London Bound

John's parents decided last summer that they wanted to take all of their grandchildren on a cruise to Alaska, so we have just returned from dropping everyone off at the cruise ship terminal and running some errands. The two of us are taking advantage of this opportunity and heading out tomorrow for a week in London.

Today we took all of the travel backpacks out of the box. It was interesting to see what detritus was left in them from the previous trip--I was able to identify the owners of the packs by what I found. Mine has all the organizers (I'm a sucker for cute little organizers!), Beth's contained a candy wrapper and an earplug, Matt's contained the instructions for using his pack (which he never bothered to discard), and John's contained his travel pouch and some medication labeled in Chinese (he's taken his pack on some other trips, too).

Ready to Roll!

Beth and I went shopping with my parents today. They bought clothes for both Matt and Beth, then took us to dim sum at Jasmine. Yum!

I bought all the last minute stuff that we hadn't gotten yet: a headphone splitter so that both kids can use John's iPad on the plane, some Frontline for the dogs (since we hadn't given them their monthly dose before we left home), a small bottle of hand sanitizer, and several other items. The kids and I have repacked our bags, and are going to bed in our travel clothes tonight, so we won't have to deal with getting dressed when we leave the house at 4:00 am.

No post tomorrow, as we'll be on a redeye. See you in Paris!

Last Minute Frenzied Thoughts

Our bags are packed, our last-minute errands are all taken care of, and we're ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning. The first leg of the trip is the drive to San Diego, where we'll spend the weekend with family. Our dogs will be vacationing with John's parents while we're gone: they always have a great time there, and look rather sad when we bring them home to our little back yard.

After months of planning, our vacation is about to start! We bought our plane tickets in January (John had enough frequent flyer miles to cover two of them), and I've been researching and planning ever since. Attempting to calculate the value of train passes vs. point-to-point tickets, researching the best luggage, making hotel reservations, etc. We agreed that we would only pack a single carry-on bag per person, for maximum flexibility. We will be taking trains everywhere we go, and several of the rooms I've booked are on upper floors with no elevator, so travelling light seems like a good idea.

As usual, I'm probably going to lie awake tonight worrying that I've forgotten to pack something important. Yes, I know I can buy almost anything I need when I get there, but I can't stop myself from thinking about what I've packed! Some people are just worriers (me), some are not (John).