Final Days of Preparation

Three days from now we'll be on board a flight on Icelandair bound for London. Its hard to describe all that's led up to this time:

- saving for five years, setting aside business earnings to pay for the trip
- envisioning the perfect timing for our family to take this trip for years
- starting last fall to buy tickets, think thru cities to visit
- countless weekends in Caribou and Starbucks poring over maps, reviews, hotels, apartment listings, etc.

Its true, we are kind of freaks for details. Most people would probably go nuts spending the number of hours that we have in putting this all together. But we've had fun. We've put together a plan for a trip that we believe will be an amazing experience.

I'm going to try an post along the way as time allows. Of course, that won't be much. We have a business that is still running while we're gone. Thanks to our dedicated employees, we trust that things will continue on just fine while we're away. But I'll have to spend some time attending to the business details, so time available to post here will be limited.

So -- if you're interested to follow along I'll post whatever I can along the way, including whatever pictures I can get on. Later when we're back we'll post more detailed photos and videos.

Here's the beginning details:

June 7 - depart from Mpls/St. Paul at 7:30 PM on Icelandair. Six hours to Iceland, slight layover, then another three hours to London, arriving around noon on June 8 (local time). The queen's Diamond Jubilee will be over by then, so we should be able to move around normally.

June 8 - we are renting a private apartment just a few blocks from Kensington Palace (where Diana lived) and Hyde Park. After dropping off luggage we'll take off immediately for a 3-hour bike tour of London, so we can get acquainted with the sites. We'll come back and change clothes, then off to a nice dinner overlooking River Thames for Jonathan's 23rd birthday celebration.

More to come....