It all started back in October. We had a memorial service for Meredith’s mom, Carlene, at CVCA, in the library. Since Carlene had worked at CVCA for thirteen years and had loved books, we thought it would be appropriate. It also made it easy for our friends and colleagues to make it to the service since it was at CVCA itself – our colleagues could just stay.

The service was lovely, and the support was incredible. One of the things brought out in the service was how Carlene helped to lead several trips to Europe during her teaching career. One of our friends, Regina, came up to Meredith after the service and told her that was wonderful, and she (Meredith) should do the same, but with colleagues. Meredith laughed, but then told me the story later, half wondering if we could do it. So, when I saw Regina, I asked her how serious she was, to which she replied, “Very!” And so a trip was born.

Our trip consists of me and Meredith, Regina and her husband Tim, another English teacher also named Meredith, and our friend Jacob. We initially had two others on the trip, but things popped up to keep them from going. Still, six is a good (and mobile!) number for attempting this kind of trip for our first time.

We left after school yesterday in two cars. I don’t like to caravan since it is hard to coordinate two cars, so we agreed to meet at the hotel in Toronto. We left in our car, with Jacob, around 4:00. It was a fun little trip, taking about six hours with stops for supper and one rest stop, with a one-car wait at the Canadian border. Jacob got a text that Regina, Tim, and Meredith N. had checked in to the hotel about five minutes before we got here.

So, we leave today at 2:00. We fly in a small plane to Boston, where we have a slightly tight window (one hour and forty minutes) to get through customs and security to get to our next plane. I’m hoping and praying the first plane gets in ten or twenty minutes early. I have read several stories online of people making the same change successfully, so that is good.

We are off for a week, getting to Rome Sunday morning and scheduled to leave the following Sunday. In between, we hope to get to Florence and Venice. It should be a fun trip.