At the Christmas gathering, we discussed the trip. Important considerations were 1) if everyone could go this year, and 2) Would October be too cold for us? 

• Yep, no one wants to be cold, and we all want the best travel experience. We will pull-in our trip to the late July – early August timeframe. This seems to work OK for the kids’ sports schedules, but if Kristy starts a job with the school district it might not be good for her.  I’ve not looked at the calendar yet, but I’ll propose some dates to our group to reach consensus. I’m thinking about installing a poll feature on this website so ya’ll can vote on things like this.
• All of us except Mom have concerns about our jobs and finances in 2009. However, we are going to hope for the best and start planning the trip now with the expectation that it will happen this year.
• I reluctantly let myself get nailed down to a go/no-go decision by everyone at the 3 month mark for the trip.  It is definitely a practical arrangement with all of us going, and I agree it is the right thing to do.  Why do I say reluctant? For the most popular inns we will need a min 90 day advance reservation since we need 2-3 rooms in high season.  Airline tickets may have better prices earlier, but we won’t be able to buy before this 3 month decision.  And really, my biggest concern is about planning a trip that we might not do, since I typically put many, many hours into researching, learning about the areas, and finding the best deals on the best experiences.  This is all stuff I love to do, but it would be depressing to do all the planning and then not actually go do it.

There are also many questions about general travel, including credit cards, passports, suitcases, what to bring, etc.  I’ll start writing about those topics in other posts.