Planning
How:Our planning process.
1. Time Off - just had to ask for the time - it was a little nerve wracking but easier than anticipated.
2. Money – it sounds like a lot of money but I expect it will equate to what we would pay for a vehicle -of course there are the lost wages to account for. This is also likely to affect my retirement – but I would rather take this trip now when I am relatively healthy and my children can accompany me then retiring earlier and hoping I am healthy enough to travel and my children are available.
Itinerary:
Packing list:
I am very caught up in optimum packing, limiting the amount of stuff we have to carry while also supporting the needs around educating our children, my desire to capture the experience using technology, My thoughts on technology:These continue to evolve but I obviously will use some blogging technology, Photo sharing, I read an article in wired that started me thinking about leveraging GPS and Google earth to capture information including where pictures were taken – I am thinking about how to capture GPS coordinates – maybe just buying a small GPS receiver and taking a picture of the coordinates after taking a series of pictures. I have a Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver but I do not know if I want to carry the notebook or even a handled everywhere. I also wonder if my current digital camera allows tagging – actually might need to replace the camera.I am not too worried about internet access but I do want a small and durable notebook.Thoughts:The hardest part was making up my mind to do it. Interestingly enough I believe the impetus for actually making the final decision came from communicating my thoughts about the trip with friends, extended family members and neighbors. The majority of the feedback was positive and many times we heard the names of other families that had undertaken similar adventures. Unfortunately as of this date (6/27/2007) we have not been able to meet any of the local families to discuss their experiences. We do not know anybody Health – I am worried about our healthMistakes:It is pretty early to know what mistakes we have made but right now my thoughts areNot sure we to the best prices on air fare – some of my recent reading introduced some standards IATA – tat I did not ask about – and we used a credit card to pay for the tickets which likely means they were not discounted.We have purchased our tickets without serious research into Visa requirements – with some recent reading this might be a serious mistake. This is high on my priority list for resolvingWe should have paid for the accelerated Passport – we got Allysha but procrastinated on Aria and still do not have it – which can affect item 2. Research: I want to get everybody involved in researching our destinations but probably need to provide some guidance – this is my brainstorm about what they should discover during their research Visa requirementsSystem of governmentHistoryReligious beliefsMores – acceptable dress, behaviors etc.Destinations – the fine rained places that we want to visitWeatherFoodtransportationmonetary system and exchange rates
1. Time Off - just had to ask for the time - it was a little nerve wracking but easier than anticipated.
2. Money – it sounds like a lot of money but I expect it will equate to what we would pay for a vehicle -of course there are the lost wages to account for. This is also likely to affect my retirement – but I would rather take this trip now when I am relatively healthy and my children can accompany me then retiring earlier and hoping I am healthy enough to travel and my children are available.
Itinerary:
Packing list:
I am very caught up in optimum packing, limiting the amount of stuff we have to carry while also supporting the needs around educating our children, my desire to capture the experience using technology, My thoughts on technology:These continue to evolve but I obviously will use some blogging technology, Photo sharing, I read an article in wired that started me thinking about leveraging GPS and Google earth to capture information including where pictures were taken – I am thinking about how to capture GPS coordinates – maybe just buying a small GPS receiver and taking a picture of the coordinates after taking a series of pictures. I have a Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver but I do not know if I want to carry the notebook or even a handled everywhere. I also wonder if my current digital camera allows tagging – actually might need to replace the camera.I am not too worried about internet access but I do want a small and durable notebook.Thoughts:The hardest part was making up my mind to do it. Interestingly enough I believe the impetus for actually making the final decision came from communicating my thoughts about the trip with friends, extended family members and neighbors. The majority of the feedback was positive and many times we heard the names of other families that had undertaken similar adventures. Unfortunately as of this date (6/27/2007) we have not been able to meet any of the local families to discuss their experiences. We do not know anybody Health – I am worried about our healthMistakes:It is pretty early to know what mistakes we have made but right now my thoughts areNot sure we to the best prices on air fare – some of my recent reading introduced some standards IATA – tat I did not ask about – and we used a credit card to pay for the tickets which likely means they were not discounted.We have purchased our tickets without serious research into Visa requirements – with some recent reading this might be a serious mistake. This is high on my priority list for resolvingWe should have paid for the accelerated Passport – we got Allysha but procrastinated on Aria and still do not have it – which can affect item 2. Research: I want to get everybody involved in researching our destinations but probably need to provide some guidance – this is my brainstorm about what they should discover during their research Visa requirementsSystem of governmentHistoryReligious beliefsMores – acceptable dress, behaviors etc.Destinations – the fine rained places that we want to visitWeatherFoodtransportationmonetary system and exchange rates
