Homecoming Trip Preparations

Kit is coming home in give or take 45 days! I have a house to make ready and a wonderful homecoming trip to start planning. Besides him coming home, the homecoming vacation is something we've been looking forward to for awhile. We haven't been able to travel much over the last year due to my schooling and his absence. It's been driving us both crazy!

The summer after we both graduated college, June 2011, we spontaneously booked a roundtrip flight to Paris, France. We hiked, trained and subwayed our way through Paris, Zurich, Venice and Rome. We soaked up every minute. We felt liberated, free, alive, spontaneous and just simply incredible. The best part was we only had each other to rely on, well a map and a french dictonary too. It was all we needed. From that trip on we knew we'd be back. So when deciding on where to go for our first trip as working adults, the decision wasn't hard.

Now, where to go from here? Well first it's timing this trip right...since Kit will want to start working when he comes home and his job definitely won't allow him to be gone for a couple weeks at a time...the timing has to be pretty quick. Location. Our only stipulation was that we had to be able to use our passports. We have two couples we know in Germany and a list a mile long of things to see, so that was a gimmee! Austria was my husband's pick. He said he couldn't see going to Germany without taking a quick detour to Austria. I think the lure of Hitler's old Eagles Nest is too much for him. Lastly, we've both wanted to venture out of mainland Europe and visit someplace a little different. Ireland. Someplace where my husband's red beard can truely blend in.

We both know this will be our last trip overseas for awhile. He's got potentially law school on his horizon which will cost us lots of money and he lots of time. I have educational goals that I'm trying to achieve and some new goals in the future to ready for. We know we'll be back, but just in case life distracts us a little too much...we couldn't hit Europe one last time without seeing these three last countries. Now comes the planning part. Planning hostels, trains, tours and museum times. Some people like to just wing it, but I'm a planner and I don't "wing" things if I don't have to. For one, we're traveling during prime tourism time and tickets/tours/trains book up. We don't want to miss out on an experience because we didn't plan ahead. Secondly, it makes us feel comfortable knowing we have a planned bed to sleep in every night.

As much as we're excited about this trip, I'm just grateful for the fact that I no longer will have to take my husband to the airport and leave him there. From now on we'll fly together. We'll travel together. We'll live together. Simply all I could ever want out of this life right now.