Category Archives: Personal

A collection of personal thoughts and stories

Search Gets Passionate in Vegas

First published November 16, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

I’m a huge fan of passion. Curb the urge to snigger. When I say passion, I refer to it in the ideological way, not the sensual one (although I’m pretty fond of that as well). I believe passion trumps everything else: intelligence, education, money, social connections. Look at times when people have really moved the world in a meaningful way, and you’ll always find passion.

3 Degrees of Passion

In the past week, passion has manifested itself to me in three very different ways.

First of all, I sat for two hours while former President Bill Clinton talked about his Foundation, his view of the world as an interdependent global village and the unsustainable inequities between North America and everywhere else that must be addressed. The presentation was smooth and friendly, but the passion was palpable. This was a man on a mission. Clinton’s got some burning issues on his agenda, and I have to believe he’s going to move the world and make them happen.

This morning, I was at Webmaster World’s PubCon in Las Vegas and Guy Kawasaki took the stage. Kawasaki has passion. In fact, it was the subject of one of his 10 takeaways: “Make Meaning. Do something that matters. Be passionate.”

Later in the day, I met with a product manager in charge of a new search platform. He was supposed to give me a feature run-through, and I was supposed to give user feedback. Try as we did to stick to that agenda, we kept getting sidetracked talking about how search is changing everything. We became more animated as we talked. Passion snuck in and kept hijacking the conversation. We ran about an hour over what we had scheduled.

Search: Passion to Spare

That’s what I love about search, especially where it sits today. It breeds passion. It demands passion. It grabs you by the throat and makes you realize that it could change everything. I suspect there was a time when Wired ex-editor John Battelle didn’t let search keep him up at night. But at some point, he looked at what was happening, and more importantly, what could happen and said, “Damn, [if you know John, I suspect this wasn’t the exact word he used], this is changing the world!” He became passionate about search. That’s probably why he’s also here, in Vegas with a bunch of Web-heads, as one of the keynotes.

When you walk down the halls of a show like this, people are talking about search. We’re ravenous about this topic. That’s why there are back-to-back events filling the calendar from January to December. Just this week, I wanted to be at the Search Insider Summit, but unfortunately it coincided with PubCon and I had a previous commitment.

Talk to the people at Google, or Yahoo. They know they’re the cusp of the future. They know the import of what they do. They’re fired with passion. Why didn’t I include Microsoft? To me, the passion for search isn’t seared into the corporate DNA at Microsoft to the same extent it is at its rivals. They’ve said the right things about search. I’ve met a lot of people at Microsoft who get search, and many of them are passionate. But at the other two major engines, the passion for search is pervasive. At Microsoft, it still feels more like a corporate initiative.

Late to the Party? Look for Passion

When you look at the people who make this industry tick, they are absolutely infatuated with search. It borders on obsession. It’s not to make a buck, because believe me, there are easier ways. We’ve been slogging it out in the trenches for years, going from show to show, spreading the gospel, educating clients and bit by bit, building best practices and pushing the industry forward. There are not a lot of rich search marketers, but there are bushels of passionate ones.

So, for those of you waking up to search, here’s a tip. If you’re an agency or a large organization that wants to build search capabilities, look for passion. Don’t just look for someone competent, look for someone who can become passionate about search. Because that’s what it will take. Here’s why.

Search is just beginning. The rules are constantly going to change. What you do today is not what you’re going to do tomorrow. This is not a 9-to-5 job. The only way you can keep up with the pace of change that’s inevitable is to live, eat and breathe search. You have to be constantly looking at the horizon to see what’s coming–not just because you have to, but because you can’t imagine doing anything else. As search continues to define itself, it will be the passionate people who do it. As I sit here in Vegas, that’s probably the safest bet in town.

Thou Shalt Not Google (unless it’s on Google)

First published November 2, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

goo-gle: Function: transitive verb: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web
–Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Of all the things that Google’s lawyers have in their basket, apparently stamping out inappropriate use of “Google” as a verb is right on top of the stack. It apparently irks them no end.Now, I can really sympathize here. It’s a little known fact that my last name has actually suffered the same fate as Google. In Japan, of all places, Hotchkiss has become the generic name for the office stapler. Each time a worker lost in the maze of cubicles at Mitsui and Co. says, “Pass me the Hotchkiss” I die a little inside. I kid you not! Check out Wikipedia.Mind your Ps and GooglesNow, according to a post on Google’s official blog, it’s not the fact that we Google on Google that causes the Google legal department to have hissy fits. It’s if we try Googling on Yahoo and MSN. It can’t be done. Not all tissue papers are Kleenex, not all copy machines are Xeroxes. To quote the post:

You can only “Google” on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to “search” on Yahoo or any other search engine.

