2010 Dreams

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but I have created my travel dream plan for 2010.

Honestly, the first two were not on the original plan, but those trips are planned so I am including them on the list:

Feb - Vail - never been, but I also haven't been skiing in at least a decade.

March - California - Jill's spring break. We are starting in LA (first time for Jill) and will drive up to San Fran to visit relatives.

May - Europe with DH and Andrew. This should coincide with another work trip to London, but I want to go back to Paris too.

July - cruise with the Andrew and Jill before they need to get packing for college. (empty nest alert - that should be a whole new blog)

September - Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. (Yes, it really isn't in October.)

December - Tokyo for Christmas and New Year's.

The Tokyo trip is already in question. I have lots of frequent flier miles saved, but only for the lowest level for redemption. I may have missed my opportunity to use them for the end of this year, so this trip may get postponed until spring break 2011.

Now to the second-tier - really dreaming - need to win the lottery and need more vacation time:

NYC - girls' weekend for shopping and theatre.

New England in the Fall - try to pick up 2 of those missing states - New Hampshire and Maine.

Norway in June

Oregon in August- wine tasting; and way, way over due for a visit with Sharon.

Hawaii in October

Thanksgiving in Arizona with my parents

100

I was sure that I had made it to 100. I must be missing some trips. Or my math is bad.

Hmmmm.......

Cancun - December 2004

This was the first (and only, so far) time in my life that I did not spend Christmas with my parents. Weird, huh? We left for Cancun on Christmas morning and returned on January 1st.

I'll start by putting it out there - it was not our best family vacation. Andrew got sick and DH is not really a beach person. We will probably never go back.

But we did make it to a place featured in "the book" - Chichen Itza. And, thankfully this was still when you could climb to the top. I didn't make it all the way up though because I was very afraid of falling on my way back down.

The other highlight of the trip for me was scuba diving off of Cozumel. I am a water person and love diving. I don't get enough opportunities to indulge this hobby especially given the climate I live in. I really need to live near an ocean.

Snowmageddon 2010

I survived! But I don't have a t-shirt or any other "thing" to commemorate the event.

I should have canceled my last trip to DC. I knew better. They don't handle snow....well.

I am from Minnesota. I have survived many, many bad winters. But, we have the experience, and infrastructure, to deal with winter. DC doesn't.

I spent lots of time in my hotel. It was a very nice hotel - Sofitel - and I would recommend it. Thankfully their room service was excellent, and they didn't run out of my favorites.

Japan - July 2005

Another past trip to document. Most of the details will be missing because my memory is getting fuzzy. This picture is from Hiroshima. There is a flame in the memorial that will be extinguished as soon as there are no more atomic bombs left on Earth.

A survivor of the bomb approached us as we were walking along the river. Her English wasn't very good, but she wanted to say a prayer with us.

Japan is still one of my favorite trips with Andy and Jill. We were gone for two weeks - the longest trip we had ever taken at that point - and they were awesome.

Japan was one of the most tiring trips I have ever been on, but I would totally do it again.

Old Kyoto

Climbing Mount Fuji and restoring the soul - this was the primary reason for taking the trip. We didn't make it to the top though because it was cold and freezing rain. We made it very close. We climbed over night hoping to see a great sunrise, but we were enveloped in clouds.

We sprinkled some of Lew's ashes on Mount Fuji. Lew is DH's father.

The Park Hyatt Tokyo - featured in the "Lost in Translation" movie. We didn't stay here, but hung out in the bar and checked out the view.

Tsukiji Fish Market

Mediterranean Cruise - October 2006

My first cruise ever! And I loved it. I vow every year to go on another cruise, but so far haven't been able to work it into the schedule.

I won't be going into tons of detail, but wanted to document places I visited during this trip that are featured on "the book."

Athens
This was where we embarked on the cruise, but we arrived a day early to see some of the sights. We should have spent more time here.

The Acropolis - it was a beautiful, clear morning and I could see for miles all around Athens.

Turkey
First port.

The Roman Ruins of Ephesus

Malta
We went scuba diving.

Rome
I loved Rome and can't wait to go back.

Forum
Trevi Fountain
Vatican City
Coliseum
Sistine Chapel - we were the last group of the day and had it to ourselves
Mount Etna - we saw lava!

Monte Carlo
Fantasy day spent where the truly rich live, work and play.

The Grand Casino - I left them 20 euros.
Hotel de Paris - beautiful lobby, very expensive

We also went to the Jacques Cousteau museum, but it isn't in the book.

Barcelona
Museu Picasso - we nearly got kicked out because DH was taking unauthorized pictures.

Lisbon
This was the port where we disembarked. It was a national holiday and many things were closed.

Amsterdam March 2008

Spring break - Andy's senior year of high school

This was Andy and Jill's first trip to Europe. We selected it for a few reasons, in no particular order:
1. Most people understand and/or speak English
2. Most people would know how to pronounce our last name (it is Dutch)
3. We knew it would be easy to get around

Our first big decision was made after watching a Samantha Brown program - where to stay? We decided to rent a houseboat on the Amstel river. I would make the same decision again. We loved it. Granted, it was a bit cozy, but it was a fun experience. The boat was solidly anchored, so there was no movement at all. And, it came with a cat, who belonged to our hosts who lived in the other (bigger) side of the boat.

Amsterdam has one of the best science museums I've ever been to. We spent an entire day there - in part because the weather outside was miserable. I wasn't sure when we arrived if there would be enough stuff to entertain two teens, but there was. It was a really good day. Picture was taken at the science museum - Jill enclosing herself in a gigantic bubble.

We spent the equivalent of one day in art museums - Van Gogh's and the Rijksmuseum (sp?).

In keeping with being American tourists, we did have one meal at the Hard Rock Cafe.

We took a day trip to the Hague, and one to Delft.

Highlights - and places to check off my list:
Anne Frank house
Cafe society (No, I didn't)
Canal cruise - relaxing and a great way to see the city
Oude Kerk - old church (it is really, really old)
Red-light district (No, I didn't) - great people watching
Rijksmuseum - most of it was closed for renovation though
Van Gogh museum - loved it!
Delft - lovely town
Het Mauritshuis - great gift shop