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Europe 2007 Trip

Just last week we returned from our European adventure. I’ve uploaded 102 pictures from throughout the trip. We are so crazy. Trish came from Toronto to escort Ty. They flew south to LA and then to London while Tomoko and I flew north to Vancouver to fly up front with British Airways. We met Tomoko’s mother at Heathrow as well. Luckily we all arrived in time to fly up to Edinburgh to hang out with Cath for a couple of days. Cathy hosted all of us for a great dinner at her place.
We flew to Rome, then trains to Florence and Venice and then we flew back to London where we stayed for a couple of nights before heading home via LA. Whew!


Group shot the morning we left
Hitting the Pub with Cath

Men wait (Vatican washrooms)
Venice

Tennessee Rocks

I’d have to say I couldn’t help take it as a positive omen that within 1 hour of owning the St. Andrews property on Friday it was rented for $950/month. We have to buy a fridge but we don’t have to paint. My property manager is dealing with everything and the tenants have headed back to NC to get their stuff and move in ASAP!

The power of Tennessee continued as I couldn’t help notice that the new Miss USA crowned on Friday is Rachel Smith who was Miss Tennessee.

At $950/month I am positive $98/month on St. Andrews (taking into account: mortgage, taxes, insurance and property mgmt fees). Now we just need Gardendale rented for at least $860 and Sherborne rented for $950 and we will be dancing!

Spoke to Cath today about our big trip coming up. It will be great to see her in Edinburgh. Thankfully Tomoko and Ty return here on Monday. I’ve missed them while they were in Japan.

1031 Exchange Craziness

We sold the Tradewinds property for a decent profit and we decided to do a 1031 exchange and buy properties with better cash flow potential. We looked at Reno, Nevada and Murfreesboro, Tennessee (south of Nashville). We decided on Tennessee. We have to buy three of these homes to meet the 1031 requirements. What’s pretty funny is that all three of these houses are bigger than our townhouse in San Jose yet even all three together are worth less.


St. Andrews
Gardendale

Sherborne

Ty’s first visit to Disneyland

We took a leisurely drive to Anaheim to visit Disneyland this past week. We first stopped by Katsuyo and Lee’s house and then hung out at Lowe’s Music. We enjoyed visiting Disneyland this past Saturday and stayed to watch the Fantasmic show. Ty got a little freaked out at the Minnie Mouse Character breakfast but it was fun for us to watch! Sunday and Monday were full of strolling around both Disneyland and California Adventure hitting all the attractions. We met up with Brian and Shinobu and Ishii-san then we stopped by Ann’s salon and had dinner with the Walkers. Lot’s of fun and laughs with Ty!


Giant Pumpkin in Town Square
Breakfast with Captain Hook

Aboard the Columbia
Meeting Mickey

Happy Birthday to me! (new car)

Right at the end of July, I took a trip to Phoenix to attend a T-Jet training course. During my visit to Arizona, I stopped by the Puhala residence (I used to work for Michael). I had some serious house envy as I toured their huge Scottsdale residence. I realized after I left that I didn’t take enough pictures so I only have the one from atop the highpoint of their backyard.

Graham and Catherine came to visit at the beginning of August and we enjoyed some fine dining and fine wine in San Francisco at Farallon. They very kindly picked me up a couple of bottles of the Rafanelli Zinfandel that Graham and I like during their tour of the winery (a tour that is not so easy to get!).

In other news we got a new car! The old Jeep was finally started to give me more worries than usual. The last time I had it in at the shop the guys showed me metal filings in the transmission fluid. Tick-tock.

We bought a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica Signature Series Touring AWD in Sunset Bronze. Quite a nice machine with toys like navigation and rear seat DVD. The key was the third row and the amount of cargo space when you fold the seats down as we do need to carry boxes from time to time. Basically it is a vehicle that is enough of a mini-van to be a family vehicle but also has some manly styling in terms of stance, chrome, engine and handling.


Our dinosaur on black T
Ty at Willow Glen Library

Pacifica Exterior
Ty in the Pacifica