Hmmm..people are using the word “Google” to refer to Google’s competitors, and it’s Google that’s upset? Unless I’m missing something here, shouldn’t it be Yahoo and MSN that should be miffed?

I Google, therefore I am…

The inclusion of Google in the English lexicon is “faintly unsettling,” according to the folks at Google. They fear that Google will lose its identity as a trademark once it slips into common usage. They explain:

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device that identifies a particular company’s products or services. Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we’re pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let’s face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.

Now, I know that Google has way too much money, and they have a team of very bright 12-year-old lawyers (or at least, they look 12) trying to reinvent the law. But in this case, I would suggest slipping down to the Google cafeteria for a double decaf low fat cappuccino and relaxing. There are better windmills to tilt at than this one.

Once again, who’s in control?

The irony here is that the very entity that has probably done more than any other to put control in the hands of the consumer is now fretting because consumers are exercising that control. We associate search with Google. We endorse the brand by using it as a verb. It’s just this critical mass that makes Google such a formidable competitor in the highly promising search market. Frankly, it’s not the fact that their brands became generic terms that hurt many of the companies that Google uses as examples. It’s because the companies became complacent and let the competition catch up, losing the distinction that their brand once afforded them. The consumers didn’t take the brand away from the company, the company surrendered the brand to the competition.

In the corporate culture that says “don’t be evil,” apparently improper use of “Googling” is now defined as evil. Just to make it clear, Merriam-Webster defines evil as “morally reprehensible.”.  Perhaps someday “google” will also mean “to spend one’s time unproductively fighting frivolous legal battles.” At this point, it’s a toss-up with “disney.”

A final word to Google’s legal team: As you’re putting together those multi-page lawsuits, go ahead and feel free to use the Hotchkiss. I don’t mind.

Thoughts on 18 Months with SEMPO

I’m noticing my blogging will power is directly related to my current slate of activities. October has been a busy month for me, with travel and some different initiatives here at Enquiro. As much as I try to schedule some time to post some thoughts, I keep finding things getting pushed back. I’ve got a file crammed with stuff to review to see if it’s comment worthy.

A quick update is certainly in order though. Two weeks ago I was at SEMPO’s planning retreat in New York. I have to give a shout out to Dana Todd and the BOD both last year and this year. The organization is making substantial progress on many fronts and has come a long way. Now, this is to take nothing away from the original board. You know, I was one of the ones that criticized some of those early decisions. As I’ve said in numerous interviews, I don’t think the story of SEMPO is that of revolution but rather evolution. Barbara Coll and the original board got the job done. They got SEMPO off the ground, they build some incredibly valuable relationships and they laid the foundation for the organization as it currently sits. You don’t get an industry organization off the ground in a climate as charged as the search marketing industry without rubbing some people the wrong way. And sure, there were strong personalities on both sides..that’s what makes this business fun. But you know what? There are many who would have thrown in the towel and said this ain’t worth it. Barbara stuck in and handed over a fully functional organization to last year’s board. It was an organization that was still defining itself, but it was well off the ground. I for one don’t think Barb ever got the recognition she deserved for that.

The other part of the SEMPO story is that we all had different expectations for what the organization would become. Some wanted it to police SEO’s, some wanted it to be a lead generator, and some just wanted parties and free booze. As the organization has evolved, those disconnects in expectations have largely corrected themselves. Where the disconnect was too great, members have gone their own way. But the majority of members have learned, as has SEMPO, and we’ve found middle ground. Do we have it perfect yet? Not by a long shot, but we’re trying to do more things right than wrong.

SEMPO is finding its voice and building its franchise. Our State of the Market Survey is in its third year as we’re working towards launch. We had full participation of the major publishers this year, as they recognize that this has become the definitive year over year snapshot of the industry. We’re launched a scaled back version for the European Market. We’re working with Fair Isaac on the Click Fraud issue, again with the participation of the major engines, to try to get a fair estimation of the scope of the problem through an objective third party. And, perhaps most importantly, we’re forging strong relationships between the engines and search marketers, and to attempt to democratize those relationships, opening up the communication lines with smaller shops who may not be handling the budgets to give them a guaranteed ear with the Googles, MSN’s and Yahoo’s of the world.

