Two More Days...Yikes

We are almost there. Where ever there is. We leave in two days, we have boxes and bags strewn throughout the house, every room has more to pack, and there are no where near the number of reservations for the trip made. I knew there was more to do than we could accomplish, and I was right! I have emptied our cupboards, eat your heart our Mother Hubbard, but there's still wine in the rack.

We have been saying good bye to our family and friends. The picture attached, from left to right, shows Dan, Wendy (a.k.a me), Siena on Pattie's lap, Kim, and Cliff. Our phone has been ringing regularly with well wishers and we will miss them all. Our dog seems to know something is not right, and rarely ventures far from our legs. We are fortunate that our neighbors have volunteered to take our dog, but, so far, no one has offered to take our mortgage. But, there's still time, and hope springs eternal. Anyone interested???

We have recently added many friends to our blog, and this short blog is primarily to make sure everyone is receiving this that is interested. If you get this, please respond to let us know you are on the list! I should have more to report once the trip starts.

The Countdown Stands at 2 Weeks

Yes, the day is fast approaching for our departure. I have learned so much preparing for this trip. In applying for our Russian Visas, I discovered that we are mistaken to think the Cold War is over. Anyone under this misconception should look at the application for a Visa. We needed to list our past two employers, supervisors, etc. As I have worked for Becker Orthopedic for 20 years and Kim owned/worked at Moon Valley for 32 years, this meant we had to go back a long way. I was releaved that I could come up with two since college, as my college engineering internship was with a defense contractor. I sure didn't want to list that, although, truth be told, I don't remember anything from my engineering days. I looked at one of my notebooks I found cleaning out the house, and it is completely amazing to me to think I once understood the stuff I wrote down.

As we clean house, we find all kinds of stuff that seems to hide until you start packing. How, I ask you, can I have bathtub toys in my house? My youngest is 11. We are currently burning our ancient records. I found our wedding registry and a list of what everyone gave us. Thanks again, to those of you on this list! I don't think we will keep all of this until the next move.

England is our first stop, London to be percise. We are staying at the Edward Lear Hotel (pictured above) home of the eponymous author, famous for The Owl and the Pussycat ("eponymous" is the word of the day--feel free to use it yourself). We have tickets to see The Lord of the Rings. Hard to believe they made a musical out of a long, dark book, but it is supposed to be wonderful. I will let you know.

I have changed the settings for the group email. I think, if you respond, it will only come to us now, not the entire group, and we would love to hear from you.

Missing you already!

The Beatties

T-Minus One Month

Things are coming together for our trip. The list of things that should be done hasn't diminished much, but our expectations of what realistically can be done certainly has. This has been a huge week for us, though. We have rented our house. This will go a long way towards financing the trip, and it also means we cannot come home early, at least not without finding somewhere else to stay.
Today, I booked us on a tour of Norway. In between exploring Oslo and Stockholm, we are taking 4 trains, 2 boats and 2 buses to see as much of this gorgeous part of the world as we can. We have family meeting us for this segment of the trip, which makes the logistics a bit harder. Only one more train trip to book and we are set for all transportation and lodging (for these two countries--the rest of the world is largely still uncharted and unreserved for us). The pictures are of the fjords and the interesting hotel where we are staying in Stockholm. The picture on the top is the hotel--not a traveling boat.
We also booked Ross, our eldest son, tickets to meet us in Tanzania over his Christmas break from college. Thank goodness for frequent flyer miles! Of course, the reality is that we've been spending so much on this trip and on preparation for the trip that our frequent flyer (spender) miles have accrued rather rapidly. Ross is traveling with us for the summer, then meeting up with us on the next continent. We planned the trip to be in Tanzania for his break so that he can go on safari and climb Kilimanjaro with us. For those unaware, Kilimanjaro is a strenuous hike, but not a technical climb like Everest or McKinley. Hey, if I'm going with my elderly husband, 11 and 13 year olds, how bad can it be?? ; - )
Any of you interested in meeting us there?

Siena's First Posting

Next year I will do more than leave the school. I will be leaving the country for a whole year! My brother, Ethan, my mom, my dad and I will pack up our bags and leave July 1st. You might ask how we will manage all of this. We are going carry-on. I have my backpack that will hold the clothing I will wear for a year—only about 3 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, 2 short sleeve and 3 long sleeve, hiking boots sandals, and a bathing suit! The hard part is we need to take no cotton because it takes too long to dry. And, it all needs to be light-weight so I can carry it.
Instead of attending school, I will be home schooled by my family. I am taking 6th grade math right now, so I don’t need to worry about math next year. For social studies, we will be doing projects on the countries that we visit. For language arts, I will keep a journal, and write short stories and poems about the places we go. As for gym, we will be hiking around cities and climbing mountains!

We will start in England. My first project will be about the history of England. I am reading novels about British history. I am looking forward to visiting Oxford, where some of Harry Potter movies were filmed and where the Golden Compass starts out. Then, we travel to Scotland. My brother wants to hike along Hadrian’s Wall, a wall that was the northern most border of the Roman Empire.

