The Excitement Builds

Well, I haven't posted to this blog in a while...I guess after last spring's false start I wasn't allowing myself to get too excited too early.  But everyone is healthy and it looks like it's going to happen this time.  In fact, Allen & I packed last night. (Well, okay, he's pretty much finished packing and I still have some to do, but he's leaving 2 days earlier than I am.)

Our itinerary is that we are each spending about a week with family in New York state and Pennsylvania.  Allen is traveling to NY on Saturday.  I fly to PA on Monday (someone has to work on Sunday).  Allen is then driving down to PA on Wednesday and then whisking me off to NY on Friday.  On Saturday, we head to the White Plains, NY airport in Westchester to begin our travels across the pond.

Oddly, United has no direct flights from JFK in New York City to London--you have to connect somewhere to get there.  So we figured that since we'll be upstate with his family, why go all the way into the city just to connect, when we can connect at a much closer and easier to get to airport.  So we fly out of White Plains.  The odd thing is that our connection to Heathrow is through O'Hare airport in Chicago.  Okay, we can do that.

Marilyn's health continues to improve and I think she'll really enjoy this trip.  She's already decided that she doesn't have to get off the ship at a port if she isn't feeling like it.  

I have my reading material all lined up...all Donna Leon books, an author to whom I was introduced several years ago by my friend Marge.  Donna Leon writes police detective novels, all set in Venice, all with the same main character, a police commissario by the name of Guido Brunetti.  They're easy reads but she does make you think...not in the typical mystery "try to figure out who-done-it" way, because Guido is pretty philosophical and battles constantly with the ethics of his job.  We also get to spend time with him and his family, giving us a little slice of Venetian life.  Marilyn is taking along her latest book, so I'll have that as a back up.  Plus, the QM2 has a library...of course.

According to the widget on my dashboard, there are only 10 days, 8 hours & 6 minutes until we board.  But who's counting?