From the Editor’s Desk: Complimentary (Premium)

As I write this, we're between the third and fourth of four back-to-back trips, the first time I can recall traveling like this since before the pandemic. This experience has triggered an interesting rush of mixed feelings and has been a reminder of the pros and cons of traveling.

Granted, we've traveled a lot in the past few years, but mostly to Mexico City, and we've settled into a familiar rhythm there in which it's typically the same flight on the same airline to the same place in a kind of dull Groundhog Day-type repetition. In some ways, that's not really travel, it's just my wife and I moving between our two places, one of which happens to be in another country. Travel, real travel, is about exposing yourself to different things, and in doing that, you're forced to improvise and change in the face of change.

I'm out of practice, so that doesn't always go well. I have memories of my habits and traditions, the things I've done to streamline travel and minimize the terrible parts. But these things are underutilized, and so now I approach travel much like a neophyte, unsure if I'm doing it right. I guess it is like riding a bike. But it's been awhile.

Plus, four back-to-back trips introduces its own form of brain fog. The first of these was to Seattle, from Sunday, May 19 to Thursday, May 23 for Microsoft Build. This trip was complicated by Microsoft not inviting the press to the event until very late in the process, leading to me scurrying to book unnecessarily expensive flights. Further complicating matters, a friend was planning to visit Mexico City the week before Build, and had I not been going to Seattle, I would have tried to meet up with him there instead.

But Build finally did happen, my wife decided she wanted to go, and we booked the flights. It was a whirlwind, expensive trip, a long-overdue chance to catch up with friends at Microsoft and in the area to a degree that wasn't possible on my previous trip to Seattle, in November for Microsoft Ignite. Which raises an interesting point: I've flown for three work trips since the pandemic, and all three were to Seattle. (I've also had a few driving-based work trips to New York City.)

Anyway, we always fly out of Newark, New Jersey, which is about an hour and 20 minutes from our home without traffic. And that necessitates some planning. Depending on the length of the trip, we will park in a garage near the terminals, long-term parking, or a nearby hotel that offers a room for one night and then long-term parking for the car. But if we're away too long—3 weeks or more—we'll just take an Uber back and forth from the airport. It's expensive, but not as expensive as those other options. And oddly enough, it's worked out fine each time, at least so far, despite the length of the drives.

This trip would be short, and the early departure that Sunday morning determined which option we'd use: Stephanie booked a night at the Home2Suite next to the airport, a no frills...