Today is a very special day for our family...

...and this day is special for our family every year. I don't mean the date; that's irrelevant. Today is one of those holidays that falls on a slightly different day each year. It is the day that we spend an entire morning sitting together, drinking coffee in our pajamas, going over maps, guidebooks, and websites, and planning our summer trip. It's always fun, often loud, and sometimes stressful and argument-filled, but by the end of it we have a plan. And this year's plan is fantastic. We are striking a balance between some places we have always wanted to visit and some places we couldn't wait to return to. We hope you'll join us on this terrific journey of seeing America's beauty and trying to survive each other's insan... um, I mean, uh, seeing the beauty within our own family. Five months from tomorrow is our departure date, and suddenly the middle of winter doesn't look so bad!