Summer vacation. We leave June 2 or 3. Guess what is booked and planned? Nothing. Guess what will be today? Something. I’m determined.

I know one thing. We’re going to the D.C. area. Anniston wants to major in political science for her undergrad. Georgetown is one of the best schools for this degree due to its location, its programs and internships and guest speakers. But Anniston has never been to D.C. and may hate the city. Who knows?

The biggest decision was to drive or fly. We know we’re going to several other places around the D.C. area (Baltimore, Philadelphia, etc.), but if we fly, we can take trains to avoid renting a car. Another consideration is the number of states we can visit. If we drive, we can alter our routes to get more states.

Flying:

• Washington D.C.
• Maryland
• Delaware
• Virginia
• West Virgina
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania

Driving:

• Kentucky
• Washington D.C.
• Maryland
• Delaware
• Virginia
• West Virgina
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• Ohio
• Indiana
• Michigan (maybe – trying to figure out how to fit this one in)

If we fly, we can’t leave until June 3. We wouldn’t be able to leave on the 2^nd due to senior volleyball pictures. SENIOR VOLLEYBALLY PICTURES. Life flies by. The flight options for the 2^nd were awful and just not doable for us. We must back before June 12 because Anniston has a volleyball recruiting camp that day.

 Driving would take two days each way. But ultimately, we decided to go with more states and saving a little bit of money by not flying. Saying that it’s probably not saving any money. The flights were anywhere from $300-$600 per person. $300 didn’t even give us seat selection. With high gas prices, we’ll probably rent a car that gets better mileage. So all-in-all, we’ll probably end up breaking even, or maybe a little less, than flying.

Next step is planning each stop and stay. We’ll leave after pictures on the 2^nd and drive to Lexington, KY. It’s about 8-ish hours from here. On the 3^rd, we’ll drive from Lexington to D.C. It’s another 8 hours, but we’ll make stops in West Virginia on the way. On the way home, we’ll be leaving from Philadelphia. That route is still being planned.

We have one last decision before I start booking. Since we’re leaving June 2, we’re going to have one extra day. We can spend that day in D.C. I know there’s so much to do there. Or we can leave there, drive to New Jersey, stop in Delaware on the way, and spend an evening and morning in Atlantic City. I’m going to ask Nick and Anniston to vote on their preference.

Hopefully my next update will give all the extra details. I’m running low on time to get it all planned and booked. If you have any suggestions on things to do in any of these places, I’d love to hear them!