There will always be the inevitable comments about SEMPO board members doing this for their own benefit. Having been on both sides of this comment, I have my own perspective, which I’m happy to share. There is certainly no monetary reward, and I put in about 20 to 30 hours a month on various SEMPO tasks as the Chair and as the Research Chair. Do I get some increased exposure? Probably, but to be honest, I get a lot more exposure through Enquiro’s research initiatives (something I have to start devoting more time too). The biggest benefit I receive from being on the board is the networking opportunities. Participation with SEMPO has allowed me to meet some interesting people, both at the engines and at other agencies.

A year and a half ago, I was one of the ones bitching in the hallways of SES. I made a choice: either keep bitching from the outside, or jump in and get involved. In the past 18 months, I was able to accomplish some of the things I wanted to do, but I also got the chance to have my perspective changed a bit. These are good, smart people, doing good, smart things. They’re making a difference in this industry.

Okay..off my soap box. I’m going to turn comments on for a little bit. Feel free to let me know your perspective on SEMPO..good or bad. You have the Chair’s ear.

The SEM Hierarchy of the E-mail Inbox

First published September 14, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

Into each social structure, a little stratification must fall. As our society takes a decidedly virtual turn, I’m finding that my Outlook inbox is the latest place where a class structure is taking shape.

Of course, you have the standard spam vs. non-spam sorting, but this doesn’t really count. That happens pretty much transparently in the background, and every day or so I wade through the muck in my deleted spam folder just to make sure a vital piece of communication didn’t get waylaid. For instance, today an e-mail from my lawyer went there. On second thought, perhaps the filter knew better than I what should be deleted.

No, it’s the e-mail that survives the cut that is subject to endless classification and sorting, as I haplessly try to wrap my priorities around an ever-expanding inbox. At first, I thought the six different flags supplied by Outlook would do the trick, but I quickly realized my complicated world needs much more than six classifications.

So in an attempt to ease the daily burden of countless search marketers, I offer the following suggestions for an SEM Custom Rules plug that would automatically take the following actions in Outlook’s inbox.

The “Anything from Google” Rule

It doesn’t really matter what comes in with an “@google.com” on the back end, you’d better open it right away. These go on the top of the list. If it’s from Matt Cutts or Tim Armstrong, perhaps a siren and flashing red light to draw further attention. I don’t get e-mails from Eric, Sergey or Larry, and I suspect the same is true for most SEMs, but if I ever did, I would like a heavenly ray of light to shine gently on me as a choir of angels sing the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

The MSN Beta Invitation Rule

This could dramatically reduce the manual sorting required by automatically signing up for beta test groups for MSN’s new adCenter products, including the Targeting by Presence of Facial Hair Platform, the Visitors You Wish You Got Report feature and the Integrated adCenter/Xbox 360 Console, which drops you into a virtual 3-D world where you can walk up to leads that didn’t convert and slap them for being stupid.

The “Hey, I Got a Speaking Gig” Rule

This would (until recently anyway) include e-mails from Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman and Brett Tabke, indicating which panel you’d be speaking on at the next big show. These e-mails have to be referred to quickly so you have time to book hotels and flights, and then start e-mailing to see who else will be at the show, who was going to what after- hours function, if you could catch a ride with them, who else was on your panel, and when is the deadline for getting the presentation done (no, not the official deadline–the “real” deadline).

The “Why the Hell Did I Sign Up for This?” Rule

The average search marketer signs up for approximately 6,428,943 newsletters, 194,597 Google news alerts, 963,693 forum post notifications–and that doesn’t include RSS subscriptions. This is all done in the hopes of gaining some vital piece of information that would give them the leg-up on the competition, who are of course all subscribing to the same things. This rule would scan everything for the 1 in 159,975 chance that there’s a useful tidbit in there somewhere. The one exception is the Search Insider–naturally.

The SEMPO Board Communication Rule

Admittedly for a very small market, this would be nonetheless essential for those who serve on SEMPO’s board. It would be able to detect the difference between the 9,543 e-mails a day you get just because you were part of the e-mail alias, a 12-page-long cc list, and the messages requesting you to get off your butt and do something.

