Looking Ahead

I've said before that I am a planner at heart.  If I die of suspicious causes, when they do an autopsy, right in the center of my chest cavity, they will find a little "five year at a glance" calendar.

When we were on our honeymoon, we made a rough travel plan through about 2021.  We haven't stuck to it exactly, but we have managed to take an extended international trip every year, and we've been ticking off some places on the list that I've wanted to see for my whole life, and we've stuck to our original plan of Italy together every other year (and then husband usually goes without me on the other years).  

One thing we decided on the plane ride home from Pittsburgh at the end of June this year was that next year, we want to take our usual trip (odd numbered year, so Italy and somewhere else), but we also want to take a few week-long domestic trips as well.  I don't have enough vacation time to do that (my husband does thanks to long shifts on weird days and never getting holidays off), but I have the capability of working remotely.  

As long as I have wifi and a phone, I can work like I'm in the office.  My boss won't love it, since he prefers to discuss things in person, but with good planning, a week at a time throughout the year wouldn't be too bad.  

So a couple weekends ago, we sat down and toyed with a rough plan for 2015.  This is what we came up with, broken out by month and destination:  

 

This is what we're thinking:

 

Feb -- go to Mardi Gras in Mobile with my best friend and take a few days to visit hubby's buddy who lives in Birmingham (total trip, probably Tues-Sun)

 

March -- San Fran (hopefully just over a week)

 

May -- Pittsburgh, DC, Charlottesville (seeing hubby's family, then seeing some of my friends in DC, then going to stay with my bestie in C'vle the weekend of my law school reunion (15!)) (total trip for hubby is likely to be 9-10 days, I'll probably do a week)

 

August -- Montana.  My brother wants me to do some 20 mile trail run with him with insane elevation, but even if I end up walking or DNFing, what could be wrong about a trip to Montana in August, the ugliest month of the year in Dallas?  (total trip prob Tues-Sun)

 

Sept -- the legit vacation!  Right now, we're thinking we'd go to Spain (cheap flight from the US), see Madrid and/or Seville, and maybe Gibraltar (don't worry, we've already done "Barthelona"), then fly to Morocco for just a few days, then to Italy to see hubby's family there, and maybe add in a new-to-us Italian city for kicks (total trip prob about 3 weeks)

 

Oct -- central Pennsylvania.  Scranton to be specific since I'd like to run the marathon there.  The trip would definitely start earlier for my husband, who would fly out a few days before me to spend time with his family in Pittsburgh.  Then we'd head to central PA to see his brother and hopefully spend some time with my college roomie who lives in the area as well (total trip for me prob Wed-Sun)

 

Nov -- we considered San Fran since we loved being there that time of year, but we moved it to March so the end of the year doesn't have so much, especially with the holidays

 

Dec -- home for Christmas!  As we've done the last few years, hubby will go to PA to see his family, then he'll fly to Milwaukee or Chicago and meet up with me (total trip for me prob Thurs to Sat the next week, so 9 days)

 

It should be noted that I'm planning to work remotely on all of those trips except the legit vacation.  Man, I can't wait for 2016 when I'll get that extra week of vacation! 

 

But even in the two weeks since we made that list, we've started to reconsider a bit. 

 

The main change is that we are likely going to combine Sept and Oct into a single trip.  That would mean hubby goes to see his family, meets me in Scranton, I marathon, then we fly to Africa/Europe.  The idea of going on a huge vacation during marathon training is generally a bad idea.  And it would be an easy way to basically cut out one plane ticket -- since we could easily fly from NY or something across the pond. 

 

The other variable is possibly adding a trip to Boston in April.  I still have NO idea if I'm going to do the marathon again (assuming I can make the BQ minus X cutoff, which I'm hopeful I would).  Still torn -- between loving the memory of my single Boston, which was as close to a perfect experience as I could have had, and between wanting to run it again since so many friends do and it's such an amazing race.  One factor is Boston would cost me a precious vacation day since the race is on a Monday.