Travel Plans

I just recently blogged about my word of the year.  Now in retrospect, I think it probably should have been travel.  Because the Lindholms are gonna do some serious traveling in 2018.  We will be PCSing (we are getting reassigned to another posting). But in addition to that, we will finally visit the Maldives!  It's been on the list since we found out we were posted to Sri Lanka.  However, when we got here, we realized how truly expensive it is there, and we have been waiting for the right time aka budget to come along.  Finally, it's here! We will be going in the spring! Erik turns 40 this year and so do I, so we are going to celebrate with a short get away sans kids at an amazing resort!  Kurumba is a resort on North Male Atoll Island.  I haven't decided yet, but I am looking at the all inclusive dining option so we can just be lazy, and do room service, or beach side pool bar lunches... and not be stuck to the buffet dining times or even to making a dinner reservation. Those of you with kids truly understand the freedom in not keeping ANY sort of schedule  - even if it's only for a few days!  The resort offers water sports such as sailing and snorkeling.  We can book all those things when we get there.  But I am doing my best to research all the fun stuff now, so we can be sure not to miss any opportunity.  As much as I want the private villa out in the ocean like this:

Photo Credit

We are settling for a room with beach access.  I mean, we want to enjoy the trip, but budget is still a factor especially because we have decided to go to ...drum roll please....
 Europe in early June!  We are in the early planning stages right now, and I will totally keep you posted, as well as be asking for any tips you may have.  We will be flying into Amsterdam - we have family friends in the Netherlands, so either on the front or the back end of the trip, we will definitely be spending some time with them.

Photo Credit

But we also plan to see Paris, London... Erik really wants to see Normandy, I wouldn't mind seeing Spain... but honestly, I have never seen any of it, so I will truly be happy with whatever we plan out.  I think right now, we will definitely see Paris (Lifelong dream of mine) Then decide whether to just do more of France, or maybe a Eurorail trip and just take in an entire European vacation... hello Lampoons!  It's still in the dreaming phase. If I am being honest, it was brought on by the fact that my sister is in France right now... and I am loving all her adventures.

Photo Cred: Stolen from my sister's FB page -so  jelly!

We had originally planned to do an epic out west journey this summer, but with several factors in play such as the date Erik will be able to join us in the states and the kids school schedule, we have decided to postpone that and replace it with our European trip.  We will be having a layover in Amsterdam on our home leave, so it will be quite easy to take an extra amount of time and do some site seeing. The only site seeing we did on our last R & R was the Starbucks in the airport in Amsterdam. While I must say that was a lovely sight, we do want a little more!  This trip will be so fun and to be able to share it with the kids.  I cannot imagine a better experience. As always, we will keep you posted!

Last idea I have brewing... one I haven't really even hashed out with Erik is Ella's birthday.  She turns 13 on November 22 - which happens to be Thanksgiving day this year.  I really want to take her to New York.  There are so many wild cards to this trip, though.  We don't exactly know when we will arrive at our next post.  We don't know how much scheduling flexibility we will have, and honestly.  If we have just moved to a new post, I am not sure how keen I will be to up and travel again.  After all, the way it is looking we will be bouncing from house to house this summer and that really isn't ideal for the length of time we will be in the US.  ( a completely separate blog post).  However, if all the stars align, it will be NY on the smallest budget ever!  So I will be more than happy to share our tips and tricks. Really, New York like most other big cities can be done fairly inexpensive if you stick to the freebies and cheapies.   However, I feel a Broadway show is a must and maybe the rockettes - so it may not be as cheap as I hope. We'll see.

Really, if you think about it, my Less word of the year is allowing for the more... more traveling, more adventure, more family time.  And I truly couldn't be happier about the possibilities before us!