Planning New Adventures!

When I did the A-to-Z challenge, I focused on places I've been. Now I'm planning the next major jaunt, and it's a biggie. I don't want to post details until after the fact, partly because there's some political turmoil there, and partly because we had some major hurdles to jump to even get to the point where we now have tickets! So I recognize that things could still go wrong.

I have a brother who lives outside the U.S., and we are going to visit. 
That's my teaser: It's an overseas trip.

Actually, my niece is graduating from high school, so the primary purpose is to be there for family milestones (there's a birthday, too), but we will also be visiting some pretty exciting historical locations. More on that after we get back in June. This post is about planning.

You see, I'm a planner, and I married a "pantster" to quote Isa-Lee Wolf of A Bit To Read. My Brett flies by the seat of his pants. I used to think I did that. Sometimes. And I can, within the confines of the plan. On our last major trip - to Utah - we had a plan, but within that I let him run. The plan included: 

1. Flight to Denver
2. Staying the first night with his friend in Colorado
3. Wedding weekend events
4. Staying the last night with my aunt near Denver
5. Return flight

Within that plan, we took our time, picked up tourist brochures and found some out of the way gems. We even extended our hotel stay in Moab because it was a great hotel, at the bride's discounted rate, and we were having a fantastic time hiking and injuring ourselves.

For this overseas trip, I booked our tickets, got us travel insurance, and am currently researching which would be the most central place to stay when we are away from my brother's house - we'll take a few days on our own to do the touristy things they've done many times with every visitor. Oh, and car rental. We may need to rent a car. Then again, I'm told buses are pretty reliable. It's taking me some time to sort this out.

Brett scheduled our vaccinations, found us rides to and from the airport - it's cheaper to fly in and out of Chicago than Indianapolis, but we don't want to pay their long-term parking rate - and he has responsibility for getting us our visas.

Like the trip to Utah, some things are set:

1. Flights
2. My nephew's birthday
3. My niece's graduation

Between the birthday and graduation we want to see things outside of the city they live in. I'm trying to limit myself to getting one hotel for a few nights, sort of central to everything we want to see, and then letting Brett take over as we get there and decide what site is the most interesting to spend the most time at. We'll probably never be back there, so we want to make the most of it. Then again, as he reminds me, we've never been there before, so everything is interesting.

Oh, and just in case I needed a little cloud in the back of my mind about this trip, it was on the return flight from visiting my brother 4 years ago that my dad had his first "mini" stroke. Sitting still on a plane-ride that long, apparently, makes it easy for blood clots to form. And now I know that I have his genetic predisposition for cardiovascular problems. I'm not really worried 'cause I'm 30 years younger, but I think I'll try to do yoga on the plane. That'll be fun! (If I manage to do yoga on the plane, I promise to post a picture.)