Where Are We Going? Where Have We Been?

We recently returned from an amazing trip to the French and Italian Rivieras, but it's time to start planning our next adventure.

You probably guessed from the title of this blog what we're doing next.  We just haven't figured out where we're going.  And we don't know when we're going because that, of course, will depend on where we're going.  Clear as mud?  The one thing I can tell you is that we have decided it will be in the spring/summer of 2016.

After pictures of our last trip were posted on FB, so many people have been asking about joining in the fun.  Obviously random strangers are NOT going on this trip.  It's only those people we know, or if you are friends or family of someone who has gone on one of these trips, provided that person is going, too! 

Rather than keep a huge email list (which would over 80+ people), I'm going to use this blog to keep you in the loop until we get to a point where we know who's going and where we're going.  So it's up to you to keep checking back for future posts.  I WILL NOT email information on the trip until we have a confirmed group.  Once we reach that point, all trip details will be sent via email just to those who are going. 

A lot of people are interested in our trips and how they evolved, so we should start at the beginning with a look back at some of our past adventures.  When we first started going to NALS (NALS...the association for legal professionals) conferences in 1992, we went early or stayed after the conference and vacationed in the area we visited.  Some were short stays, but others were longer - like Alaska and Hawaii.  In 2004, the conference was held in Biloxi, Mississippi and afterwards, we took a cruise out of New Orleans to the Western Caribbean.  We had a great time on that cruise and when we got home, Carol said, "Let's go on another cruise.  Let's go to Europe!"

Nobody had to twist my arm.  I wanted to go back to see more of Europe and this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for.  Cruising is great, but it depends on the ports you travel to.  Most of the time you're docked for no more than 12 hours. If you're going to spend 2-3 hours on a bus into say Paris from port, and 2 hours back to port, realistically, you're only going to spend about 4-6 hours seeing all of the sites, and you can't see Paris or London or Rome in 6 hours!  So the more I thought about cruising, it wasn't going to work.

The next best thing was a land tour, but I did that once and while it was a good learning experience, I wasn't exactly thrilled with a structured tour and staying in hotels in the burbs.  I wasn't asking for much - I wanted to go where I wanted when I wanted!  It was important that we had the freedom to go off and explore on our own, too.  After checking several options, nothing was exactly what we were looking for (in my mind).  It had to be a special trip, because if someone only took that one trip to Europe, it had to be fantabulous! Something they'd remember for the rest of their lives.

You've gotta love email.  One day I got an email from a travel company 2,400 miles away - in the Seattle area - and I hit the jackpot!  They offered custom group tours and were able to plan our trip, incorporating all of the places we wanted to visit, arranged hotels, transportation, group tours, entrance fees, etc., all for a very reasonable rate.  It was one-stop shopping.  I was a little skeptical at first.  The last thing I wanted to do was pay for a trip that was non-existent, or get to Europe and find out we paid for nothing.  But, they had rave reviews from other clients and I took a chance on them.  They exceeded all of my expectations!

We started out with almost the same people who had cruised the Western Caribbean, but as news of the trip got out, more people wanted to join in the fun.  Another bonus - with group travel as more people joined in, the price dropped!  We had 25 people on our first group trip.  Although many of us know one another through our membership in NALS, it never has and never will be a NALS affiliated trip.  It's just a bunch of friends traveling together.  Everyone gets along great, and of course the rule is if you don't play nice with others, you don't get to go on future trips!  I make good of my promises and there are a few people who are not allowed to go on our trips.  Hey, do you want a royal pain to ruin your vacation?  So sorry, so sad, stay home bad apples! 

Our first trip was a panorama of Europe.  We started in Rome; stopped in San Gimignano en route to Florence; visited Cinque Terre on the way to Geneva, Switzerland; then on to Paris; and our last stop was London.  7 cities, 12 days.

Next up was a Med cruise - a little over 2 weeks in Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome, Sicily), Greece (Athens, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini) and Kusadasi, Turkey.  I fondly refer to it as our "Titanic Adventure" because we encountered a storm out in the Med.  Spent 2 days at sea being tossed around. We recently reminisced about weathering that storm, and Ann said she was pretty freaked out when a lawn chair flew by her window.  I'm pretty sure it was the same storm the Costa Concordia was in back in November of 2008.

We put cruising on hold and our 3rd adventure took us to scenic England (London), Ireland (Belfast, Cabre Castle, Dublin, Kilarney, Limerick, Galway) and Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow).  I think I can speak for all of us in saying we'd love to go back and see more. 

Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic were the destinations for our 4th adventure.  By this time, our group had grown to 36.

Some of the players changed on our last trip, and we had 41 people visit the Playground of the Rich and Famous.  We spent almost two weeks this past March visiting Barcelona, Girona and Montserrat, Spain; Carcassonne, France, along with Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Monaco, Eze Village, and Villefranche; Santa Margherita, Cinque Terre, Portofino, Rapallo, Sestri Levante, Milan, and Lake Como, Italy; Lugano and Zermatt, Switzerland.

And that leads us to our next trip...a cruise!  Cruising isn't for everyone, but it's time to set sail on an amazing adventure to either the Eastern Mediterranean or Scandinavia and the Baltics.  Both would be awesome vacations and offer you a chance to visit places you probably never dreamed of and it will be...a trip of a lifetime!  Of course, I say that about every trip we take.

Stay tuned as we decide where we're cruising to in 2016.

Ciao!