Looking to our summer

Summer's here and our summer vacation is not far off.

We just bought our airline tickets, which was an ordeal in and of itself. The fares have been quite high this year so we took our chances and waited until fairly close to our departure. The thing is: we were flexible. Very flexible. We didn't much care which of 20 or cities we flew in and out of. We were happy to sightsee wherever we might land and work our way to Northern Italy.

So the tickets are now ours and I begin reading in earnest. What do we want to see? Where do we want to eat? Where are the UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

And then there are the logistics: arrange house sitter, stop mail, alert credit card companies, rent car, decide which books to bring, download movies on iPods/iPhones/iTouch, arrange for ride to airport, enable international calling on our cell phones, gather travel plans of families who will be joining us, send last payment to Italian homeowner, get Euros.

Jill Appenzeller and Wally Wallner were over for dinner tonight and they asked what part of our vacation we like best. Paris likes shopping. Tori likes the gelato rule: once a day, sometimes twice. I like seeing things through other people's eyes; I like the conversations we have at the end of a day of sightseeing. Everyone has a different takeaway. I am still in awe that Liberty fell in love with the Malaga Picasso Museum. I like seeing the kids belly laugh and smile big like Tori is doing here on Las Rambas in Barcelona.

The past two years have flown by; it seems like just last summer we were in Spain. We started doing this when our twins were 3 1/2. It's much easier to travel with them now although it didn't seem all that much work back then. It was simply a matter of schlepping them where we wanted to go. Now they're 9 1/2. We don't even have to entertain them when they wake up in the middle of the night while adjusting to the time change.

This year is a little different, too. I am wrapping up a four-year-long client engagement before we leave. I'm excited and also looking forward to a new mental challenge or two when we return to the states.