Well several months ago, in an attempt to stave off the ostentatious excess that surrounds the 16th birthdays of the girls in Burbtopia, I made a promise to take Megan to Europe for her 16th birthday instead. This is also sort of a make-up visit since she didn't get to go with her church group (didn't want to?) last summer. The time is now at hand - I have to try to book this trip!
It's been close to 20 years since I took a trip of this nature on my own funds. The only flights I have booked since having kids have been domestic flights to Florida. I'm suffering from sticker shock.
Not to mention that - how does one narrow down "Europe" to something that can be done in one week? My searches return me to Travelocity and Expedia, both of which flood the screen with options for flights, transfers, hotels I've never heard of, and - gasp - layovers. Rome? Paris? Germany? London? Spain? She takes Spanish, she should have exposure to that. But shouldn't everyone see London? Her history teacher says everyone should see Paris. A blog I stumbled upon says book NOW or risk paying 'half again.' But I only want to pay HALF - not half again! I can't believe how much this will cost. I'm wondering if a 3 day cruise to Bermuda might have been a better offering!
Brian wants a book from the bookstore, so I think I'll try to pick up some travel books while I'm there. The best I was able to find so far (and I almost booked it, too!) was a 3-day London, 3-day Paris vacation through Virgin Vacations. But then I had to decide on hotels, airport transfers and I was sure there were more things I just was missing, so I closed out of it all. So we'll be off to there in a short bit; then I decided we'd get some dinner out, since I've been having to wake up every morning (tough to work three hours every day for three days straight!)
Anyway, in other news, I'm cooling off on the E front and hoping things will settle down so we can coast the remaining weeks. As long as all her prom plans fall into place, she should be satisfied with that; and she has a lot of schoolwork to keep her occupied for a couple more weeks at least. I have two full days of work coming up, unless they snatch them from me because the sub who usually does this class has suddenly been released from her other commitment. I did hear she tried to get the spot back but was told other arrangements had been made, so at least that was encouraging. But we'll see what happens between now and 8:30 tomorrow morning. Otherwise, this weekend is the 30 hour famine at the church. All were going to do it, but it's down now to just Brian. I think the charity this year is some Congo population, or something along the Amazon, I can't even remember, that is so bad. While they were doing all the fundraising, we were off getting ready for Nationals or being at Nationals. So Brian is the only one who has collected any money, and even he, not much of it. They're going to build a cardboard village and sleep outside in it!
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