Our 2015 - 2016 Itinerary

2015 - 2016 ITINERARY - September 23, 2015

Sat., Sep. 26
Flight from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, FL 

Sep. 26-30 
Pompano, FL
Wyndham Sea Garden Pompano

Wed., Sept. 30, 2015 
Flight from Miami, FL, US (MIA) to Guayaquil, EC
Condo at Vista del Mar, Salinas, EC

Thu., Nov. 12 - 19, 2015
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Thu., Nov. 19 - 30, 2015
Condo at Vista del Mar, Salinas, EC

Mon., Nov. 30 - Feb. 2, 1916
Flight from Guayaquil, EC to Lima, Peru
Condo in Milaflores

*Cusco, Peru 12/14? 
*Machu Picchu, Peru 12/17?

Tue., Feb. 2, 2016
Flight from Lima, Peru to Guayaquil, EC

Sat., Feb. 6, 2016 
Flight Guayaquil, EC to Palm Beach, FL
Dr. Joe’s House
400 Sea Spray Avenue
Palm Beach, Florida

Sat.,  Feb. 13, 2015
Ruairi and Stacy's Wedding

Mon., Feb.15, 2016
Flight from Miami, FL to San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tue., Mar. 8, 2016 (24 hour layover)
Flight from San Juan, PR to Stockholm, Sweden

Thu., Mar. 10, 2016
Flight from Stockholm, Sweden to Madrid, Spain 

Thu., Mar. 17, 2016
Tarifa, Spain

*Tangier, Morrocco 4/1 (weekend by ferry)

*Gibralter 4/8 (day trip by ferry)

Split, Croatia 4/17

Korcula, Croatia 5/17

Rimini, Italy 6/17

Galway, Ireland 

Kinsale, Ireland 7/30

*Nice, France 8/28

*Istanbul, Turkey 9/1

Our Itinerary

2015
October- Salinas Ecuador
November-Salinas/Galapagos
December -Lima/Macchu Piccu 

2016
January-Lima
February-Palm Beach & San Juan
March-Spain (22 Schengen days of 90 days)
April-Spain, Portugal (+30=52 Schengen)
May-Amsterdam & Ireland. (+15=67 Schengen)
June 4th ... Miami for Pat & Jordan's wedding. (from Amsterdam $709 RT)
June 16th Return to Amsterdam with Kaya for a week or 2 prior to Dublin/Galway
(+14 of 23 left in Schengen)
July 9th Galway until July 30
August-Kinsale (begins July 30th)
September-Amsterdam? Chicago?
October-SanFrancisco
November-Tokyo or Taiwan
December-Penang 

2017
January-Penang
February-Bangkok 
March-Hua Hin
April-Ching Mai
May-Tokyo 
June-Tokyo or Taiwan
July-Chicago 
August-Lima 
September-Lima
October-Santiago Chile
November-Montevideo Uruguay
December-Montevideo

2018

January-Buenos Aires
February-Buenos Aires
March-Rio
April-Miami & Chicago 

Endings and Beginnings - June 26, 2015

Today is June 26, 2015, and the end of my long and enjoyable sales career is exactly 3 months away. It began as an apprentice to "The World's Greatest Salesman," a title my dad Joe bestowed upon himself. I learned from a true genius at reading people, selling the sizzle and knowing precisely when to close. It wasn't always pretty, often it was very funny, and always it was an adventure.

After a brief summer selling televisions in a local appliance store between my sophomore and junior years in HS, I got the urge to make money. I talked Joe into taking me with him to a franchise show in Milwaukee where he had a hot commodity. The product was the Sea Jeep, a small 7' fiberglass boat that had a 6 HP engine. Joe's original partner was an Italian gigolo with lots of cash to invest. Johnny DeSimone looked a lot like Julius La Rosa ("Eh Cumpare" for you septuagenarians) and was a good closer with rich women. Eventually Johnny D got tired of his 20 hour work week and gravitated back to hanging out at the Fountainbleau Hotel looking for unattached gals with plenty of dough. The trip to Wisconsin really opened my 16 year old eyes to how much money one could make with a good product and a golden tongue. This led to future stints with Joe and his various partners as well as a few jobs in Tallahassee which required short hours and high commissions.

