Our plane backed away from the gate at 4:45pm, 10 minutes ahead of schedule...we're off to a good start! As the wheels left the pavement, I squeezed Jij's hand and stared out of the window to contain my excitement. A whirl of thoughts whizzed around my mind..."what's it all going to look like, feel like, sound like, smell like...what will we do and see, what will we eat!" Realizing that all the research and speculating in the world wouldn't answer those questions, I went back to staring out of the window. At that very moment, just below me, right there through that tiny window lay a grand view of the Golden Gate's towers shroud in fog, that view we have all seen on the cover of a San Francisco coffee table book. I waved a happy goodbye to the fog and was reminded to stay in the moment. So there I was on a plane...for 9 hours!!! While Jij spent his time watching one movie after the next, I managed to watch the moving map for nearly 6 hours with only minimal distraction. If that isn't staying in the moment, then I'm not sure what is! So 9 hours of travelling left me with 3 realizations:
1. Unable to resist a flip through the guidebooks, I realized that there is SO much to see and do in these 6 weeks that I can't possibly do it all. SO...I might as well enjoy each moment as it comes (what a relief!)
2. My twice hourly peeks out of the window (to much of the rest of the planes chagrin as each time I opened the window a huge glow of light went gleaming into everyone's sleepy eyes) proved that the sun never set. Why was it light @ 2:45 am in the Hudson Bay?? If you can explain that one in layman's terms then please do.
3. In thinking about this first stop, England, to visit family, I thought about grandparents (some who have passed and some who are aging). I felt sad to not be seeing those who have passed and began to dwell, as usual, on the reality that visits never seem long enough. As I wrote this I had tears in my eyes and a small pang in my heart but knew that soon I would be with my grandparents and, no matter the amount, that the time would be fully enjoyable and cherished. What a great way to begin our trip :)
So may we all cherish the memories and the moments and appreciate all of those we love whether near or far...
(Unfortunately, due to my error I managed to erase the photos from the camera from this first short section. So we will have to use our imaginations to put images to this post. Hopefully I won't do that again!)

It's 11:31. Our flight to Heathrow leaves at 4:55. Over the the past 24 hours, I've packed, un-packed and re-packed my bag inumerable times. I'm excited.

We've been planning this trip since December, when we found the unbelievably cheap roundtrip flights to Rome. Too cheap to pass up, so we committed, 6 weeks, clicked to confirm. Since then, we've poured over guide books and scoured discount travel websites to create a trip that fit all of our wants and needs. The itinerary we settled on, with a mix of camping and luxury hotels at rock-bottom prices, big cities and lovely landscapes, suits us just fine.

So here we go.

Oh, and I decided to bring a sweater. I've been deliberating it for a few hours now. I appreciate the fact that, currently, this is my primary concern. Sweater: to bring or not to bring? Living on vacation is ripe with the most treacherous of choice points.
Bringing a sweater is silly. Maybe I'll unpack my bag and take the sweater out.

Tomorrow afternoon, we embark on our next great adventure. Last night, we encountered 2 journeymen at the tail end of their own.

As Claire and I entered the Beach Chalet (aptly named for its location at the beach, of all places) we saw a couple of bicyclists with fully-loaded touring set-ups. The sighting reminded us of our own tour down the coast from Oregon last summer. Over dinner, we reminisced about our bicycle trip from a year ago, and looked ahead with excitement to our upcoming travels.

After dinner, we saw the same 2 cyclists, still in the lobby of the restaurant. It was near 9 PM, not really a good time to start finding appropriate accommodation. So we approached, and asked if they needed help, or maybe a place to stay. They did.

Will, from Kenya, and Alex, a Londoner, had just, that evening, finished an epic bike tour from New York to San Francisco. While we were eating our overpriced burger and all-too-tiny spinach salad, they were topping off their tour by cycling into the sea. Literally, they pedaled their bikes into the chilly Pacific Ocean (we saw video footage.) Will and Alex took the past 2 months to ride across the states and raise money for Research Autism. They did well at both. Averaging 90 miles a day, they cycled through the middle of our country, raising close to $30,000 all the while. They begin University in the fall.

You can learn more about their journey on their website at http://www.x-america4autism.blogspot.com/ . Check it out. Better yet, check it out, then donate money.

As for our journey, you can learn more by checking out this blog over the next 6 weeks. We'll be visiting family in England, eating food in Italy, exploring the ancient-cum-modern cities of Athens and Istanbul, sunning ourselves on the Adriatic Coast of Croatia, relaxing in the mountains of Montenegro, and biking around Bled, Slovenia.

For the next 6 weeks, for the first time in a while, We Live on Vacation.