We're taking a trip....a big trip!

A few months back I had never seen reference to the letters R-T-W, in the past month or so they have been included in almost every google search I run.  What do they stand for you might wonder? RTW? Round- The-World, as in trip around the world.

So......we're doing it, the flights are booked, the route is planned, we're going - RTW!!  I really can't believe it, I've been keeping it quiet (on the blog at least) until now, which has been really hard, because I'm so excited.  

This is not a new idea, Charles and I first started day dreaming about doing a "big" trip a while back, but it seemed like some far off dream.  As the wedding came closer we started talking more about this idea of taking some time off to travel before we had children.  And so, one day in April we decided we were going to go for it, and my exposure to those three little letters began.  Since then I have become slightly consumed by packing lists, train bookings, unknown uses for duct tape, steri-pens, backpacks, and numerous other things I had no idea I would ever know existed.

Where are we going, you might be wondering?  Believe me when I say it was not a quick or easy process narrowing down or route, but after much consideration, here is what we ended up with.

We are starting out with a road trip through the U.S. and Canada (mainly hitting National Parks - Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, Olympic, Redwoods).  Starting in Houston via the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest and ending in Los Angeles for a wedding.  Here are a few of the cities we plan to stop in for a few nights:

• Colorado Springs, CO
• Denver, CO
• Jackson Hole, WY
• West Yellowstone, MT
• Somewhere in Montana near Glacier, MT
• Banff, AB, Canada
• Kamloops, AB, Canada
• Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Seattle, WA
• Salem, OR
• Takilma, OR
• Somewhere near the Redwoods in CA
• Fort Bragg, CA
• Santa Cruz, CA
• Los Angeles, CA

Next we're heading to New Zealand and renting a campervan, which is basically a mini-RV, to explore the country on wheels.  It will be the end of winter there so we are hoping for fewer crowds and some cool weather, which sounds heavenly to us at the moment since we're in the middle of a Texas summer.  On our way back to the states we're stopping over in Fiji to celebrate Charles' birthday for a few days.

Then we'll drive back to Houston before heading to New Orleans for a wedding that we just couldn't miss.  After the wedding we'll be back in Houston for a few days to re-pack for the longest portion of our trip.  We depart on October 10th and will be hitting the following countries:

Italy
Hungary
Poland
Czech Republic
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
India
Maldives
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
South Korea

If you are interested in meeting up with us along the way, we would love to have friends or family join us for part of the adventure!  Also, if you have been to any of these places we are going, we will happily accept tips of what to see and do while we are traveling.  For anyone interested in following our journey on the web, I'm planning to blog along the way!  I've set it up so you can be emailed when I update the blog - just enter your email address on the right.  We're so excited!