I'm a bit embarrassed to be posting this, but I'm going to do it anyway

Here's the thing.

Yesterday, I planned out our whole future trip to Australia. What's pathetic is we're not planning to return until late 2012. That's close to three years away. I showed Tim the plans this morning, and he started getting all excited. We're acting as if this trip is three months away instead of a few years.

I didn't actually mean to do this. What happened was I became highly frustrated with issues regarding this blog. I took a few days off. I decided though that although I needed a break from the blog, it didn't mean I needed a break from Australia itself.

I started look at a travel website. They have lists of the 100 best this and that. I had a great time reading the lists, and finding places on Google Maps. I told myself I would NOT be silly and start planning. I would just get a general idea, I'd bookmark some websites, and I'd come back to it in two years or so.

But then ideas started forming in my head, and the next thing I knew....I was marking out days on the calender.

Now things MIGHT change in the next few years. But for now I'm really happy with what I've come up with.

First of all, I've given up the idea of spending a lot of time in Victoria. I think originally I had planned to spend several weeks exploring that one state....just like we've spend several weeks in New South Wales. But I don't think my attraction to Victoria equals my attraction to New South Wales, so I don't want to dedicate that much time to it.

This trip is going to be different. It's going to be shorter because Tim has a job now, and it's hard to take that much time off of work. Our last trip in Australia was about 33 days. This one is going to be twenty-five days, but we might add a few days if Tim can get away for longer.

There's going to be less staying in one place, and more traveling around. I did love staying in one apartment for several weeks. It's a great feeling. But now I'm getting to that point where I want more variety.

So anyway....here's what I have planned:

We start in Sydney. We'll spend three nights there. I think the main purpose is to visit certain people. And I'd love to meet other certain people, if they're willing to meet us. We'll visit some of our favorite places as well.

Then we're going to fly to Melbourne. We're just going to do three nights there. It will be one of those action-packed weekends...get as much in as possible.

After that, we'll drive to Adelaide. We're not going to do a big drive in one day. Instead, we'll stop near the Grampian National Park. I'd also like to see Ballarat, and any other towns on the way.

We'll spend three nights in Adelaide, and then head to Broken Hill. We're going to break that drive up as well....and stay in Burra. We're going to keep our time in Broken Hill to a minimum because I think it's going to be a little too hot for my taste. We'll either drive back in one day, or break it up again.

We'll spend a night in Adelaide, and then we're going to head to Perth. We'll do some quick Perth touring, and then we're going to head to Rottenest Island. We'll spend a few nights there, and then we're going to return to Sydney for a few days.

A few months ago, I would have said this was way too much traveling. I'd feel unsettled. But after the road trip, I think I can handle it. The road trip was so much fun.

I also have general plans for our further-in-the-future Australia plans. I think in 2014 or 2015, we'll come in the winter (July or August) and do Queensland and the Northern Territory. Then maybe in future trips we'll visit parts of the states we haven't seen yet.

I think it will be hard to pick what we want to see in each major city. We'll have Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. I think the best idea is to pick one type of thing for each city. For example, if we go to an aquarium in Melbourne, we don't need to go to one in the other cities. For one city, we'll do a zoo. In another city, we might do an art museum. In another we might do the botanical garden. I mean we might end up doing two of something, but we don't need to do everything in each city. We don't need to go to a natural history museum, aquarium, art gallery, botanical garden, zoo, aquarium, and market for each of the four cities.

Oh! There's also beaches. I forgot about that. Well, we'll do that too.

Plus we have to fit in seeing people that are willing to see us. We'll just drag them to the attractions with us.

I'm so damn excited. The funny thing is I don't even mind that it's almost three years away. I love that I have all this time to obsess over it and do research.