We start the cruise tomorrow

We had a nice visit in San Diego with parents, brother & sister-in-law, sister & brother-in-law, catching up on news and talking about the journey.

Flight on Southwest Airlines to Ft. Lauderdale was successful, on time and pretty smooth.

We 21 March on Ft. Lauderdale's Beach Avenue, seafood lunch and dinner, and a quiet peaceful visit to the Bonnet House Museum & Garden (photo) - our first garden. The town is crowded with college students and families with kids on spring break. It's really hopping, lots of traffic, lots of sun-bathers, and live music at some of the restaurants.

Tomorrow we depart the US on our cruise to Barcelona on the Oceania Line ship Regatta, and don't expect to return to the US until 25 November. There probably won't be another post until we arrive in Spain and get Internet access again, I don't think we'll do much Internet from the ship.

last minute details and contact info

Almost all the packing and preparations are complete. The bags are packed except for last minute items still in use (hopefully we'll remember them all...). First to San Diego until 20 March, then to Miami where we depart 22 March on a cruise ship to Barcelona, arriving 3 April.

Our global roaming phone in Europe number is 44-792-444-2861; from your country you have to add the international access code, so from the US is 011-44-792-444-2861. Best way to contact us though, is email: kiyomi.hutchings@gmail.com and/or stan.hutchings@gmail.com

I will periodically post photos on http://hutchings.smugmug.com/ - look for the Europe Travel albums.

I'll keep our 2008 News updated periodically, but this blog should have the most information. You can subscribe to it in Internet Explorer by Tools - Feed Discovery, and choosing Atom or RSS. I think you are then notified when I add a new post.

Just a few days to go...

Saturday 15 March we depart on the first leg of the trip - to San Diego to visit with relatives prior to our long trip. We won't see them again until after Thanksgiving.

We depart San Diego 20 March for Miami, where we'll stay a few days.

We leave from Miami on 22 March, heading for Barcelona, Spain, on a cruise ship, the Oceania Line's Regatta, arriving 3 April. There we pick up our leased Peugeot and head south. More posting once we've arrived in Spain and started to travel.