Ryan & I have been up all night in hopes of making sleeping on the plane easier (though I admit to some short cat naps). Now we are simply keeping ourselves busy as we wait to catch the bus to the MAX to the airport...

I thought I'd leave our tentative itinerary for any who might be interested:
We will begin with Paris, including day trips to Normandy and Versailles
Then we'll hop a train to Koln/Cologne, Germany
Rented cars will take us through the beautiful scenic Rhine Valley
We will travel to the adorable city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Then over to Nurnberg
We will stay a night with Kevin's (Ryan's brother) girlfriend Katja's family in the little town of Burghausen
An hour and a half drive will take us to Salzburg, Austria and then on to Vienna
Finally we will end in Munich

Ryan's mom Polly, his dad Kirk, his brother Kevin and his girlfriend Katja, his brother Sean and his sister Laura will all be making this trip together... I am going to share MY perspective of our travels... don't assume that Sean feels this is the "trip of a lifetime" or that any other views shared here are anyone elses but my own!

The trip is off to a good start so far... I dropped Blue off at my dad's last night and not long after we left the driveway, he pooped right in my lap. Dustin B has graciously taken Cody in the duration of our trip and Justin B has offered to check our mail and water our plants.

It will be odd to be gone for so long! (17 days)

Preparing to Leave

Yeah! Ryan and I are preparing to head out on our greatest adventure yet! July 29th we will fly out of PDX and eleven hours later begin our trip in Paris. My bags are packed, the cats have found temporary homes and the fridge is empty! I am excited to not only see the sights but to spend some quality time with Ryan and his wonderful family. Hopefully we will be able to update this blog during our travels and share some photo journals.

Europe, here we come!!!