Open for travel advice!

(These are shots of Ben and Oliver with Jason, taken when he came to stay with us on holidays last year from Idaho. We are looking forward to seeing Jason and his family again soon :)

It would be more interesting for you, the reader, if the following travel-planning musings were part of a clever metaphor that tied our occasional physical journeyings to our path through life..

But it isn't :) It really is just travel-planning musings that I am asking for help with -from You!

A few months ago, when fares were half their normal price, Neil booked return tickets for himself, Ben and Oliver and me, to fly to the States at the end of the year.

We will be leaving Australia on Tuesday the 24th of November, and will arrive several hours earlier in LA on the same day! (I still always get a kick out of that! Does that mean that if you kept flying west-ward for days on end that you'd end up back in last week? :) We will leave there on Friday, the 18th December, and arrive home on Sunday morning, the 2oth.

The twins will finish high school just a few days before we leave. They otherwise would have been going on a week-long trip up to the Barrier Reef with other LDS grade 12 graduates in the time we are away, but are happy to come with us to the snow instead! The snow is one of the drawcards for us all - Neil and I love it and the twins have never seen it. This trip is also their Christmas and birthday presents, for the next 3 - 6 years... And ours! :)

We have been busy with tax season at work, (especially Neil, who has been working from 6am-9pm, plus Saturday mornings ) and haven't properly planned out the trip yet. Especially for visiting at such a busy time of the year, we know that we are leaving it a little late to be booking places.... so, wondered if anyone can help us?

(I have spent hours on the net, but much of it has been frustratingly less than helpful.)

This is what we are more or less planning so far, but we would love any further, or better ideas:

We don't think we need to spend any time in LA... ? I have asked the twins and Neil if the theme parks are a must for them, but they don't seem particularly keen, especially after what they have heard about waiting in lines for hours. I also have wondered about whether we ought to do a day or half-day bus tour of LA? I've read that these are quite good, and they apparently visit a lot of interesting places. However, none of us feel too upset at the idea of just leaving LA as soon as we get there. (Unless we reconsider after you telling us that we should... :)

We have decided that we would like to visit the Grand Canyon for about 3 nights. Neil and I loved it there - and so would like to take the twins, even though Ben says he has no interest in seeing what is 'essentially just a big hole in the ground'. We told him that this is one of those (many, many, many times :) when his parents know best, and that he will thank us anon! I am keen for us to walk the entire southern rim, (I'm blissfully imagining doing it in a snow storm), and also to hike a few hours down into the canyon. (And out again :) Driving from there to Salt Lake City is going to take at least another day. Also, if we fly to Phoenix and drive from there to the GC, it seems that along the way we could see Montezuma's castle, Meteor Crater and the Oak Canyon Scenic Drive.

We plan to be in SLC for about 6 days. We'll take the boys all through Temple Square; to the JS Memorial building for the film and some lunch (up top); take a tour of the Convention Centre, and the Humanitarian Centre; perhaps book for a baptismal session at the temple; perhaps do a tour of BYU; and visit friends. We're also looking forward to the Christmas lights on Temple Square! And we'll do shopping at the bookstores. And visit Park City, which I loved on a previous trip, so want to show the twins. Anything else??

After SLC, we plan to send the twins up to hang out in Idaho with Jason and his family there, while Neil and I set off for a week on our own :) We are thinking that we might head to New York during that time. Brecken has very kindly already offered some great suggestions, as well as offered to put us up with her and Justin for a bit, while we take another look around the city. (See Random Things, number 10.) But we are wondering if we should hire a car for a few days and head north to see Boston too, with Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard etc. along the way (just because I love the sound of them :)? Or visit Vermont? Or re-visit the Niagra Falls? (Really not sure here.) Brecken has suggested that south to DC might have less snow, but - I love snow! Although we are not used to driving in it. Does that much matter? Or should we just stay in NYC for the week? See shows; do Christmas shopping; live in the art galleries; get a NYC Pass, and sight-see like crazy?

Then back to Idaho for a joyous re-union with our loving sons, who will be missing us like crazy by then - if they actually have noticed our absence at all.. :) And a wonderful 5 days or so with the fabulous Hampton family, which will be a real high-light of the trip for us. We'll hopefully be enjoying some snow activities there too!..... Snowball fights at Jason; burying Jason in the snow; showing Jason up on the snow-mobiles... we'll all have lots of fun! :)

Now - if you've been adding up the days, you will find that we have used up about 23 days so far, of our 24 and a half day trip. It would be easy to spend that bit of extra time anywhere along the way, but I've been considering some other ideas....

So far, everywhere we are going, Neil and I have more or less been before. I was wondering if we should, or might be able, to fit in a road trip for a few days, from LA up to San Fransisco. Along the way we could see some of the Spanish architecture in Santa Barbara; the Hearst Castle and the elephant seals and sea-lions on the beach near San Luis Obispo; drive along the coast through Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey, where again we might sea sea-lions and otters along the sea front; take the famous 17 mile drive past pebble beach; and try to see some of the Californian redwood trees too :) We could then perhaps fly from San Francisco to Phoenix, on our way to the GC.

This really sounds good to me. We love road trips with beautiful scenery and interesting sights.

But how are we going to fit it in? How many days would we need in order to do this? What other part of the trip would we take the days from? Is it worth it??

Something else that I know we need to keep in mind is that we will arrive in LA on the 24th of November, and Thanksgiving in the States is on the 26th. If we go straight to the GC, we will be there for this. If we head north along the Californian coast, we will be somewhere along there... Does it matter where we are? Are we going to have more trouble booking somewhere around this time?

Neil has been too busy at work (and being Bishop), to give much thought to any of this, although he is really looking forward to it - and the twins are just happy they are coming along, and keen to do or see anything fun or interesting. I would love to hear any ideas/suggestions/advice/warnings that anyone else might have?? Nothing apart from our return tickets is booked yet, and the only destinations and activities we are definitely tied to emotionally, are the GC, SLC and Idaho. And probably NYC.... And possibly the northern Ca coast. Oh dear! Any suggestions?

Thank you! - Even for reading this far :)