The “Rocket to the Top of the Search Engines” Rule

Although these e-mails are technically spam, I like to read them every so often and feel smug about how superior and morally pure I am, and how far my company has come since the days when everyone tried this marketing tactic.

The “Arrange a Meeting/Teleconference” Rule

Why don’t we just accept the fact that it takes 3.6 months and 112 e-mails back and forth to arrange any type of call or meeting, so we should just automate the process? That way we can still feel good that we’re trying to facilitate the phantom meeting by generating reams of e-mails and invitations, while saving us some time. In the end, it will automatically revert to the original time and date proposed, as it turned out that it was really the best for everyone, anyway.

The “Loved Your Column” Rule

Okay, seriously, these e-mails, when they come in (and yes, I have got a few), are the highlight of my day, and they’re the first I respond to. Of course, don’t take this as a hint or anything.

Dan Brown Rant

I’ve been surpressing this for a couple weeks now, but I’m threatening to blow a gasket if I don’t do some venting.

Enough with the frigging Da Vinci Code already!

While over in Europe, I fulfilled some lifelong dreams by visiting the Louvre in Paris, as well as Florence and Rome. But everywhere I turned, I kept bumping into adverts for the Da Vinci Code. The Louvre even has it’s own Da Vinci Code tour.

Okay, nothing against Dan Brown. I’ve read the book, as well as Angels and Demons and Deception Point. I enjoyed them. They’re entertaining, but they’re blips on the cultural radar. Mr. Brown is a writer on par with a John Grisham or a Michael Crichton. The plots are mildly interesting, the characters are about as thin as the paper it’s printed on and the dialogue is as stiff as the hard cover. The whole ancient religious sect angle raises it to slightly better than average, but just slightly. There is no justification for this tidal wave of attention that the book seems to be garnering. I thought it was restricted to this side of the Atlantic, but I was sadly disillusioned to see that it’s taken route in Europe as well. Give me a break, Paris, Rome and Florence, you’re better than this!

If you really want to see how this whole angle can be handled masterfully, take a big juicy bite out of some of Umberto Eco’s works. Compared to Foucault’s Pendulum or Name of the Rose, the Da Vinci Code is like a postcard of the original Mona Lisa.

Life after SEW for Danny Sullivan

First published August 30, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

This Tuesday, a bomb dropped on the search marketing community. It started, as so many stories do now online, with a simple blog post. After 10 years, Danny Sullivan was leaving Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. Jaws could be heard dropping around the world. Danny is synonymous with both the shows and the site. And ten years is an eternity in this biz. We just always assumed that Danny’s involvement with the two franchises was like bedrock, so permanent you take it for granted. There were others involved–many others–all integral to the success, but make no mistake, this was Danny’s gig. The thought of SEW and SES without Danny just didn’t jive. Within hours, there was a litany of tributes to Danny Sullivan on his blog. It was almost as if a head of state had passed on. We collectively caught our breath and wondered what was next.

By the time you read this, this will no doubt be old news, so I won’t go into the details or reasons of the departure. I’m not really privy to them anyway. What I would like to do instead is look at some of the back history of how Search Engine Watch began, because I think it’s a great Internet story.

A Webmaster’s Guide To Search

One of the things that is wonderful about the Web is how it evens the playing field and creates opportunity. If you’re smart, if you’re a good communicator, and if you’re passionate about something, you can pick your niche and carve out your own slice of celebrity. Danny was all three. In 1996, Danny Sullivan’s notoriety probably didn’t extend much beyond his family and friends, but that was soon to change.

In 1995, Danny left journalism behind to go into Web development. Ironically, that was about the same time I left traditional advertising behind to focus on the Web. Soon, for both of us, we encountered the inevitability of search engines. As sites were developed, Danny recognized the importance of search engines as a traffic source and began experimenting to achieve higher rankings. For four months in 1996, he tweaked and tested codes, achieving some success, and published his findings online, collectively called “A Webmaster’s Guide to Search Engines”. In the next year, it was rebranded Search Engine Watch and started to take up more and more of Danny’s time. It soon became the reference site for a number of nascent search engine optimizers (myself included) and became Danny’s full-time gig, supported by a handful of subscribers. At the end of 1997, it was purchased by Mecklermedia and Danny continued as editor.

The launch of SES

Search Engine Strategies launched from the base of support built by the site. The first show was in November, 1999 in San Francisco. The promo page is still live, if you’re interested. Since then, the show has grown from a few hundred attendees and a handful of exhibitors to attendance in the thousands and a jammed exhibit hall. As I wrote just a few weeks ago, it is the must-see search event.

