June 30, 2009 The Innocents Abroad
And we’re off! It’s been almost 2 years of planning (and even more of dreaming), but today we leave for Europe!
We’re writing this first part of the blog from the Buffalo-Niagara airport. We were just dropped off by Julie’s dad. The check-in and the security screening went quickly, so now we’re waiting.
This morning was our typical pre-trip nervousness. We tried second guessing the packing lists that we have been making for months. We re-packed the bags that we’d started packing days ago. We double checked the things we’ve bought over the last few months (and even the last few days) in preparation for the trip. We’ve got our two official Rick Steves travel bags stuffed and ready to go, with another backpack for the girls, and a fourth with the computer and all of the electronics. We tore apart Rick Steves’s Best of Europe 2009 book this morning and put the chapters we needed into a little notebook, leaving the rest behind. (It was Rick’s suggestion. You’d think he’d make his books easier to disassemble!) We made sure all of what we wanted was in our bags or on the computer. Julie e-mailed her cousin in Germany on the off-chance that we’ll be able to meet her. Now that we’re at the airport, all the ooginess has melted away, and we’re in the moment. Whatever we’ve left behind us now, we’ll get there, or we’ll just find a way to do without.
One of Scott’s favorite books since he first read it in high school is Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. We’ll be checking on his views as we travel across Europe, to be sure. Certainly, Scott is reminded of it as we begin this chronicle of our own trip. In one of the early chapters, Mr. Twain wrote of how he and his traveling companions had begun journals of their own, and even though they started out writing voluminously, and had the best of intentions of keeping them up, they invariably petered out long before their pilgrimage had really even begun. He wrote, "...If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal a year. “
Well, we’re going to inflict that punishment on both ourselves and our young people. We have blank journals ready for Anna and Emma, and we will have them write about their “highs” and “lows” at the very least. And of course, Scott and Julie will write daily for our blog, though actually posting the entries may be more sporadic. Still, we’ve learned the lasting value of saving our memories, and intend to keep them up. If you’re reading this on-line, you can follow our adventures in Europe. When we’re done, we’ll print out the pages of the blog for our scrapbook and use them for the introduction for each day. On our best days, maybe we’ll be as eloquent as Mark Twain or as informative as Rick Steves. On our worst, maybe we’ll be as entertaining as the Griswolds. In any case, we are certainly on our way.
We’re writing this first part of the blog from the Buffalo-Niagara airport. We were just dropped off by Julie’s dad. The check-in and the security screening went quickly, so now we’re waiting.
This morning was our typical pre-trip nervousness. We tried second guessing the packing lists that we have been making for months. We re-packed the bags that we’d started packing days ago. We double checked the things we’ve bought over the last few months (and even the last few days) in preparation for the trip. We’ve got our two official Rick Steves travel bags stuffed and ready to go, with another backpack for the girls, and a fourth with the computer and all of the electronics. We tore apart Rick Steves’s Best of Europe 2009 book this morning and put the chapters we needed into a little notebook, leaving the rest behind. (It was Rick’s suggestion. You’d think he’d make his books easier to disassemble!) We made sure all of what we wanted was in our bags or on the computer. Julie e-mailed her cousin in Germany on the off-chance that we’ll be able to meet her. Now that we’re at the airport, all the ooginess has melted away, and we’re in the moment. Whatever we’ve left behind us now, we’ll get there, or we’ll just find a way to do without.
One of Scott’s favorite books since he first read it in high school is Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. We’ll be checking on his views as we travel across Europe, to be sure. Certainly, Scott is reminded of it as we begin this chronicle of our own trip. In one of the early chapters, Mr. Twain wrote of how he and his traveling companions had begun journals of their own, and even though they started out writing voluminously, and had the best of intentions of keeping them up, they invariably petered out long before their pilgrimage had really even begun. He wrote, "...If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal a year. “
Well, we’re going to inflict that punishment on both ourselves and our young people. We have blank journals ready for Anna and Emma, and we will have them write about their “highs” and “lows” at the very least. And of course, Scott and Julie will write daily for our blog, though actually posting the entries may be more sporadic. Still, we’ve learned the lasting value of saving our memories, and intend to keep them up. If you’re reading this on-line, you can follow our adventures in Europe. When we’re done, we’ll print out the pages of the blog for our scrapbook and use them for the introduction for each day. On our best days, maybe we’ll be as eloquent as Mark Twain or as informative as Rick Steves. On our worst, maybe we’ll be as entertaining as the Griswolds. In any case, we are certainly on our way.
posted by Scott at
1:44 AM
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