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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Planning the next trip

Next Friday, May 30,  Charlotte and I will be going to Chicago to meet Janet Penley and attend Janet's daughter's wedding.  I'm psyched!  I've never been to Chicago before--unless you count a couple of hours in the airport once upon a time.

Today we three sat down at Janet's and looked at the map of Chicago and made a list of things we want to see and do there.  A novel idea--planning a trip in advance--and quite a contrast to my flying by the seat of my pants.  We'll be walking on the beach, seeing Janet's old neighborhood, and exploring the city.

I'm spending this week getting all the parts together: deciding whether to have my bangs cut or not, buying some new pants, and figuring out how to pack for five days in one suitcase.

A Zen saying has it that "the way you do anything is the way you do everything"--but I'm not too old to learn some new tricks, like getting the lay of the land  in advance.

I'm reminded of the time Nellie and I went to Italy and she had read all the travel books ahead of time; I had only read Under the Tuscan Sun. Approaching Venice on the train, Nellie said we'd need to get a vaporetto for our trip to the Danieli where we were staying; I had no idea what a vaporetto was.  Without Nellie's expert planning, I might still be wandering around beside the canal, lost.







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