We are in Friday Harbor right now at my dad and Peggy’s place. We’ve got the laptops fired up and are making some final arrangements and decisions about our route and places to stay. It’s quickly becoming apparent that our first stop – Copenhagen – is going to be one of our most expensive hotel stays. We waited a bit too long and basically have a choice between a 12-bed room in a party hostel or a very nice, but expensive, hotel room. We are leaning toward starting the trip with style at the swanky place.

We decided to use this trip up to Friday Harbor as an opportunity to test drive our backpacks, so we loaded them up with a bit more than what is needed for a two-night stay and gave it a go. The ferry from Anacortes was really crowded with a group of kids going to camp and other summer sojourners, so it was a good test case. It was pretty easy to navigate through the crowded waiting room and off of the ferry. Then we walked from the ferry landing to dad’s place and the pack was really quite comfortable. I even used the packing cubes and they seem pretty useful. (These things are highly recommended on all of the travel blogs we ran across while researching this trip.)

It’s hard to believe that we leave one week from today. We still have a lot to do, but are slowly checking things off of our various spreadsheets and lists. All of the essentials have been taken care of (tickets, shots, etc.), so now we’re focused on the fun details (safari in South Africa, where to stay in Bali, etc.). We will definitely be winging it on some legs of this trip, but that’s part of the fun. I have decided not to let myself get stressed out by the various blogs out there with stories of people planning things months in advance that we are just now discussing one week from our departure.