I travel.

Like the sun sets and the moon rises, I travel.

I have since I was very young and my mother and her gypsy spirit lugged me and my older brother (who also travels) around Europe to countless castles, caves and churches throughout my childhood.

For those of you who don’t know, we’re off on a 6 week whirlwind tour of North America and Europe with the whole fam-damily.

A week on the West Coast with an old Bestie.  We’ll be touring around with the youngest Hobbit in tow. I suspect wine, food, and laughter will play a rather major part of our itineraries.  Other than that, we don’t have much of a plan.  I rented a car.  I’ll pack a bag. We have six days.  Should be fun!

Then a week in Alberta.  The highlights of this will be a girl’s night out in the city I was born and then heading South to Calgary through the Rocky Mountains to visit family and friends.

Then I jet to New Jersey to meet the man of my dreams, hubby Phteven (aka Grumpy) and we’ll head over to Manhattan for food, fun, romance and sightseeing.

From there we head North to the Ottawa Valley for three short days where we’ll see my Grandad and introduce him to his youngest great grandson and spend time with all the kids and my mom.

 

Then Grumpy and I will farewell the three eldest children and leave them in the care of my mother as we head to London to visit the Queen… Well, not really… We’re going to see his brother. I also hope to see a couple of friends while we’re in and around London town for a couple of days.  So if you’re reading this and you’ll be in the area, drop me a line and we can catch up for a cuppa or a pint!  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.  But we’re always back eventually!

Then we’re off to the continent for a whirlwind tour of Northern Europe to investigate some EV (Electric Vehicle) excitement, and maybe get a glimpse of our Tesla S before it heads off on the boat for New Zealand from the Netherlands.  We will see.

Then we will be reunited with the kids in Barcelona and off on a family cruise, just the six of us (myself, Grumpy and our four fabulous offspring) on Disney Magic for a week.

On our tour we’ll hopefully be able to see the second and third of three super-moons for 2014. One in Alberta and one on our cruise.  We’ll also get a chance to see if we can remember how to negotiate the trials and stresses of tight travel schedules and maintain some semblance of marital bliss.

We haven’t traveled internationally since January, which is the longest stint we have ever been in New Zealand consecutively since we started dating back at the turn of the century.  2002 to be exact.

We’d had a few bad experiences with travel agents over the years, so I do all my own bookings these days. If I have an agent it needs to be someone I can visit and chat with.  There’s one gorgeous girl who I’ll be contacting to help us with our plans for a round the world trip with the kids in the next few years.  I do hope you’re reading and know it is you I am talking about Grace.  I keep meaning to pop in and chat and just never get around to it!

So today I have spent the entire day researching hotel rooms, flights, connections and the cheapest way to get from Belgium to Barcelona.  Looks like we’re going to be riding the train for that part of the journey.  Cheap and cheerful, and an adventure to boot!

I am so excited I find myself getting a bit tearful.  The Love of travel and the desire to traverse the globe is what keeps me going.

The promise of the next adventure is what makes it possible to do any of the important (but dull) day to day things that need to be done between adventures.  I really don’t know that I can slow or settle down as much as I tried to this year.  I’ve been a runner my whole life.  I ran away from home regularly from the age of about 4 or 5 and continue to crave the unknown more every year I am alive.

Grumpy does not enjoy travel.  Well, he very much enjoys being in new places and seeing or doing new things, he is just very adverse to the necessary evils of getting from point A to point B.  He hates airports. He hates cabs. He hates buses. He hates trains. He likes driving and doing his own thing and he LOVES to cruise because you unpack once and then it is food, fun and fabulousness from dawn till dusk until the day you disembark.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week.  Gearing up for another Hobbit adventure.  It feels so good to be stressing about the impending departure.  Familiar and fabulous.  I hope I remember to pack Uncle Traveling Matt this time!  I so often forget him.

So now, at well after 10pm on a sober Saturday night in the Hobbit household, I’ll sign off and continue my travel research.

XXOO

Thanks for reading!