summer vacation

Now that school is officially done for the summer, there are oh, so, very many things I would like to do. My top priority at the moment is planning our family’s summer vacation. We’re going to England for ten days, starting June 11. We have a night flight, otherwise, I would have liked nothing more than to take the boys out of school for their last day. By all accounts, a day of airports and airplanes and passport control is infinitely more educational than anything they will learn at school in the next three weeks. No knock on Capitol Hill, which is a fine school, or the boys’ teachers, who are amazing, but the year’s wrap-up has begun in earnest.

I’m trying to nail down a final itinerary. Years of business travel instilled in me an urgency to have every dinner and hotel reservation made well in advance. There is nothing like arriving in a town, Appleton, WI, for example, to find that there isn't a single vacancy in a 100-mile radius because the Packers are playing Monday Night Football. For example. Quite frankly, if John and I were traveling alone, we could play it by ear, but since we’re bringing the boys, I have to confirm that we’re safely resting our heads each evening. I’m less concerned about meals and, with the exception of the English breakfast that comes with most hotels and b&bs, as well as hard-to-book restaurants in London, I’m willing to wing most evening meals. Food isn’t hard to find.

A thumbnail sketch of our trip:

~direct flight to Heathrow (volcanic activity permitting*), pick up rental car (automatic with a/c, please)

~Oxford to acclimate and walk around colleges and pay homage to Tolkien

~Avebury and Stonehenge

~various standing stones, stone circles, quoits, dolmens, and fogous throughout Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall

~the Jurassic Coast

~Tintagel and Merlin’s Cave

~Bath and Glastonbury

In addition to ruins, I hope to see the magnificent cathedrals of Exeter, Salisbury, and Wells but I am prepared to be overruled. The adventure will culminate in London where we’ll visit the Tower and the British Museum and see the neighborhood where I lived from ’87-88 (which, in a beautiful coincidence, was Sherlock Holmes’ “stomping grounds” as well). We each want to take advantage of a weaker Br. pound and satisfy our personal interests in bicycles, music, books, and food.

I am in need of a vacation and could leave today, but, in addition to the trip planning, I need to figure out what the boys will be doing for the remainder of the summer (whispers of sleepaway camp). And, I’m trying to undo the damage done to the house while I was a full-time student…lots to file and throw and repurpose. The next three weeks will fly.

*Eyjafjallajökull is fascinating and beautiful in a warped-nature way, but she had better not mess with my travel plans. I’m trying not to let the risks play into my neurosis, but it’s somewhat hard to avoid. The Christian Science Monitor published the photo above, and the paper's website has daily coverage of the volcano's affect on flights.