The New Adventure - on a Budget: Travel Update for 2011.

{Wrote email Wednesday, May 11, 2011}

This evening has been rather fun. Bern and I are having a travel "pow-wow". Yes, I know you need me to translate: a back and forth, all over the place, discussion about upcoming potential travel plans. This is a regular occurrence and typically very random. We don't schedule these conversations. Well, they are scheduled when a "big" trip has already been booked. Last fall we had several of these scheduled. They are extremely fun.

Tonight, we discussed the beach. My Wanderlust Wednesday post started the conversation. I always ask Bern "where do you want to go on Wednesday?" And sometimes he answers and sometimes he doesn't. We actually have several tentative weekend trips planned this summer: Boston, Chicago, Martha's Vineyard, and of course the beach (Southern California).

The Boston trip which was going to be over Memorial Day weekend has now been moved to later in the summer. We are going to try and dovetail the Boston trip with the Martha's Vineyard trip. It only makes sense. Bern will actually head out earlier in the week to catch Bill in action while he's coaching with the Boston Rox. And I'll fly out and catch 1 game then will head to the ferry. Then my wonderful Aunt Virginia and Uncle RJ will pick us up on the island and we will have a fun weekend! And I'm hoping this will be over my birthday weekend. Wishful thinking! They have never met so this will be a fun trip.

We discussed our trip to Venice. The plan is to head back to Europe over Thanksgiving. We are contemplating staying in Venice the entire trip and/or combining it with a cruise again. However, this time we will do Eastern Mediterranean (last time we did Western). And honestly, right now it would be silly for us not to do a cruise because the prices are so low. Yes, yes, I know I need to share the details. I promise I will, in another post. In addition, I love that we are maximizing the most days off due to the holidays and my work schedule.

Paris also came up. Bern really wants to do Venice first. However, he did agree to the possibility of doing both but, separately. He does not want to combine Paris and Venice in the same trip and I don't blame him. I will say that I am very excited that he finally agreed to Paris! Yippee. And yes, there was a "fist-pump" in the air while I was on the phone with him. Yes, Bern there really was.

The discussion of roomorama.com also came up. This is the website that I found via twitter regarding places to stay. We used Venere.com to find our bed and breakfast for Rome. And I will say we loved where we stayed. I can honestly say that I don't think we will stay anywhere else when we go back to Rome. The location was fabulous and the breakfast was delicious! Anyhow, roomorama.com lists apartments for rent. And I will say that I found a fabulous place for London, check out that post here. I'm still a bit shocked from that one because most of you were unsure if I was really going or not. I don't have a final place picked for Paris yet...about 27 places are in the maybe list. It's time consuming to find a place you really, really like. Bern and I have a lot of experience with this. We went back and forth for several weeks regarding hotel, apartment, bed and breakfast AND location of each place. At one point it wasn't very much fun to discuss. But, now we have a system down as to "how" we do it (another post on this later). I will say this that both of us have searched roomorama.com for Venice and we like what we've found.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping a few minutes of time will open for both, my boss and I, so that I am able to discuss and "outline" my vacation plans for the remainder of the year. It may seem a tad bit overwhelming reading this but its not. Because I am in accounting there are certain days of the month that I can't be off and need to be present at work. So, its important to discuss my potential time off and make sure it works. And at this point I'm 99.9% sure it will fine but Bern and I want to be sure before "buy" the tickets.

And an important update. Since, the initial "pow-wow" we've had a second one - while I was typing this post and Bern's figured out my Chicago trip and he's agreed to go with me! YIPEE! You see my girlfriend is getting married on July 2nd and July 3rd is our 6-year anniversary. And Bern isn't a die-hard Chicago fan like myself but, he's agree to partake and we've already "outlined" the trip. Yep, we have. We are quick planners. And yes, I'll include all of the snazzy details in another post. Speaking of which -- I need to find a champagne or wine colored dress for this wedding...mental note to self "HAP get on it: dress for Dana's wedding". Oh, the point of the Chicago trip was to tell you Bern's booking our tickets as we speak. And hopefully they'll be no issues with my 1-1/2 days off for June 30th and July 1st. Wish me luck. Excuse me here but, I need to send a "shout out" to Bern: **virtual HUGS** to you for deciding to come with me to Chicago, sweetie you'll love it AND it will be so much fun!!!

Any who, I hope I've brought you up to speed on my upcoming adventures.

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