Home life - 1/27/23

It's been a few days since arriving back home. I've caught up on a lot of sleep. Had all sorts of extra snuggles from the 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛. Starting to get back into a normal life routine.

Work has been fortunately been very busy. It seems like the real estate market is picking back up, and that's a welcomed and much needed change over the past few months. As I've mentioned before, even though this year is going to take me to many corners of the world, I must remaining working and producing loans, just as I have on previous vacations. I am fortunate to have the added benefit of having a local team, with both my loan partner and loan processor both licensed to originate loans themselves, so those conversations requiring licensure remain compliant in my absence. Thank you to Darrin, Shalea, Caden and Patricia for supporting and encouraging this journey!!!

Arrival Back at home, 9p, Monday, Jan 23rd:

My first thought upon walking back into the Bookcliff House on Monday evening is how large of a space it is. Having just lived in ~180-200 so feet for 14 nights, 1850 sq feet seems rather excessive. Excessive seems to be a theme for this year. All of the travel is excessive. Food, photography, blog...all excessive. But why not?

It was comforting to be in my own space. I left the suitcase by the door, texted my parents, showered and immediately jumped into bed. Exhausted, after making a rookie mistake of booking a 2 connection flight from Miami to Grand Junction.

A 14 hour travel day hit me, and then came to the realization that I have 6 segments of 14 hour flights, (LAX-Brisbane and back, Dallas to Qatar and back on the Africa leg, and Dallas to Tokyo and back). I honestly cannot fathom at this exact moment being on an airplane for that long. (Please message me any tip or must haves for long flights. Instagram, FB Messenger, email cole.sjoholm@gmail.com)

I promised my cousin Cara I would talk more about photography, so here we go. As a youngster, I frequently had a camera in hand. Capturing family events, the sights of Las Vegas, Washington DC on our 8th grade class trip). I think I spent a good portion of my allowance at Synders Drug developing film. Let's be clear, photography is a hobby, and as an adult, a very new hobby..

Knowing that the proper equipment is key, I gifted myself for Christmas a Ferrari of cameras. A Sony Alpha 7aiii mirrorless camera and currently just using the stock lense. At the time of purchase, I knew I had the 2 week caribbean cruise, Australia and my commitment to visiting Norway, Finland and Sweden in 2023. I hadn't even yet thought of this 7 continents trek. (Go back to the first blog post if you want more info on how this was launched, it's a quick read cause there wasn't a lot of pre-planning.)

As I started thinking about solo travel, I knew that having a camera by my side would be a good solo activity. I mean, there's only one lense for a reason, right. What I didn't know is how it would change my behavior. I don't normally walk up to folks and ask to take there photo, but I've already done it time and time again and they have become some of my favorite photos so far.

I think what I'll do while I am not traveling is share a photo periodically and tell you the story behind the photo. Stay tuned for that!

So getting back to the camera, it really is a crutch. It has given me purpose in this adventure. It's not going to be my sole purpose, of course, but on those days with no particular activities planned, or in a stunning city like San Juan, I'll use it as my travel companion while roaming the streets of Buenos Aires, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Oslo, and the beaches of the Seychelles. It's a pretty spectacular checklist of locations!

Looking forward to capturing memories, architecture, skylines, flora, and my Instagram series that I am titling "People in Places".

Enough for today. Another busy day with work. So thankful for all of you that continue to support my business and cheer me along around the globe.

-Cole