Counting Down

We’ve gone from counting down the years to the months to the weeks and now the days before we leave. The boys have been unenrolled from their school district in preparation for getting them enrolled in our home school: Allison International School. I’ve had my last day at work. Christmas has come and gone and the decorations are all already packed away. We’re prepping the house for the house-sitters: our 60+ year-old house has all the eccentricities you’d expect and we want to make sure our friends feel comfortable here. We’ve been visiting friends and family members for some good byes before we disappear for six months. And of course the to-do list of things we want to get done *after* the trip grows and grows 😊

Thomas and I depart at oh-dark-thirty on Friday. We should be touching down about the same time as Elizabeth and DJ are lifting off. The reason for two separate flights is covered in a separate post. It’s a bit of a bummer but seemed superior to an overnight flight with a stopover in Houston.

We’re going a day early to buffer ourselves from any air travel shenanigans and to give ourselves some time to stock up on last-minute personal items in Miami. This caused confusion with Oceania as we extended one of our rooms one night but not the other. We can still stay four to a room and do, so we figured why pay for an extra room? But this left Elizabeth and DJ without a ride from the airport to the hotel. Not an insurmountable problem but given the amount of money we’ve invested with Oceania and the fact that transport to the hotel is included, I wanted to get that sorted. Initially there was trouble and a “we can’t help you with that” answer, but after contacting Andres at Oceania directly we got it fixed. Credit to Andres for going above and beyond here.Read more