The Year of Travel

St. Thomas

"Aruba, Jamaica...Oooh I wanna take ya,

To Bermuda, Bahama...Come on pretty mama..."

Geoff has been singing that song since last Friday. Why? Because we're going to the Caribbean this fall! I'm SO excited! We've been talking about it for a couple months now and last Friday we just decided to go ahead a book a trip there.

Specifically, we're going to the Eastern Caribbean and, even more specifically, we're going on a cruise. We'll be island-hopping to Puerto Rico, Bahamas, St. Thomas, and Turks & Caicos. Woo-hoo! Geoff and I didn't hesitate when it came to deciding whether or not to do this trip through a cruise. We love cruises! You get so spoiled when you're on a cruise. The staff does everything for you, all you do is tell them what you want, sit back, and relax while they get it for you. We had such a fun and memorable trip when we went on our Alaskan cruise nearly two years ago. It's definitely the best way to travel.

Carnival Cruise ship in Nassau, Bahamas

We leave on November 28th, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving (the airport crowd is going to be hell), and will be gone for 10 days. I hope the next 6 months fly by!

Separately, my family just booked another trip for everyone next spring. My mom is visiting for a little bit and we had a family dinner last night to vote on our next trip. The choices were Italy (Venice), Greece (Athens or Santorini), and Thailand (Bangkok or Koh Samui).

The winner is...

Bangkok, Thailand!

I was really rooting for Italy, but it's more expensive there and everything in Thailand is pretty cheap and we'd get more for our dollar. Plus, the hotel in Bangkok is immaculate and amazing. Sits right on the Shangri-La River. As for Greece, Geoff said when he goes for the first time, he was hoping it'd be for our honeymoon. Hint? Who knows. But I like the sweetness of it, and so did my mom, so we ruled-out Greece for now and Italy will most likely be in 2012 (we do a big family trip every other year).

Tillamook National Forest, Oregon

Also, sometime this summer, my sister and I will be taking a trip up to Oregon. Just a fun trip to go on together. Don't know when that's happening yet, but we have free plane tickets that need to be used before October, so sometime before then. I'm kind of trying to get her to change her mind and go to New York or Seattle instead, but we'll see. She has her heart set on Oregon.

In addition to all this, Geoff is taking me somewhere for my 30th birthday next February. I have a very strong feeling he's taking me to San Francisco for a few days. I know for a fact we're going on a trip, but don't know where yet. He has it all set-up already. He's more excited about me turning 30 than I am!

How are we traveling this much with a struggling economy, you may ask? Well, we're just lucky enough that the cruise was rather inexpensive, Thailand is being paid for by my parents, I'll be using my plane ticket I was supposed to use for Missouri to go to Oregon instead, and Geoff paid for my birthday trip well in advance.

I love traveling, and do it often, but this is a lot to take in. I'm basically going somewhere every two months. I feel a little tired just thinking about it. By the time Thailand is over, I'll have no more vacation time saved-up at work and will have to start saving all over again. Oh well. It'll be worth it and gives me time to plan my next set of adventures.