Making Plans

I thought I'd put up a blog post to share some plans that we have been a-making.

Since getting out to Boston/New York for 2 weeks about 7 years ago now (!) we've been saying that we wanted to do a big America trip to see family and friends over the pond and finally we can do it! YEY!

About a month ago we started looking at flights for the summer as we knew this was going to be complicated. We knew we wanted to get to Nova Scotia on the East coast of Canada to see my cousins and then Sacremento, California on the West coast of America to see cousin's on Scott's side. Also on the wish list was Illinois as we have friends there. After a good few days of entering every flight combination into flight search engines and then airline's own websites we finally came up with something that could work.
After checking with our wonderful family the dates would work for them we were set to book and thought we'd wait until we were next paid before going for it. Then, somehow, overnight the price of our trip started to jump up and up, so we grabbed the nearest credit card and went for it!
We're really pleased with the flights we've got as it means we get 2 weeks in Sacramento with the K's and Lau, then 2 weeks in Canada with J and A before a final week to meet up with the Pontiac, Illinois gang! Geeky I know, but I've started an excel sheet to fit in all our plans and already we've got; 4th July weekend of family BBQ and fireworks the K's, camping in Yosemite and then camping and walking in Lasen (bubbling mud pools and hot springs will keep the geographer happy!) and L and A, Evolve music festival in Nova Scotia with Al and a palooza in Pontiac! It's going to be an awesome summer!! We're hiring a car from Chicago so might even be able to nip across the boarder into Indiana to visit the Bushman Music Bar.
We've got loads of time to plan the rest of our visit, but we're just so pleased to have the time and money to make this trip and see our family and spend time just chilling and having fun with them.

If you thought that was long-term planning (!) then you'll be impressed with the next bit. We've decided to stay in our jobs here for another two years, so this is until June 2012. We're happy with things here and although everything will never be perfect (we're a long way from the UK for us) we think it's good enough to stay. This level of planning has been brought about by me gaining a promotion at work. After an application and interview I've been offered a coordinator role from September. More work (!) but I get rewarded for it and I also get training which is a real plus. So if you were getting in a panic that you wanted to use our hospitality in Egypt before we left, you've got an extra year to do so! Come out and visit for a first time - or come again and see some more of this interesting country and area of the world.