July Cruise as a Speaker

I will be taking my first cruise as an on-board "Destination Speaker" this July, and I'm really looking forward to the excitement and adventure -- not just for me; also for the guests on the Celebrity Constellation. Here's my schedule:

• July 17 - fly from Boise to Amsterdam, arriving on 18th
• July 18 - rest day
• July 19 - Celebrity Constellation sails from Amsterdam, Netherlands
• July 20 - at sea
• July 21 - Warnemunde, Germany
• July 22 - at sea
• July 23 - Stockholm, Sweden
• July 24 - Helsinki, Finland
• July 25 - St. Petersburg, Russia
• July 26 - St. Petersburg, Russia
• July 27 - Talinn, Estonia
• July 28 - at sea
• July 29 - Copenhagen, Denmark
• July 30 - at sea
• July 31 - Constellation returns to Amsterdam, Netherlands
• August 1 - fly from Amsterdam to Boise

I hope you'll be following along while I'm posting photos and other entries on the cruise. I'm sure there's still some space available if you'd like to come along on this 7-country journey.

Shopping at REI for Jackets

With 3 weeks to go until we leave for the Copper Canyon trip, we decided we should go ahead and invest in good -- no, excellent -- jackets that are versatile and that pack light. Our plan is to take a carry-on suitcase and backpack, just like our 4 weeks in Europe 3 years ago. One area our travel attire was lacking was the jackets, so off to REI we went today; it appeared that lots of others had the same idea.

After talking with most-helpful associate Nancy, we knew the type of jacket we were looking for -- lightweight, water repellant, and wind breaker. Darlene ended up with an REI Ultralight jacket with zip-off hood; mine is the Marmot PreCip jacket. We both got an REI RevelCloud vest; super lightweight, comfortable, and can provide that extra layer of warmth when needed.

We haven't rolled these items up yet to see how small they pack, but everything (including a shirt for me and a hat for Darlene) all fit easily into one shopping bag. So I'm confident that packing them will be a breeze. I'm really glad we got these things because they will be used for many trips to come.