UK Trip Planning Update

Sal got here on time and happy last night. We stayed up late discussing and exploring housing options and preferences for our November UK trip. I sent a bunch of emails out to B&Bs last night and this morning and we've gotten several replies already. We even made one reservation (at Austins Guesthouse in Cardiff) and are ready to reserve two more if we get responses back to questions I sent.

Everyone who's replied so far has had a room available so we're not too late. Not that I'm surprised at that but I did stress out about it a bit while falling asleep last night. We want to stay at our first choices and not have to settle. We got a reply back from our first choice in London, The George Hotel in Bloomsbury. They even have a special price for 4+ night stay in the off-peak season so we're getting a good deal. We'll be staying 5 nights (4 days) there to end our trip.

We haven't heard back from our first choice in Bath yet, The Henry. I hope they reply positively soon. We'll be in Bath for 3 nights right before London. Those are the longest stays we have. We'll be two nights each in York and then Bacup (near Elizabeth's) to start out the trip. In the middle we have one night stays in the Lake District (Keswick), Chester and then Cardiff. Our other possible day stops along the way will be Carlyle (to see Hadrian's Wall) and Salisbury.

We have to wait until October to buy our railpasses. We can get them at 25% off if we wait, so we will. I think we'll be buying our plane tickets any day now. We're coordinating flights so I'll meet up with Sal when I get to Minneapolis and we'll fly to London Gatwick together. Our flights are the same price ($553) even though I'm flying from San Fran. I think I'll be getting mine through my Visa rewards program so I can use some points to get $100 off. I have enough points right now for a free round-trip ticket but it's only good for domestic travel for no more than $500. I fail on both those counts.

We decided while we were over at the mall today (Target, then Pirates at the cinema, then lunch at Chili's) to check out the luggage departments at Kohl's and Macy's. Sallie and I have the same 21" wheeled bag we bought at Kohl's with Anne a few years ago. I was thinking I could pack light enough to get by with it but it'd be tight with wedding clothes & shoes. Sallie also has a larger wheeled duffle bag that she loves but it's a bit too much for our trip. So we were looking for an in-between option and found one at Macy's. They're having a 50%-off sale this weekend. Lucky us. We bought High Sierra 26" wheeled duffles with backpack straps that are just right. Sal got the grey and I got the black. And we got them for only $80 each (sticker price $240) cuz Sal signed up for a Macy's card so we got even more off!

I'm going to have to stop myself from packing too much now. But I'll try to be strong. There'll just be more room for souvenirs!