So it is now 2 days before we fly to London. I am getting quite anxious that there is something major we have forgotten to do. However, this is the boring, but practical part:

We have found a very nice man who will stop by and check on the house every week. In the past our neighbors have kindly done this for us, but over 3 months really seemed like too much of an imposition. He can make sure the heating is still working, and the pipes are not frozen. He can also keep an eye on the snow level on the deck and clear it if we have another major snowfall.

I was able to do the temporary change of address for our mail online, so come January 3^rd our son can expect to be getting our mail. He will open important looking letters and scan them to us. Hopefully this will not be too much of a burden for him.

Brian has visited our accountant to start to get our taxes in order. We get back on the 6^th of April, and there would not be time to start working on our taxes then. He has also visited an estate-planning lawyer. We wrote our wills in the early 90s, but thought it would be a good idea to update them. The likelihood of the ship sinking is minimal, but you can never be too careful.

I went to our pharmacy and requested an extra 90 days supply of my medications. They called our insurance company who were very obliging and allowed them to dispense this, and did not even ask for a copy of our itinerary. As we are going to the Amazon, which is a malaria area, I had also asked our PCP to prescribe Malarone for us to take when we are there. Brazil requires proof of yellow fever vaccination, and in the small print in our Cunard documentation it states that we would not be able to board without proof of vaccination. Luckily I was able to locate our certificates, which we required on a trip to Tanzania some years ago.

I made an appointment at the dentist to get a check up and cleaning before we set sail, and of course will get my hair cut and colored before we leave, but I may need to see the hair dressers on board if things get out of control. I have forgone a pedicure before I leave, although our local spa does the best pedicures, as there is simply not enough time to get this done after work, but I know I can get a good pedicure on board.

I went to the bank and gave them a copy of our itinerary. In the past we have had problems using our ATM cards in foreign countries, so I wanted to be sure they knew where we were at all times. I will also alert our credit card company that we are off on an adventure.

Next came the visas. We travel on US passports, and the only visas we need are for Australia and Brazil. Australia was easy. It could be done on line, took about 10 minutes, and cost less that $20. So next was Brazil. Brazilian visas cost $160, and can only be processed by handing them in to the nearest Brazilian consulate by hand. We used the visa agency Visa Central to obtain Brain’s one, and it took about 3 weeks. However, I left it too late to use them for mine, and ended up having to take a day off work to fly to Los Angeles to hand in my application in person, and then had to ask my wonderful brother in law in California to take time off work to go back to the consulate and pick up my passport when the visa was ready.

Having got most of the boring stuff out of the way, it was time to let the packing begin! I have read several blogs that say you always end up packing too much stuff, but limiting what you take is a huge challenge. We are going to limit ourselves to 4 suitcases – this is what Delta will allow us, and also what will fit under the beds. However, we now seem to have 5 suitcases, 2 large roller boards, Brian’s camera backpack and my large handbag. I know that there will be limited storage space in our cabin, so I am quite expecting that a couple of the cases will be needed for storage purposes.

The challenge is the wide range of temperatures we are going to experience. The sail away from Southampton, transatlantic crossing, and going around through the Straits of Magellan are going to be very cold; Tahiti and Hawaii are going to be nice and warm. We always bring rain to everywhere we visit. So you have to plan for all eventualities.