for the Amazing Adventures of the Traveling Morans, it deserves a facelift and restructure to reflect our new direction. Hardy har.

What's comforting is the number of really well-done travel blogs upon which I've already stumbled. I have little doubt we'll be able to update regularly, no matter where we are. What's daunting are the countless choices I have in regards to organizing our own journey. I'm leaning toward something like what Mark Yiin has done (his link was posted in my comments section, thanks!!). Not only is his blog easy to navigate, but he takes swell photos and tells good stories about his follies in a lot of the same places we'll be enjoying. Hey Mark, I want my Sunday back!

Anyway, I'm all ears if you have advice and suggestions for how this blog should look going forward. Be honest! Have your say! Brendan has already banished my present (and adorable) pink/gray/green color theme. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on his colorblindness. Besides, it's time for a change.

:)
s

The Road Less Traveled

As promised, here's a look inside the first six months of married life with Brendan and Sarah! The actual dates may vary by a day or two, but that's the beauty of travel.

Late May- Do that whole vow thing

May 30- Fly to Greece's most romantic island (can you guess which one?)

June 8- Take a ferry into Marmaris, along the Mediterranean shores of Turkey. Spend some time exploring the "Turquoise Coast."

June 19- Head into central Turkey via bus to explore Cappodoccia's fairy chimneys.

June 26- Continue busing it north to Istanbul for a couple weeks exploring churches, mosques, bars and bazaars.

July 10- Fly into St. Petersburg, Russia at the tail end of "White Nights". Get used to the sun never setting.

July 17- Splurge on a 1st class train to Moscow. Observe very tall women who can hold their vodka better than Sarah.

July 25- Board the famous Trans-Siberian Express railway on a week-long journey through Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, and China.. finally deboarding in Beijing.

August 8- Fly south to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Spend the next couple weeks enjoying pho up and down the coast of Vietnam.

August 28- White-knuckle it on a bumpy bus over the border into Laos. Hop on water taxis along the Mekong River to access various cities. Eventually settle in Vientiane.

September 19- Fly from Vientiane into Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Try to avoid landmines, but fail miserably. Just kidding. Glad you're paying attention.

October 3rd- Make our way into Siem Reap, Cambodia, to visit the wonder of the world known as Angkor Wat.

October 10- Fly into Thailand for one night in Bangkok.

October 11- Fly out of Bangkok and into Denpasar, Bali. Spend the next month happily among rice paddy fields. Hop over to neighboring Lombok for a night or two.

November 6- Make an appearance back in the States for a wedding in Wisconsin. Suffer from acute culture shock. Gain back the 10 lbs we each lost.

November 20- INDIA.

I'm going to stop here and continue the second itinerary leg next time so I don't drone on too long in a single post. But here's the deal- neither of us have been anywhere we're about to go, and even though we're dutiful researchers, we're still totally clueless. So if you possess knowledge on any locale I've mentioned above, share the wealth! Email me or comment below.

Our favorite resources thus far:
Airtreks.com - Reliable round-the-world plane ticket agents
Rough Guides - Amazing book series, better info than Lonely Planet
Adventure 16 - Best outdoor/adventure store in SoCal, if not ever

More deets coming soon!

:)
s