Tours are in PLace

I have spent many hours working to get the shore excursions and extra tours all booked. Looks like we are ready. It is going to be such a wonderful trip. It does keep getting more expensive than we thought it wpold be, but Jim said the other day, "If I had known it would get this expensive....we would have done it anyway." And so we are!

The Planning Gets Serious

In just 7 weeks we will be off on our next trip of a lifetime, for we have already seen more different places than most folks. We are flying to San Francisco and having dinner with Ritch and Arta Wilbanks and then the next morning we board Japan Airlines for a long flight to Shanghai. We fly through Tokyo and arrive in Shanghai the next day. Can't quite determine the exact amount of flying time we will experience...just know it will be long.
As we begin our preparations we have a BIG challenge to have a little bit of luggage. For the first part of our trip we are making several flights within China and can only have 44 pounds of luggage each. To help accomplish this feat we bought new hard-sided but very light-weight luggage. Now I find myself sorting and deciding what I must have and what is optional in the way of toiletries.

We have mailed off a huge packet of forms to apply for the 6 visas for travel we will need. China, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Jordan and Oman all require a visa. This little process was lots of paperwork and I hope it is all done right.