In the intervening years, Danny has chronicled the birth and growth of an industry. Through the past 10 years, search engines have come and gone, but Danny Sullivan was always there, making sense of an occasionally nonsensical business. He has been the constant. Like I said, he’s bedrock. He’s also a search celebrity, one of the best known names and faces in a region of the online world that has since become a focal point of global interest. You want to know about search? Ask Danny. Major newspapers, magazines and TV networks beat a path to his door. When John Battelle decided to chronicle the history of search for his book, The Search, a long visit with Danny was a no-brainer, and John makes his debt to Danny very clear in the foreword.

The creation of a community

But Danny had no special education, or credentials to become the pre-eminent expert on search marketing. He has a degree, but there’s no Ph.D. of Search. He simply had a passion, a curiosity and a knack for communicating what he found. The Web gave him a voice, and he found his audience. Through the past 10 years, he has never failed that audience. Almost single-handedly, he opened the communication lines between the search engines and Webmasters and helped to create the community that now exists. From his beginning efforts, people like Brett Tabke and Matt Cutts have taken up the torch and continued to keep the communication flowing. Danny Sullivan has taken on the stewardship of what he began, continuing to nurture the SEM community, and there are many who are in his debt.

As I said at the beginning, I don’t know the details of the split between Danny and Incisive Media, and it’s not appropriate that I comment on them. I don’t know what will happen with Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. But I know that Danny’s passion for search will continue, and it will resurface soon. In a very interesting way, Danny Sullivan and the Internet grew up together, and each has helped in the development of the other. It is a true symbiotic relationship, but in this case, we’ve all benefited, and I hope we all will continue to do so.

SES-SEW without Danny: What the Hell is Going On?

My jaw dropping news of the day is that Danny Sullivan is leaving SES and SEW. He posts his reasons on his blog. In the 7 hours since he made the post, there are already dozens of testimonial comments from the who’s who of the search world.

I won’t really comment further, but it’s somewhat ironic that I just wrote a column about the SES franchise and Danny’s involvement in it.

Danny Sullivan is as much a part of the industry as anyone. The SES/SEW franchise has helped shape the industry. It’s one of the Internet’s great stories, and one that I’m happy I got to see first hand.

Godspeed Danny.  You’ll be missed in one part of our virtual world, but I know you’ll be helping create another.

Psst – Want a Hot Spot Paisano?

First published August 24, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

Surgeon General’s Warning: Prolonged exposure to the Internet can lead to physical dependency and addiction. Use of the Internet can increase levels of anxiety and reduce attention spans.Hello, my name is Gord, and I’m addicted to the Internet. I didn’t realize I was addicted until I recently spent three weeks in Europe and had to go through withdrawal. But after hanging around hotel lobbies trying to get a hit from a local hot spot, I’ve had to face up to the fact that I can’t kick the habit. I need my broadband, baby!

Fear and Loathing in l’Italia

I didn’t go totally cold turkey. I had my PDA to keep up on e-mails, but it just didn’t give me the rush I was looking for. Here I was, surrounded by the culmination of centuries of artistic achievement, and all I could think about was where my Google hook-up was coming from.

I speak somewhat facetiously, but there’s a lot of truth here. Here’s an online definition of addiction:

    1. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.
    2. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

It seems to me that going online qualifies on both counts. There’s no doubt that being online is habit forming. But it goes further than that. I realized in the last 20-plus days that it’s hard-wired into my physiology. Not having instant access was as foreign as not having my right hand.

I use online a lot, mainly to access and assimilate information. I enhance what I see in the real world by researching it online, letting me place it in context for myself. And for the past three weeks, every sense I have has been bombarded to the point of overload by input. Art, history, locations, music, literature, architecture, it was all right in front of me. Paris, Florence, Rome: cradles of civilization that I was standing in the center of, and it was if I couldn’t fully assimilate them, because I didn’t have access to an essential part of my cerebral hardware: the right brain, left brain and “wired” brain.

What’s it worth to you, amico?

The analogy carries even further. Accessing the Internet while traveling in Europe is rather like hunting for illicit substances, in that it can be difficult to find and notoriously expensive. Five euros (a little over six dollars U.S.) for fifteen minutes, thirteen euros for an hour, thirty euros for a day… I have a price list for hot spots around the continent imprinted in my memory.

