On Going Round the World and Needing Some Advice

[danieldwilliam]

My lovely wife and I are planning a round the world trip next year.  It started out as a plan to go and visit my brothers in Australia. When I remembered that you could go to Australia via the USA and realised we could fit in a visit to MLW’s best friend and my spiritual twin in Oregon the trip rapidly became a round the world excursion to visit various friends, relatives and well wishers.

The proposed route is

New York

Portland, Oregon

New Zealand

Sydney

Adelaide

Home.

Ideally I’d like to avoid any flights longer than about 8-9 hours on account of having a four year old as a travelling companion.  I think we can do – get on plane, have some food, sleep for six hours, wake up, have some food, get off plane. But I don’t think long periods of being awake on a plane would be fun for anyone.

So – a question. Or two.

Is there anywhere we can break the journey between Portland and New Zealand?  How practical is a stop over in Hawaii?

On the way back, where is good to stop over with a small child and a teenager?

Comments

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

No, there aren't enough.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

That’s because they are a fundamentally ridiculous animal.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I think mostly it is because they won't have sex, which might equate to the same thing in your book.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

It’s not just the not having sex.

They’re bears, with the digestive tract of a meat prefering omnivore but they attempt to live on bamboo so lacking in nutrients that they basically can’t live close enough to each other to see each other, let alone have sex.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

But they're so pretty.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

That’s camoflage so they can creep up on unsuspecting stands of bamboo and tear their hearts out.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Just like cats. Oh, no, wait.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

A lot like cats.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Cats are somewhat better adapted for survival.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Not if I catch them crapping my garden they're not.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I'd be very surprised to learn that's true.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Who’d win in a fight?

Dan with an air rifle vs a cat.

Next round – winner of round 1 vs a fully grown panda.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I would bet doubly on the cat, because (a) I don't believe you'd do it, and (b) you'd have to be a pretty darn good shot. Cats move fast and with cunning.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

How likely I am to do it is a function of how likely the Captain is to find cat mess in his garden, contract toxoplasmosis and go blind.

No one is that agile when they are taking a dump and I only have to get lucky once.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Even though it's against the law?

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

As Legal Realist, specifically in this instance a German one, it’s only against the law if you get caught, tried and convicted.

I would not want to hurt the hypothetical cat and would take steps to avoid having to do. There are a range of non-lethal counter-measures (few of which work on pandas).

I should not have to supervise my son in his own garden more closely than the owner of the cat is supervising it.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I don't think this conversation can go anywhere good so let's stop it now.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Okay.