At the airport

The hour is almost here. We are at the airport waiting to board. I think we have packed everything we need. Oh man, I forgot to put Jess in the suitcase. Or was she in it because it was heavy! I am excited and nervous. 9 months. If you ask my mom I think she will say it is 8 months too long. We get into Paris at 11:30 tomorrow morning. Please pray for a safe flight and that we can sleep some. Au revoir. Robin, Holly, and Katie.

 

4 Weeks until we leave!

I can’t believe we leave in just 28 days.  That’s not much time and I have so much to do!

This week I am the director of the Vacation Bible School at our church so nothing is happening with our trip.  Yesterday we had 93 kids there and we usually get some more added during the week.  It is a lot of fun and we have a great bunch of volunteers that make this week happen.  Plus now I have those catchy VBS songs constantly going through my head.

A friend will be staying in my house while we are gone.  Luckily she will be using my furniture so I will not have to move it but I will need to pack up all of our personal items.  I have my to do lists for each room.  I can’t leave her a dirty house so there is a long list of cleaning that must be done too.

I have started purchasing things that we will need for the trip.  My Mom gave the girls suitcases for Christmas last year and I bought myself a new one.  We each now have iPhones.  I have a box that I’ve been putting things into that we don’t need now but I want to take with me.  I will try to fit most of our things into 1 suitcase each.  Some things will not fit so we will take an additional 1 or 2 to France.  But when we get over there we will be doing a lot of train travel.  I would like to only take 1 suitcase and a backpack each and leave things we don’t need at our home base.

I’ve made a few changes and additions to our itinerary.  During the last week of November we will be going to Venice, Italy for 4 days over Katie’s birthday.  When I first started planning this trip she said the place she really wanted to go was Venice.  So on her birthday we will be riding on a gondola.  I’ve also have our rental for December.  We will be in Arles, France, a city in Provence.  In January we will be staying 4 weeks in Kenmare, Ireland and 2 weeks in Salthill.  Then we will go to Dublin on 2/15 and Northern Ireland for a week starting 2/22.  At the beginning of March we will spend 2 weeks in Glasgow, 1 week in Edinburgh, and 1 week near Inverness.  That takes us to March 29.  I have rentals for our trip through that date.  We will spend another week somewhere in England and come back to France on April 5th.  The time after that is still in the planning stages but we will probably visit Greece and then spend time in Italy.

I still can’t believe we will be leaving in just 4 weeks.  Only 28 more nights of sleeping in my bed using my pillow.  Only 28 more days of hearing mostly English spoken and understanding what is being asked of me.  Only 28 more days to see my family and friends.  This last part makes me sad.  But I will be back and what a story I will have to tell!

 

What 9 months! How are you going to do this?

I’ve been thinking about this trip for a long time at least 5 years.  I live in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US.  I’ve been to New York a few times and as far north as Maine once.  I lived in Hollywood, Florida for about a year back in 1995 but we’ve been to Florida many times to visit family.  When I was 12 my family visited Hawaii for 2 weeks and I was at LAX for a lay over.  I’ve been to Texas a few times to visit friends.  And a couple of years ago we went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  I’ve only been out of the country once to Cancun, Mexico.  But we have never been to Europe.

Back in 2009 we had the privilege of being a host family to a girl from France for 5 weeks.  Manon is a wonderful girl and it was great having her stay with us.  The next summer she came back on her own and in 2011 her family came for a 2 week visit.  Now we have a connection to Europe and we will make their home our base for our 9 months.

So where will we be going, you ask?  At the beginning of September we will be flying into Paris.

• 9/7/13 – 9/21/13 – London for 2 weeks
• 9/21 – 9/28 – Northumberland (northern England – close to the Scotland border)
• 9/28 – 10/5 – Peak District (middle England – near Manchester)
• 10/5 – 10/12 – Cornwall, UK
• 10/12 – 10/16 – back to our home base
• 10/16 – 10/26 – traveling through Bavaria Germany.  The cities we will be staying in are St. Goar, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Garmisch and Berchtsgaden
• 10/26 – 11/2 – Munich, Germany
• 11/2 – 11/23 – Colmar France
• 11/23 – 11/30 – back to our home base – visiting Paris
• 11/30 – 1/4/14 – the month of December we will be staying in Provence area of France
• 1/4 – 1/25 – Kenmare, Ireland
• 1/25 – 2/15 – Salthill, Ireland
• 2/15 – 2/22 – Northern Ireland
• 2/22 – 3/1 – Dublin, Ireland
• 3/1 – 3/29 – Scotland, probably around Glasgow
• 3/29 – 4/5 – Loch Ness (maybe we will see Nessy)
• 4/5 – 4/12 – back to our home base – I would like to go to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens)
• 4/12 – until we come home Italy

During this 9 months Holly & Katie will continue to be homeschooled – yes I am making them do some work while we travel.  And I will have them post to this blog giving their opinions about what we visit and life abroad.  Leading up to our departure I will post information about the “hows”, “whats”, “wheres”, “whens” and “whys” of our trip.