I wasn’t the only one that went through withdrawal. My wife and two daughters showed similar symptoms, but for different reasons. For me, it was losing a logical and information-gathering extension of myself. For them, it was losing a communication channel. They have adopted e-mail as a primary way of keeping in touch (and instant messaging, in the case of my oldest daughter), and they felt somewhat cut off. This was somewhat demonstrative of the way men and women tend to use the Internet, something I talked about in a previous column.

This is your brain on high-speed

But addictions aren’t always harmful. One could argue that we’re addicted to oxygen. Breathing is certainly habit-forming. So is there anything wrong with developing a strong dependence on the Internet?

One theory that I have is that our brains tend to gear up a notch when we go online. There is so much we do through computers that we have difficulty  maintaining linear thinking when we’re online. Even if we’re focused on one task, there’s the knowledge that there’s e-mail to check, things to look up, a hundred other things that we could be doing. Being online seems to increase our level of both anxiety and distraction, just because it’s so damn useful in so many different ways. Focus is a tough thing to maintain.

We have seen manifestation of this trend in the way people act when online. It’s nothing short of frenetic, skipping all over the page, multi-tasking, grasping information in a hundred little forays around the screen. It’s a different interaction from much of what we do day to day. Is it harmful? I’m not sure, but it does seem to be making permanent changes in the way we learn and communicate.

Anyway, I’m back in the office tomorrow, and will once again have my cerebral cortex plugged back into the Matrix. I’ll be wired again. I guess that’s a good thing, but I’m sure going to miss the espressos, Chiantis and Calabrese salsiccia.

Oh, well, everything in life is a trade-off.

European Vacation – August 22

I have mixed feelings today. We’ve been gone for 3 weeks, and I’m ready to go home. But I’m also sad about ending what has truly been the vacation of a lifetime. This has been a tremendous experience for us all, and each of us fully appreciate it. The experiences and memories have crowded their way into my consciousness, and I feel shell shocked at all we have seen and done.

I am so glad I’ve managed to keep this blog up, mainly written on numerous trains and planes. It has allowed me to keep a running timeline of the trip, and hopefully it will allow be to later slot the right memory in the right place. We have over 1500 photos between us, several hours of videotape, and between the blogs, the video and the pictures, I think we have managed to capture and chronicle the essence of our trip.

We have seen amazing pictures and sights, but for me, it will be people that form the most valuable memory. The generosity of Lina, Gaetan and our families in France, Nathalie negotiating with the French police in Paris, the unexpected hospitality of Didier and Nadine in Montvernier, the bicycle ride with Marc, Gilles and Yves through the French countryside, the sweetness of Gassime and his Nonna housekeeper in Florence, the surliness of the Italian tourists in Sorrento (I didn’t say they were all good memories), the new family I met in Calabria and “Go, go, go Hotchkiss” (which has since become yet another Hotchkiss insider joke) and the professional prowess of the staff at the Hilton in Rome. You know at the end of the Olympics when they flash the highlight reel and you feel a rush of bittersweet feelings (or is that just me)? That’s how I feel as I write this. The memories of the past 3 weeks are flashing through my mind, and it one way it seems like a years worth, and in another, it seems like we just departed yesterday.

It was with sadness that we departed the luxury of the Hilton this morning. Although it’s far removed for our regular lives, it was a sweet taste of luxury for all of us. Flori and Anna left early for one last tour down to Sorrento, Pompeii and Naples (they haven’t seen this part yet) and they’ll be flying back in 3 days. We packed and headed for the airport on a clear, hot Roman morning, Jill, Alanna and Lauren determined to squeeze a little last minute shopping in. We boarded the flight, with several more security checks due to the recent arrests in England, and right now I’m somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland, on my way to Atlanta. We still have a long day ahead, with another 5 hour flight to Portland, then a short hop to Seattle where we have our last overnight, then on to Kelowna tomorrow morning. I doubt I will bother blogging the rest. There’s nothing really exceptional about flying from Portland to Seattle, as nice as both those cities are.

This vacation was a challenge to take. I’ve never taken 3 weeks off before. Thank you to my incredible team at Enquiro for letting me do it with complete peace of mind. But I’m so glad we did. This was more than a vacation. I think for each of us, this changed us in a perceptible and significant way. The memories shared here will continue to build our family foundation. I’ve always wanted to expose my children to the treasures of the world, and this one trip has substantially moved that goal several steps forward.

