year of fun

7:35pm Ok. The hubs and I are in a black car–we are splurging because its our anniversary–and we are headed to O’Hare. The trip is finally here!

And I’ve been a ball of stress all day because I hate flying. It makes me veeeery anxious. The hubs and I planned for an overnight flight with the hope that working all day will help me sleep on the flight. Then I wake up and we are there, ready to start the day. If this back fires, however, he’s going to be dealing with one cranky, tired lady tomorrow.

I’m writing now to try and make the whole airport experience a positive one instead of a stressful one. More to come after we’ve gone through security.

8:15pm Well that didn’t take long! We are already at the gate. Security was uneventful. We even skipped the moving sidewalk in favor of walking “the long way” and we are still here early. I’m going to call my parents and start a new book and do my best not to think about flying. So far this has been pretty fun. I just have to keep thinking about the reward at the end of the flight!

Year of Fun travel blog coming soon.

This is going to sound like an ad for popout maps. And it kind of is. Because I love them. When I studied abroad in England, I was not in London, but I went there many times. For the most part, all I needed was my handy, pocket-sized popout map with its street maps, tube map, and close up of the theater district. Not to mention all the landmarks, sights and museums highlighted.

I have to admit, I kind of panicked a little when I realized we wouldn’t have our phones to guide us wherever we want to go. And I do NOT want to be all touristy standing on a street corner with a giant map. But with popout maps, I won’t have to be. Its like having a google maps app in a place where your phone doesn’t work. (How’s that for a slogan?)

As you may know by now, I like to be very organized. Making lists and planning bring me great joy. So it should come as no surprise that I spent a long time today putting together an itinerary for the hubs’ and my anniversary trip (that begins at the end of next month!).

The itinerary is broken down by day. Each travel day has the departure and arrival cities, times, flight/train and confirmation numbers, directions from train stations to hotels, etc. I also made a separate document that has lists of potential activities in each city. The top choices will ultimately make their way on to the itinerary as “suggested activities,” giving us room to change things up last minute if we want to.

In Chicago (or anywhere in the U.S.), if I had to go anywhere I wasn’t familiar with, I would just plug it in to my iPhone and be on my way. And I’ve grown very accustomed to that. Realizing that we would not have this luxury on our trip (because we are not paying to use our phones internationally) prompted me to worry a little bit about getting from place to place. Hence the detailed itinerary with what I consider a very fun name, Me Hubs European Anniversary Getaway Adventure Itinerary.