As a History and Government B.A. from Florida State University, I was looked upon as a can't miss sales representative by both Union Carbide and Xerox. I chose Union Carbide primarily because of a wonderful man named Tom Skehan who was married to a wonderful woman, Ann Skehan who had been my CCD teacher in HS. That's religious instruction, Catholic style. The Skehans were the perfect Irish American family and were close to my Mom and Dad (Joe). Tom was a hot shot upper level member of the Union Carbide family by this time and had great influence. I loved working there, although it was short lived.

My job began in Philly for training and then to NYC as my first territory. I met some of the greatest sales people with unreal charisma during that short period of my life. My trainer was John Gilseanen, a Long Islander with movie star good looks, a platinum tongue and semason tickets to his beloved Islanders. Selling in NYC was a total dream. It was 1972, and I was making $11,000 a year with a company car and a wide open expense account. Life was perfect! Except I was alone. Irene Matsue Ball changed that by joining me in January 1973 when I made the move to a higher paying job and a chance to live and work in Boston.

Boston was great, but Dearborn Chemical (Rohm & Haas) was as stuffy as Union Carbide. It was a time of great opportunity for someone with my background, so in April '73, I abruptly joined my third conglomerate in 10 months. WR Grace had just decided to sink or swim with a California video tape start-up that badly needed a rep that could make things happen in New England and Eastern Canada. I was that guy and I agreed to a first year package of $22,500 all in with a huge (in those days) car allowance of $450 per month and wide open expenses.

I finally had the job I wanted and was able to excel. In less than a year, through a combination of mistakes, good guidance and exceptional luck, I was enjoying a downtown Boston life style that  was close to as good as it gets for a 25 year old corporate rep. I closed Buffalo and the tri-city area (Syracuse Albany and Troy) and opened up Montreal and Toronto. These big accomplishments were landing contracts with CFTO in Toronto and McGill University in Montreal. Alas, after a sensational year with Karex (WR Grace) selling 1/2 and 1" video tape, the corporate in-crowd was warned that Karex would be sold and that finding alternative employment would be a wise thing to do. A man named Jim Ringwood gave me a huge heads up and found me a new employer and a way to get back to Chicago, where I grew up until I was eleven years old.

Having been booted out of high school, survived hundreds of scrapes, real and imagined, it didn't seem so unusual to me that I was about to embark on my 4th job in a little over 2 years. I became the interim Branch Manager of GBC/CCTV in Boston, a ma & pa outfit that was taking off like wild fire. I had solid success in Boston and was offered the same position in Chicago. I was 26 years old, running an office with 5 people reporting to me, working in a fancy office with a great downtown address, 233 East Ontario.

It was a very exciting time for Irene and I as we moved into Lake Point Tower, the premier apartment building on the lake in Chicago, the most eastern point in the city right next to Navy Pier. Irene was hired by Leo Burnett Advertising as an Asst. Account Exec, and we were truly up and running with our careers. After one year and an income leveling off at $27,500, I began to notice an up and coming, privately owned company that was knocking them dead in Chicago by leasing cameras and VCRs at extravagant prices. I applied for a sales position that would end up doubling my income in five years. I was off and running, so we decided it was time to raise a family. My son needed the stability that siblings could provide. In 1980, Danny was born, a glorious day just before Thanksgiving.

After 5 years of solid success, I caught wind of a greedy plan that the owner was going to reneg on promised rollover commissions that would cost to me tens of thousands over the next 5 years. At a secret meeting, the top earners in our sales force decided to join an up and coming Video Division of a long established Chicago iconic corporation with a reputation for integrity. I was now on a path that would see me employed by 2 companies over the next 35 years. The commissions were the highest in the industry, and we absolutely killed it. My income went to 6 figures in 18 months on the job. Seamus was born on Halloween 1982. Everything I did for the next 15 years was golden, and we moved to River Forest, Illinois on June 7, 1984.

Our home at 814 Bonnie Brae Place was 5,000 sq. ft. We traveled all over the world with and without the kids. The boys got a wonderful education in the finest schools. I was able to play baseball at a high amateur level until 44 years old. I even got to play with my son Patrick on a team that I coached. He was off to college on a D1 baseball scholarship and thrived. My son Dan played baseball on nationally recognized travel teams and wound up with a scholarship to college as well. Seamus was the football player in the family, and he excelled in baseball as well. In 1986, along came Ruairi who would benefit from his brothers' success and his own off-the-charts ability. By 1998, he was arguably the best 12 year old player in the Midwest.