I’ve also been able to temper my North American ambition with a European appreciation for the moments of life that I think we too often ignore on this side of the Atlantic. There is a balance there that is important, and I’ll be striving to find it more often in our lives. And I have fallen in love with France and Italy. Like all love affairs, the success lies in total acceptance, both of the gifts and faults. There is a lot to love, and a lot to find fault in. But really, the secret is just to enjoy it all, and leave it to stamp its own impression on you, rather than you on it.

Thank you so much, from all my family. We will be back! We’ve already started the planning.

European Vacation – August 21

This was our last full day in Italy, and I wanted to squeeze every last minute from it. Another breakfast at the Executive Club and we talked the shuttle driver into dropping us off close to the Vatican. We arrived just after 8:30, but even then the entrance line up was more than a kilometer long. We had been told it moved quickly though, so we decided to forego the numerous offers of guided tours that would slip us past the lines (at 30 euros per person) and try our luck in the line. It took 90 minutes, but we were in the vast Vatican Museum just after 10 am, 180 euros richer. We rented the little audio guides and started wandering through the massive labyrinth.

There is little on earth to compare with the Vatican Museums. The galleries, loggia and past pope’s apartments are all works of arts in and of themselves. Although busy, the line ups weren’t too bad as we wound our way through room after room, filled with incredible frescoes, statues and tapestries. I spent several minutes in one room, where Raphael himself had painstakingly painted the vivid frescoes on each wall. This was a once in a lifetime experience, that culminated in a crowded trip to the Sistine Chapel. I challenge anyone not to be tremendously impressed with this incredible work of human hands. The only downside..the swarms of Japanese tourists that ignored repeated warnings about taking pictures of the artwork. Inside, I was screaming, “Just take a damned look..you don’t need your picture in front of it! Enjoy the art, for Christ’s sake!” But even I knew these thoughts were better left unspoken, especially considering my current location. I did manage to get my hand in front of the lens on several different shots though, so I left with some sense of satisfaction.

After the museums, we emerged to find the line up had shrunk to a fraction of its former length. A 30 minute wait and you’d be inside. I was beginning to think the horror stories I had heard about 3 and 4 hours in line were just a way for hotels to sell more ridiculously priced tours. After grabbing a quick panini outside the museum, we threaded our way around to St. Peter’s.

There is perhaps no place on earth that has been more successfully designed with one single purpose in mind, and that’s the scare/impress the “hell” out of you, literally. From the famous square to the massive basilica, everything was designed to make you feel tremendously small and insignificant, and it works. We took a quick side trip to the sepulcher of the popes, which I highly recommend. The newly finished tomb of John Paul II was particularly poignant, and several people stopped in front to pray, give thanks and shed a few tears. Everyone accompanying me were raised Catholic (I was raised Anglican) and I could tell this place held a special significance for them.

After, we entered the Basilica. I have visited a few large churches, including Westminster Abbey, but this one topped them all. The sheer scale by itself makes it unforgettable, but add to this the sacred art, footballs fields of marble (remember, pretty much all pilfered from the Palantine palaces), Michelangelo’s amazing dome and the precious metals adorning every inch and this is a visit that overloads all the senses. A visit to St. Peter’s leaves you feeling awestruck and slightly battered.

We physically couldn’t take in one more thing, so we caught a taxi back to the hotel and rested up for a night visit back to Rome. This time, we tried out the pool and I attempted a visit to the fitness center. To be honest, my heart wasn’t really in it (and my gall bladder was rebelling against too much rich food) so I wrapped up by joining the rest by the pool.

We headed back into Rome at about 8 at night, and tried to complete our “seen it, done it” list, as well as pick up a few souvenirs for home. In rapid succession we did the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in, the Spanish Steps (and climbed to the top), the Pantheon and the Piazza Navone. As we walked from one to the other, we found crowds at each, migrating between them following the same route we did. Perhaps it was the length of the day, perhaps it was the miles our feet had put in, perhaps it was just sensory overload, but I don’t think we fully appreciated this “postcard” tour of Rome. We wrapped up at the Piazza Navone and went back to the hotel to pack. There was one appropriate moment though. As we waited for the girls at the Trevi Fountain outside one of the endless blur of souvenir shops, we listened to someone sing Arrividerci Roma at an outside Ristorante. It was a perfect finishing note to the trip.