Just in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new page listed at the top of the splash screen: Travel Dreams & Plans. I created it because 1) We’re still always thinking about travel; and 2) I wanted a place to keep track of plans and dreams forefront.
One of those dreams is actually going to happen next year! We have decided to return to England next mid- to late-September for around three weeks, along with our middle daughter, WenYu. She told us she has always wanted to visit England and Wales, and has decided to join us for at least a couple of weeks if not the entire time.
Our anniversary cruise is still definitely happening, but Viking announced dates for for 2029 and one of the departure dates is the day before our actual anniversary, and we felt we’d rather celebrate our anniversary on board versus a year ahead. With that decision made, 2027 and 2028 suddenly opened up for other plans. England will be next year; Japan and Italy are potential destinations in 2028 but we may also go someplace we’ve never been before.
Scheduling and reservations for England won’t start until early next year, but we’d like to start with three full days in London, and a full day in Oxford. We’ve decided to pick up a car in Oxford this time around, and want to visit nearby Blenheim Castle before heading out of town for a two- or three-day drive around Wales. Following that we’d come back to the Cotswolds for around 10 or so days, or split the time and go to Cornwall, then return the car in Oxford on our way back to London and our flight home.
I’ll be posting updates about the trip early next year, mostly on the page at the top, after we’ve chosen actual travel dates. In true Occasional Nomads style, I will be doing all the scheduling while Brett will handle the route in Wales and also logistics for the whole trip. We’ll fly from here to Boston to meet WenYu, and then head to and from London from there.
It feels good to have a real travel goal again. Brett chose England as our first destination because he said it was the place he most wanted to see again. And, having WenYu with us will be the icing on the cake – she’s a great traveler and fun to be with.
For now though I’m in a “gathering general information” stage of planning, but I am looking forward to changing gears next year and getting everything set up.
Love all the travel ideas and plans. It’s great that you still have travel enthusiasm.
Have you been to Olympic NP before? We were just there and in Victoria BC last month. All I can say is that park is HUGE and we had to pick our priorities unless we had planned a couple weeks. But SO beautiful. (DH got sick — bad luck — so we did miss a day while he slept and ate meds.)