A is for Advanced Planning

How in the world did this trip come about you ask? Well, perhaps you didn't ask (or even care), but since it is my blog, here is my answer anyway. Ken and I knew we would be ready to “hit the road” again 3 years from our last adventure to Norway, England and Italy. We started saving our money the minute we got home. We created what we call our “JAVA”. JAVA stands for “Just A Vacation Account”. Every time I would avoid the temptation of stopping for coffee or not buying that “little something” we would say “that’s more money for our vacation fund”. We couldn't quite figure out how to actually have that savings show up literally in our travel account. I told Ken it was more “justification” for traveling than anything. That’s when clever Ken said it’s really a “just-a-vacation” account. Everyone knows that Ken and I believe there is no such thing as just a vacation, but we were off and running with the idea of “JAVA”.

Australia was our 1st choice of places to go. As much as we love Italy, we felt it was our duty as world citizens to share our travel style (electrical explosions in our room, massacring different languages, driving in reverse through toll lanes) with other countries. Once we saw how long of a flight it would be, we started rethinking this plan. France and Italy (Croatia was too much to fit in) were the countries that we decided to warn we were on our way.

We mentioned our travel thoughts to our friends Brian and Jeanette (Jen being my former college roommate) and Jen said "Sounds like fun ! Can we come ?" I knew it was just "talk" and they would back pedal as soon as I said "sure", but before we knew it, they had sold their dairy cows, cleared their scheduled and were on board. The question I had was "do they realize what being on board with me means?" Being on board with me means early (a year in advance), non stop planning, researching, and the final itinerary being nailed down before most people have even thought of the next year. To my surprise, I have met my match with Jen. While hesitant at 1st, she soon became equally obsessed with travel sites (Fodors is our favorite), calling the airlines 360 days in advance to the minute to secure business class tickets with frequent flyer miles and making reservations at the hotels we decided on.

What are Ken and Brian doing while Jen and I are obsessing about our plans? Smiling, nodding and saying "I hope you two know what you’re doing !" We’ll see, won’t we? Just to make sure, the 4 of us took a short road trip to the Rick Steves' Travel Center in Edmonds to get the blessing of one of their travel consultants. The blessing was given, so we've done well.....but again, we’ll see :)

Sally

The Itinerary

(click on the hotel name and you will be taken to its website)

June 12:
Bakkens leave for Milan, Italy on Air France
June 13:
Bakkens arrive in Milan to "crash" for the night: Hotel Ariosto
June 14-17:
Bakkens in Varenna (Lake Como): Hotel du Lac
June 16:
Stroms leave for Milan, Italy on Air France
June 17:
Bakkens and Stroms meet in Milan: Hotel Ariosto
June 18, 19, 20:
Florence: Hotel Casci
June 21, 22, 23:
Assisi: Malvarina
June 24:
Orvieto: Hotel Duomo
June 25, 26, 27:
San Quirico d’Orcia (Tuscany): Palazzo Conti.
June 28, 29:
Monterosso di Mare (Cinque Terre): HotelPasquale
June 30:
Fly from Pisa to Paris, France
June 30, July 1. 2. 3:
Paris, France: Hotel du Champ de Mars
July 4, 5, 6:
Lyon, France: Sophie and Alain's home (friends of Jen)
July 7:
Bakkens and Stroms fly out of Lyon to Paris, Seattle and Bellingham.
Arrive Bellingham: