Let the Adventures Begin!

The Beasley family is about to embark on the longest trip any of us have ever taken (17 days!). Even when Todd and I went to Italy we were only gone 11 days. Not that 11 days is short by any means, but this trip will be almost a full week longer than that. I was wondering if I would get a little homesick, because I recall thinking at the end of our Italy trip that 11 days was about as long as I would want to be gone. But then I realized that what I was I homesick for was not so much my home as my kids, and since we will get to be with our kids this time I think (hope) we will consider this to be an extended adventure together and have no reason to long for home. Besides, wherever my husband and kids are is home to me, no matter where that may be.

Our family started the dreaming process back in the fall and it took us several months to decide what we wanted to do. The one thing that we knew for sure was that we wanted it to be a two-week trip and be something very different than we have ever done before. It seems we alternate our family vacations between the mountains and the beach, and we wanted to think outside the box this time. We considered a trip to Europe or a cruise or a combination of the two. The problem with Europe was that (besides the fact our kids were not interested -- huh???) most of our trip budget would be spent just getting there. Plane tickets run about $1500 each so times that by five and there's not much left to work with after that. We have since gotten a Delta Sky Miles credit card so one of these days we'll get there free from miles we've built up, but in the meantime we set our sights back on a stateside adventure.

I'm still not really sure how we settled on this particular trip, but it slowly shaped up to an East Coast Extravaganza. We'll start in Savannah, GA. From there we will drive to Charleston, SC, then head on to Virginia where we will stay with Rudy and Cheryl. While in Virginia we will visit Williamsburg and Monticello, then journey on to Washington, DC, where we will get to experience the 4th of July in our nation's capitol. As soon as we get to DC we will turn in our car so when we leave there we will take the train to the big finale -- New York City!

I have to admit, this is so different from anything we have ever done before that I have often wondered if we will even like this sort of trip (or if we'll like each other by the time we get home). I told Todd we might get home and say "That was the funnest thing we have ever done" or "We will NEVER do anything like that again." Or, Todd said, we might get home and say, "That was the funnest thing we have ever done, AND we will NEVER do anything like that again." (OK, so I don't think "funnest" is really a word but that's what I said anyway.)

So, starting back in January I bought a three-ring binder, got dividers, and started filling it up with all my notes and confirmation emails. I hammered out a budget and an itinerary that includes these five cities and three modes of transportation. In February I bought one-way plane tickets to Savannah and out of NYC. I rented a car to pick up in Savannah and drop off in DC, and I bought train tickets on the new Acela Express from DC to NYC. I researched hotels in all five cities and finally made our reservations. I bought Broadway tickets and museum tickets and tour tickets and monument tickets and have carriage ride and dinner reservations. I have tried to leave lots of unstructured time as well, but the reality is that many of the things we want to do need advanced purchase or planning or we might stand in line all day or miss out altogether.

As I am tying up all the loose ends and trying to make sure I have covered all my bases, one thing I thought about was how to best document all our adventures and experiences on a daily basis. I remember when we went to Italy I tried to write emails every night to send to our parents and some friends, but I figured there had to be a better way. I wanted a central location where people who were interested could look it up and then I would also have it as a keepsake for my family. So here begins....Todd and Joli's Travelogue!