My son Wataru is a "whole 'nother story." He moved in with us at 15 years old, and won everyone over immediately. He was a wonderful brother to all and a great example at the homework table. He came kind of out nowhere and stayed for 13 years. He graduated from Fenwick HS in 3 years after barely speaking the language at the start. He graduated from Dominican University in 3 years. Scratch golfer. GFG!

I was able to travel to baseball games with the kids virtually every night and every weekend with other great families of like mind. In '98, I changed companies due to the imminent sale of the corporation, and was able to join a company that was so close to mirror image of the one I had just left that I felt 100% at home and continued to thrive as the security industry became high tech. The dollars rolled in and my lifestyle did not change at all. The boys were excelling in school and on the playing field. Patrick spent 9 years in professional baseball of which 3 were in Cologne, Germany. One year Danny joined Patrick on the team him and my wife Irene got to see one game in Cologne where she and her friend Monica watched them both hit Home Runs!

Irene found a job at Dominican University and reinvented herself as a Webmaster, 1 mile from our home, and earned a Masters degree in Computer Science. Danny was able to transfer and attend college for free. Talk about a win win situation! 

Seamus attended Columbia College in downtown Chicago and graduated with a degree in video editing and animation. Ruairi was asked by Florida State University to leave high school in the middle of his senior year to join the baseball team, which he did. That resulted in a wonderful 5 year adventure. He graduated with an English Literature degree after being named captain of one of the great D1 baseball programs in the country. One of his fellow captains and part time road roommate was Buster Posey!

The recession hit hard, and we all felt it. My income was affected, and our retirement took a big hit.  Irene was able to step up her game and significantly right the ship. All during the most difficult economic times our boys were in college or just graduating which was both a hit economically and a fantastic buoy to the family moral. These years were some of our most memorable despite a shift in future plans.

As I wind down the last months of full time employment, Irene and I have put a plan together that will allow us to travel the world semi-permanently as long as we want as long as we are ambulatory. On our workable budget, we intend to rent for months at a time around the globe in places we have always wanted to see. Our home away from home will be Tokyo as often as any destination because the family has offered us the family home, and because we love Tokyo.

I leave the company with a bright future in a changing industry that continues to grow with Angela and a smart young future team that includes a veteran office staff. Many thanks to the Severino family for giving me an outstanding opportunity. Good luck to Victor and Tony in retirement.

Miraflores District of Lima, Peru - March 25, 2015

Welcome to Irene & Pats Lima Peru review. This will be the second trip to review an area of the world that we might want to spend more time in. We will be all over the globe and hope that some day some of you may join us or be able to make some of your own travel decisions based on our input.

In 2013 and 2014 we pretty much fell in love with Salinas, Ecuador, and we have decided to make many return trips. This year we will review the Miraflores District of Lima. We have studied this area on line for a couple years and it sure sounds like a probable keeper. The sheer beauty of the coast must be breathtaking in person based on all written and visual accounts. In the fall we will head back to Salinas until Ruairi and Stacey's Wedding. Then on to Penang Island in Malaysia to undertake a similar review.


The People: In Lima there are about 8 million residents, 3rd largest city in the America's. 15% of the population is White. 37% are Mestizo. 45% are Indigenous People. A fraction are Black or Asian. In Miraflores about 30% are White and 67% are Mestizo. There is a stream of Indigenous Peruvian People coming into Lima daily. These Provincianos are made up of Serranos and Cholos (Migrants of the hill and mountain country)and they have changed the make-up of Lima's inner city. There is no evidence of these people in Miraflores, San Isidro or Surco. They are the poverty stricken class that work the most menial jobs available in Lima. Money and education determine class here as in most places. The difference is very apparent when comparing neighborhoods.

Our time in Miraflores: We have rented a condo that is on the northwest side of Miraflores. It's on top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean and just off of restaurant row which Limeno's call "Calle Gastronomica". Lima and Miraflores specifically is the foodie haven of South America and named as the Gastronomical Capital of the Americas (as in North, South and Central) since 2009. The area abounds with great restaurants and hotels. The weather is rarely over 80 or under 60 anytime of year, 70 is the norm. Significant rain just doesn't happen. The humidity is comfortable at about 70% this time of year. It is significantly higher (80-85%)in their wintertime which makes the high 60s feel warmer.

