Have Kids? Will Blog and Travel!!

I'd thought about starting a blog 'sometime' for the last year or two, but 'something' always got in the way: work assignments, running the kids to their myriad activities, PTA meetings, cleaning out our three cats' three litter boxes, i.e. that thing called 'life'. I write for a living--essay questions for a national English exam, study materials for high school courses, articles for magazines, even two books for Japanese parents about using English with their kids. How hard could it be to write a blog? Part of my reluctance to make it happen was my usual fear of technical stuff, real or imagined. Well, once I logged on to Blogspot and saw how ridiculously easy it was to set up my own blog, I knew I had no more excuses! Then all I needed was some opportunity to kick start my vague ideas and turn them into something concrete.

Another project that has been in the works for the last year was taking my three kids to the USA during summer vacation this year. Since we always go home to NZ for summer, we've not had a chance for extended trips anywhere else. New Zealand is wonderful, but occasionally I want to see other places. (My parents are coming to visit us this autumn in Japan, so we will still get to see them this year.) The last time we were in the USA was nine years ago, at the end of our five year transfer. I wanted to show the older two kids their birthplace, as well as taking all three around to various spots. DH (Dear Husband) had thousands of airline miles accumulated--miles with airlines that we couldn't use for trips to New Zealand.

Since the beginning of this year, I starting contacting friends in the US and going online to research locations, attractions and distances, and by March most of our schedule was set up: Taking three kids through fifteen cities in seven states and three countries (including Canada and Mexico) over thirty two days. (Naturally, this is without DH! Like most Japanese salarymen he is married to his job, and although he works for a US firm, he takes his responsibilities seriously. At best, he takes a week off for summer.) I decided not to take any work on the road with me this year, thus my 'holiday task' is seeing how far I can develop this blog.

As for funding the trip, with some pretty smart planning (if I do say so myself), a lot of it has been funded through flight and hotel milage. I used my own and DH's miles to pay for all the flights, domestic and international, literally cleaning out the accounts down to the last 50 miles or so. And we lucked out with accommodation, too: About one third of the time we're staying with friends, and another third is on DH's Hilton and Marriott hotel miles. Our main expenses this trip will be the remainder of the accommodation, rental cars, one trip by rail, meals and entertainment.