The Day Before Vacation

Aunt Nina at the age of three

At 5:00 AM Mark and I went for a run, we ran 2.55 miles. We came home and I took the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away. I made Mark and I scrambled eggs with toast. Folded a small load of towels in the dryer and put a small load of darks from the washer into the dryer and started a load of my bed sheet (I like to come home to a fresh clean bed). I than put the sprinkler on in my garden came upstairs got a cup of coffee and plopped down to write. Phew, what a way to start the day!

 I am off and running, literally. I have much more I want to accomplish in the next few hours. I think I am packed, I know I am definitely over packed. With what I have in my suitcase we could be gone a month with no problem. I always tell Mark that "a girl needs choices". I do have plenty of choices, even though I know from past experience I will only wear a quarter of what I pack. The best part of all is that I am packed in a 20"carry on suitcase and I am STILL over packed.

 I have just a few more small household tasks I want to accomplish before we leave. I love leaving a clean house, because I love coming home to one. It is bad enough that you have all the vacation laundry to do when you walk in from vacation I do not want to feel like I have cleaning to do too. I have stacks and piles near the door of items for my cousins wedding and food for the car, along with our wedding clothes and my own bag of things to do in the car, which will include my computer when I am done with it later today.

 I am planning on writing on this trip. I want to chronicle as best as I can the things we see and do on our way to Maine and back. Just the fact that we are hitting the road at 3:00 AM on Friday morning makes for an interesting update. Did they get off at 3:00 AM? Where did they get by 7:00 AM? We have booked a hotel in Albany, New York for Friday night. We booked the hotel online and paid ahead to get a good rate, which also means we lose our money if we do not show up. We started this technique a few years ago to stop us from trying to push to far or to long. The trip is really only 15 ½ hours and we plan to get through 10 of those hours tomorrow.

 The reason we are leaving so early is so that we can arrive in Albany, New York with daylight to look around and also burn off some energy before we turn in for the night. We have also done this in the past and it makes the trip more like an adventure. We have decided to drive through Canada to shorten our driving time which means we will probably see Niagara Falls in the light of early morning. I am starting to get excited. I am feeling the "to do" list shorten and the anticipation grow. I cannot wait to see my cousin and share her special day, but I am also excited to take our family somewhere they have never been. We are so blessed to have this opportunity. My only sadness continues to be that my Aunt Nina will not be here to share the stories of our travels with when we return. She always loved traveling and encouraged us to go whenever we can. She enjoyed our tales of adventure. I dedicate this trip to my Great Aunt Nina who helped us learn to make travel a priority.

 If I can make our computer air card work on the coast of Maine, I will be writing and sharing photos and details of our adventures as much as possible. Excluding Sunday of course that day we will be busy getting the beach ready for my cousins beautiful wedding by moon light. Now I must get back to my chores and packing so that I can get to bed late and get up early. This is all very exciting.