Exciting times

My collection of Rough Guides and Top 10 Guides might give you an idea of where Hugh and I are off to for our anniversary trip!

For me, a huge part of the holiday is the planning. I absolutely love it. There is nothing I like better than buying all the guide books, going on the internet and doing loads of planning.

The A4 ring binder came into being back in February last year, when I first booked the holiday. It is split into sections.

The emails section contains all correspondence with my travel agent. The itinerary is obvious, but also includes more information including Google maps I have printed. The trips section contains either ideas from the internet or tickets from outings I have already booked.

So, what exactly are we doing? Well, we fly into San Fransisco and spend three nights there. We have two events booked already - a trip to Alcatraz and a baseball game at Oakland Athletics. We would have liked to see a SF game, but unfortunately they are not playing at home whilst we are there. However, Oakland are and they are not far away. What is a coincidence is that they are playing the Padres. Why is that a coincidence? Well, Hugh has only ever seen one live baseball match before and it was the Padres who lost to the Seattle Mariners!

We have already booked these tickets online and they were sent via email, so I have these printed out.

After SF we pick up a hire car and drive to Monteray, staying one night there before heading off to Yosemite. We are spending 2 nights in Yosemite which I am really looking forward to. It is then off to Death Valley, staying in Furnace Creek Ranch, which looks fun.

As I've said, I like to plan and organise and here is a rough draft of what we will are doing on our first few days!

Spending one night in Death Valley we then travel to Las Vegas, where we are staying at the Monte Carlo for two nights. My colleague, Brenda, has just returned from her 5th trip to Vegas and has given me loads of ideas of things to do! We are not gamblers, so are going mainly to look!

 Also, we might have to make a trip to a scrapbooking store or two lol!

Leaving Las Vegas, we will stop at the Hoover Dam before making our way to the Grand Canyon. I am very excited as I have just booked a 3 hour bike tour on the South Rim for the morning of our first day there. It is a guided tour and looks great - not any steep hills, but along the flat of the rim with plenty of photo opportunities.

After two nights there we make our way to Lake Havasu for one night and then it is the final leg on to Los Angeles. We spend two days there and the second day is our final day with a night flight, so we have prebooked tickets to Universal Studio and have got the front of queue pass to make the most of the short time we will have there!

 This is another page in my folder - very important and also advertising the company I work for!

So, that is our big adventure coming up this summer. I won't put on here exactly when I am going as I don't like to broadcast that I won't be here. Penny is house and cat sitting and will hopefully be having a friend to stay for a few days too, to keep her company.

I have decided that I will probably use these photos as the first page in my 'Road Trip' scrapbook that I will spend the rest of the year (and probably next year too) making!

BUT, before tht all happens we have our big family party to put on to celebrate the silver and golden weddings. Penny is making most of the desserts for me, I am making some main courses and my Mum and sister are also doing a couple of dishes each. Pippa's mother in law, although she can't come, is making her wonderful sausage rolls and my aunt is bringing a prepared salmon (actually my uncle does it, but she offered it!). So, with approximately 40 people attending, many being family I haven't seen for ages, there are going to be lots of photos to scrap from that too! Add on to that, Penny will be 21 tomorrow and we have a family party for her on Sunday! I think I will be keeping Truprint in business this year!

So, here we are, with my OLW, CELEBRATE!