On A Roll With Travel Planning

 On A Roll With Travel Planning

I am curious if others do what I tend to do while traveling, which is to make even more travel plans. I feel inspired when we are in the midst of a trip, and it very often results in even more ideas on what to do next. Which is the theme of this post.

The Remainder of 2026

In a few weeks we will be leaving for a one week Coastal Cruise with my mother and my spouse's sister. This will be the first cruise for them both, and we are feeling very excited based on their respective excitement. It's been really sweet to experience their growing excitement about what awaits. 

The cruise will visit Ensenada, Mexico, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. We have fun tours already booked through the ship to enjoy a beautiful hacienda in Mexico, a harbor cruise in San Diego, an open trolley tour in Santa Barbara, and a shuttle tour in San Francisco that will take us over the Golden Gate Bridge, among other stops. 

We tailored our list of activities to accommodate my 80+ year old mother's needs, plus my own stress level. It makes things very simple to leave the driving, literally, to the cruise line, vs doing everything on our own, when attempting to accommodate two elderly travelers who are not seasoned. 

The weather should be lovely along our southern and central California coastline in early November, and thus our cabin connecting balconies should see much use.

Otherwise, we'll be traveling to the Santa Ynez wine country with our wine club, and spending Christmas in Tennessee with our daughter and family, before flying down to South Florida for a New Year's Western Caribbean cruise.

In 2027 our 'big rock' trip will be a two week cruise through New England in the fall, that will begin with a week on our own in Montreal, Canada and conclude in NYC, where we'll spend another week on our own before flying back home. 

In 2028 our 'big rock' trip will be a four week cruise that begins in Amsterdam and ends in Boston. Included on the itinerary are the fjords of Norway, the Shetland Islands of Scotland, a full circumnavigation of Iceland, three ports in Greenland, and a variety of French territory islands and Canada maritime provinces. 

In 2029, depending on how my aging parents are doing at that point, we are looking at doing a four week cruise of Eastern Asia that begins in Indonesia and ends in Japan.

In 2030, I am wrapping my head around doing, finally, for my long-asking spouse, a gynormous trip to S. Africa and surrounding to see what are called 'The Big Five' - lions, leopards, rhinoceros, elephants, and Cape buffalo. plus, hopefully, giraffe and zebra.

Neither of the later two are yet etched in stone, but given that we would most definitely fly Business Class given the distances, they may each use up the majority of their respective year's travel allocations, so I want to remain aware of them now.