We leave (early) tomorrow for our trip!

I'd like to say that at this time we're all packed, and the house is clean,

and we're ready to tuck ourselves in for a good nights sleep...

but that's just not the case.

In fact, it's 10:30pm, the house is a disaster, I have no idea what we've

packed yet, we still need to finish booking our trip...

and the live in just left to go work out.

Awesome.

Actually it's okay.  

It gives me some alone time to remove some of his articles of clothing from the suitcase.

He'll thank me later.

I won't be blogging while we're gone but I will be taking down

bits and pieces to share with you when we return.

Which leads me to this...my best piece of travel advice...

always bring a journal.  Always.

We're not talking the Dear Diary type.

We carry a pocket size Moleskin journal that literally goes everywhere with us.

And we basically use it like an old school Twitter fead.

It's an amazing way to look back on any trip - big or small.

Here are some entries that still make me laugh:

7/19/06 Rome, Italy:

"Next Halloween costume...

Pope and pregnant nun.  Can get great costumes here."

7/20/06 Rome, Italy:

"The famous heat rash of '06 is here.  Had to buy a "Brazilian" tee shirt

to cover up my gross chest."

11/13/07 Florence, Italy:

"I am still mad at Troy for being the meanest person ever last night.

At 4am he's up and running around the room because "he

absolutely cannot sleep".

9/3/09 Paris, France:

Troy made a rare entry: "Find big glass building."

12/28/10 Cabrera, DR:

"Troy went swimming in Playa Grande today with 

his sunglasses on.  He acted surprised when he lost them and then

 proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes searching

the ocean for them."

12/28/10 Cabrera, DR:

"Troy said, "if you ever want Harry Potter glasses, I'm

going to tell you no."

Q&A soon...

I recently received an email from someone asking me to help them plan their first trip out of the country. Holy cats, I think I’ve given you people the wrong impression. Although I would love love luuuuuuuv to set up some sort of free travel site/blog with tips and hints and local spots, I don’t know how worthy my advice might be, especially at the moment. Or maybe it could be more of a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ type of thing?

See, the live in and I leave in about a week for Croatia and London. Here’s what has yet to be done...booking two nights of hotels, a rental car, a way off the freakin island, and all the silly pre-trip errands. Mind you I have lists galore (Big list maker. It’s like my passion.) yet several of these things are not even on the top of the list. Buying new flip flops, why yes, that of course makes top priority. And the worst part? This doesn’t even bother us. We've put far more important things off, for far longer.

But putting our little procrastinator flaw aside, we actually might have a few pieces of advice on travel.

Good advice? Honestly, who knows.

So look for a little Q&A from the live in and I soon…

and if you have a question that you’d like to ask us either leave it in the comments or email me.
Serious or not so serious, we don’t mind.

I know my first question for him will be, “how in the world do you manage to pack more

than any woman I know?”

 

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

Audrey turned 1 year old this past weekend!  

And I'd like to say that the annoying aunt posts will start to fade away

as her baby years turn into toddler years, but I just don't see that happening.

Here's why:  

1.  She's a total ham/diva/drama queen and is really one of the few people out there 

who appreciates having her photo taken by me.

2.  We share a love for cat naps, cucumbers, and punching people in the face.  

I just can't turn my back on that.

(Audrey in the middle of eating her birthday cake.  And plate.  

And pretty much anything else she can get her hands on.)