before the trip

It's Thursday noon and we haven't packed yet, but we will. Stu's ready with his eye meds, his new Kindle (which he loves), and a walking stick packed. He's determined to enjoy every bit of this great adventure. I'm packing my Ipod which I've recently learned how to load with audio books and music--that's already an accomplishment. Knitting is in the bag, directions for a complex sweater ready to twist my mind, and my Hebrew practice books on the table.

We consider ourselves so blessed to be able to take this wonderful trip that we've been planning for most of the year.

Friday we fly to Miami with dear friends Shirley and Bob Keaster. There we meet up with Linda and Bill Werner, and Steve and Carol (the newlyweds). We're scheduled for an organic pizza dinner with salad and wine.

Saturday it's down to the pier in Miami to board the Celebrity Eclipse which we take us across the Atlantic for 7 blissful days of nothing but ocean. I'm really looking forward to that. Then it's a one day stop in the Azures, Portugal, Spain, Normandy, France and landing in South Hampton on April 29--the same day as Prince William and Katie's wedding. Since we didn't get invites, we are flying directly to Orly airport in Paris to begin a one week stay.

From Paris we part company with the other 3 couples and Stu and I head, via the Chunnel, for London where we're rented a flat in the theatre district. We haven't made any specific plans, but we will be doing a lot of theater.

On May 16th we fly to Iceland for a three day stop over and some sightseeing before leaving Europe on May 19th for 6 wonderful days in New York with our beloved family. Home to Phoenix on May 24th.

I'll try to update the blog every couple of days, and insert some pictures if we figure out how to do that again--we haven't tried since our Israel trip two years ago.

Blogs are easy. If you want to follow, great, if not, at least you can.

While we are away we have made house sitting arrangements, set up the gardening so we don't come home to dead plants, emptied the refrigerator, taken the cars off the road, and put our phones on vacation mode. You can always reach us via e-mail which we'll be picking up on a regular basis.

Bon Voyage