Summer vacation time! The idea was to go to the US for about two weeks
to see friends and family in the midwest (Wisconsin / Minnesota / Iowa), and
pick up Piper, who was canoeing and backpacking in the Boundary Waters. Then we
went to Oregon to see my family. As it turns out, once you're on the west coast, it's
roughly equidistant to return to India by heading west rather than east... so
we actually did an around-the-world trip, crossing the date line like Phileas
Fogg (albeit in reverse). Cool! Hong Kong was on the way, so we stopped there
for a couple of days before landing back in Mumbai.