We are traveling around Europe for 5 months. I am most looking forward to Italy, because I love the food and I have heard only wonderful things about it. Another reason I am excited about visiting Italy is because I was named after a town in Tuscany and want to see what it’s like.

Then, we will be going to Africa. We are going to Egypt to see the pyramids and the sphinx. Next, we go to Tanzania, where we are going to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and go on a safari. In South Africa, we will be celebrating my birthday riding ostriches! From Africa, we fly to India. After that, we have no plans yet. But we want to visit China, Japan, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. We may stop at an island in the pacific on the way home. You can follow us on our journey on this blog. Wish us luck!

The Itinerary and the Pills

We are leaving in just two months. Those words are both thrilling and terrifying. To say we are not ready is absurd. We will never be ready. No one could take care of all eventualities even if they were far better organized than I. So, I am trying to accept the fact that most of the trip will be a matter of "winging it". While I usually do not have an issue with a lack of reservations, not knowing even what countries we are visiting stretches beyond my comfort level. My husband is fond of saying that I consider "plan" a four letter word, and this trip will be challenging all of us.

There are lots of health considerations for this type of trip. Because of the area we plan to visit, we require yellow fever and typhoid vaccines. Polio, tetanus, and all of the hepatitis shots were also recommended--and it's not really a recommendation you can ignore. My kids have become quite good at accepting the shots. We recently got the necessary pills for the trip. You can't believe the number (or size of some of the pills, my son points out) of the pills. Malaria, food poisoning, altitude sickness. I'm certainly going to be carrying more medications than the local drug store. And, we won't have to wait the typical 30 minutes to get them. The warnings are dire, but, then again, the warnings even on the most innocuous over the counter medication tend to be dire.

And, so, the reader might ask, where are you going that you need all of this??? I will do my best to keep you informed as this changes, but, as of today, our itinerary is as follows.

We leave July 1 for London. We are planning on spending 3 weeks in England and Scotland. No definite plans for where we are going, staying or seeing. All ideas of absolutely not-to-be-missed locales will be considered. Late July has us flying off to Oslo. A week in Norway, then we board a boat for a cruise up the coastal fjords to north of the Arctic Circle, where Ethan (see picture) will celebrate his 13th birthday. We will then train to Stockholm, before flying to Russia. For those who haven't had the chance to apply for a Russian visa, I would like to state that we are no longer sure the Cold War is over. The hoops and red tape are extraordinary. The fees and odd questions interesting hurdles. But, I digress from the trip itself.

From Russia, we fly back to Berlin. We will travel in the same general direction as the Danube (feel free to hum the tune; it is hard to even say "Danube" without "Blue" in front of it...). Prague, Vienna, Budapest. We have no idea how we are traveling here. It may be train, but we haven't ruled out bus or renting a car. Again, if any of you has done this, please send us your comments.

From Budapest, we are traveling down the Dalmatian Coast, then across to Istanbul (also, a catchy tune). Next, on t0 Greece: Island hopping from Paros to Santorini to Crete before returning to Athens. This next part is rather sketchy. We are flying to somewhere in Italy. We have a villa rented in Gubbio for a week, but the rest of the trip is cloudy. The non-negotiables are: Rome, the Amalfi Coast with Capri, Siena (my daughter wouldn't ever forgive us if we didn't make it there, her namesake!) Then, up into France, where is even less planned, although we know we are flying from Paris to Cairo December 1st.

Phew, we are only onto our second continent and I am growing weary. More distance, less specifics for now. Egypt and Tanzania will bring us to the end of the year. The family is planning to climb Kilimanjaro while here. For those unfamiliar with the climb, it is a hard trek, but no special equipment or experience are necessary. We are hoping to have some friends and family join us here. Ross is coming for sure, Brenda S and Paul P are maybes. After our climb, we are spending a few days relaxing on Zanzibar before flying down to South Africa for 3 weeks, then on to India.

Because of the nature of the airlines, we have no flights after landing in Delhi. We are planning on seeing India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, a brief stopover in Indonesia, almost a month in Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and then home. We may stop in Hawaii on the way, but it depends on the cost and if we are not too exhausted from the trip to appreciate it.

More later!

Welcome to our world trip

My family has been talking about taking a trip around the world for about 10 years. I think even my husband and I weren't sure that it wasn't mostly a pipe dream until recently. The turning point, when the dream became a reality, was when I told my employer of twenty years. Now, there is no turning back!

Our family of 5 leaves July 1, 2008 for a year long trip to 4 countinents. We are in the midst of the heavy duty planning. Hiking boots, backpacks, visas and logistical questions ( e.g. how does one GET to places in Russia when you can't read the signs?) fill our free time. We will be home schooling our 11 and 12 year olds, and there are a myriad of questions concerning that as well. Our flights are set for the first half of the trip. The airlines only let you buy tickets 11 months in advance, so we are around to India, but no further. Our itinerary is still in some flux as conflicts in countries or resolutions of old conflicts make us reconsider. Tibet has just moved from being a definite place we will visit, to a place we will most likely not. Fortunately, the world is a big place, and, while we will be unable to go everywhere we want, we would never have been able to go to all the places anyway.

I hope to use this blog to keep our friends, family and classmates informed of our wanderings. We look forward to hearing from you, too.