Right away we found out: *Driving is a little nuts but there is a technique similar to Italy (daring cat & mouse) *Pedestrians are an endangered species with no crosswalk laws like in the US. *The people of Miraflores are wonderful and very helpful in introducing Gringos to their slice of the paradise pie. *Tourism is strong and getting stronger. Lots of visitors from Australia, Europe, Asia and the rest of South America.

Back Home in Chicago

Tuesday, March 24th

Peruvian Shuttle was 10 minutes early and we were ready to go. An interesting 45 minute rush hour ride to Jorge Chavez allowed us to take in the march to work by average Limoen's through several middle class and poor neighborhoods was quite enjoyable. Avianca made sure things weren't perfect by putting us on a bus with no A/C for 20 minutes. Good thing I'm an easy going fella! I'm on the flight to Mexico City as I write these words.......Visit Miraflores if you get that chance!

PROLOUGUE

The rental market for Miraflores will run about $1500-$2500 per month for an ocean front Condo with balcony. If you don't require the ocean view, stay off the Malecon and it can be significantly less. 

My advice is to visit VRBO, AIRB&B, Home Away or other on-line rental sites well in advance. If you are staying a shorter period of time there are a plethora of 3+4 star hotels that can be had for $60-$70 a night. The Marriott is sensational and $180.

Our place had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a nice kitchen. It was $80 per night for a 2 week stay. For 2 months it will be $1500 per. Remember that everything is negotiable and typically there are no utility or internet charges.

If you are wondering about Machu Picchu, we simply put it off until next time. We have decided to return for at least 2 months. The MP trip takes about a week to do it right.....with Cusco and Lake Titticaca as part and parcel.

Our next trip down here will include Montevideo, Uruguay for sure, and maybe Valparaiso, Chile.

Prologue Miraflores, Lima, Peru

Peruvian Shuttle was 10 minutes early and wee were ready to go. An interesting 45 minute rush hourride to Jorge Chavez allowed us to take in the march to work by average Limoen's through several middle class and poor neighborhoods was quite enjoyable. Avianca made sure things weren't perfectby putting us on a bus with no A/C for 20 minutes. Good thing I'm an easy going fella! I'm on the flight to Mexico City as I write these words: VISIT MIRAFLORES IF YOU GET THE CHANCE.

The rental market for Miraflores will run about $1500-$2500 per month for an ocean front Condo with . If you don't require the ocean view and stay off the Malecon it can be significantly less. 
Our place had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a nice kitchen. It was $80 per night for a 2 week stay. For 2 months it will be $1500 per. Remember that everything is negotiable and typically there are no utility or internet charges.

If you are wondering about Machu Picchu, we simply put it off until next time. We have decided to return for at least 2 months. The MP trip takes about a week to do it right with Cusco and Lake Titicaca as part and parcel.

Our next trip down here will include a review of Montevideo, Uruguay for sure and maybe Valparaiso, Chile.

PROLOGUE

My advice is to visit VRBO, AIRB&B, Home Away or other on-line rental sites well in advance. If you are staying a shorter period of time there are a plethora of 3+4 star hotels that can be had for $60-$70 a night. The Marriott is sensational and $180.

Leaving Lima Tomorrow

Monday March 23rd

Up at 7 with coffee on the balcony. We will miss the view which we are drawn to for hours at a time. Mesmerizing to scan these many miles from 300' above the beach. The usual hustle and bustle of Limoen's getting their work outs in and heading to work. Got outta the condo at 8 sharp and back to Larcomar for breakfast at Mangos on the cliff. Great food, good service, better view. Lolligagged over breakfast and stopped at the Marriott for directions to the Avianca office here in Miraflores.

Avianca is the only airline I am aware of that won't assign seats until 24 hours prior to departure. A real pain in the ass. Another 2 mile walk and a 20 minute wait to see an agent rectified the situation. If you have a choice between Avianca and Copa or Aeromexico don't think twice, 86 Avianca!

Back at noon to pack and prepare to return to Chicago where it snowed 2-4 inches this morning. I yi yi...enjoyed the heat wave on the Malecon where it was 80 today. 

Made a last minute decision to eat at La Mar again about 430. Ceviche Mixto for 2, then Grilled Lobster for yours truly and Garlic Butter Shrimp for Irene. You just can't find a better place to enjoy fine dining at crazy low prices!

We packed and then chilled on the balcony until 10 PM.