Winter behind us, we settled into the final stretch of making the official switch to full-time nomads: we completed the sale of our house on March 30. There’s no going back at this point.
By the time you read this, we’ll have crossed the Atlantic, as we blogged about here a couple of months ago, this time eastbound and aboard the Norwegian Epic. Look for the inevitable blogs on how this transatlantic crossing compares with our last crossing aboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 in December.
When, and where, will you settle down again? It’s a common question we’ve been hearing lately. The official answer is we’re more sure of the location than the time. The “where” is almost certainly Florida. The “when” is maybe next year. The reasons for this are pretty simple, namely that we’ve got travel planned (albeit more indefinite the further in the future we get) through early next year, and work has us pretty well preoccupied enough not to want to think about house buying at the moment. Even if we were to buy a house, basically, we’d spend almost no time in it. So what’s the point?
So before we take you along on our latest jaunt across the ocean to Europe, we thought we’d pause for a schedule update, followed by a blog on a few underrated destinations we think deserve a nod (coming on Thursday).
Sunday, April 19, we left Miami aboard the Norwegian Epic.
Monday, April 27, the Epic stops at the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Thursday, April 30, the Epic pulls into Barcelona, where we stay 2 nights.
Saturday, May 2, we fly from Barcelona to the Spanish island of Ibiza to settle in for some work and some ancestry research.
Saturday, May 30, we fly from Ibiza to Manchester, UK for a return visit to the Lake District.
Friday, June 12, we fly from Manchester, UK to Atlanta to visit with our progeny and friends.
Here the schedule gets a little fuzzier, but we plan to hit the road and head west, probably the following weekend, Saturday June 20. Stops along the way might include Gulfport, New Orleans, some places in Texas, etc.
Sunday, June 28 we’ll be in Las Vegas for a conference for work (remember, we aren’t retired!)
Wednesday, July 1, we’ll be in the Palm Springs, California area and will stay for 6 weeks.
Sometime around mid-August we hope to meet up with some friends from Seattle for a couple of weeks: the current plan is to see Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and maybe Glacier National Parks.
The first couple of weeks of September we’re thinking of hanging out in Seattle and visiting a dinner and dance (ballroom) club we’ve heard about.
Mid-September to the end of the month we’ll be in Salem, Oregon, in the middle of Oregon’s wine country. We hope also to take some refresher dance lessons while we’re there.
Early October we’ll start making our way back to Atlanta, with stops at Mount Rushmore, Michigan, and Ohio.
The last week of October we plan to be back in London for the European Swing Dance Championships (as spectators, not participants, LOL), followed by 3 weeks in England.
We hope Lori’s sister Susan and her husband Randy join us around this time for some sightseeing, maybe some hunting, in Scotland and England.
Around Thanksgiving and early December, we’re thinking we’ll be in Germany. Then Paris for Christmas to meet up with family. January we’d like to split between skiing in Austria and skiing in Slovenia. Then, for February, we’re thinking of settling into Florence for a month before returning home.
Then, come March of 2016, we might sit still for a few months. But we won’t make any promises 🙂
So you see, what’s the point of buying a house right now?
