Trip Ideas

At least once a week I stay awake into the night planning a vacation. It's an obsession of sorts. I haven't been on a trip for so long I'm having major withdrawals so it's been fun to make plans for what I'll do once I am back on my feet again.

Of course I'm excited to visit AJ in Cali and have a fun Sisters Weekend (dates and location tba), but I'm also planning the "next big adventure."

I'm currently debating between a few options. Perhaps you can help.

Bicycle Touring

Since I've already done backpacking by foot, I thought going by bike would be something fun. I've been reading up on it a lot on bicycletouringpro.com, adventure cycling, and travelblog.org. It's very popular, safe, and cost efficient. I would love the experience. Of course it would be expensive to get the gear, but once on the road it would be mostly amazing. I'm debating between:

• Transcontinental - from coast to coast. Traveling by bike would be such a fun way to explore my home country.
• Ireland - Europe is my favorite place to visit and I really want to go to Ireland. Of course I would just start in Ireland and then hop over to the mainland and visit all sorts of places.
• The Mormon Trail - Biking from Palmyra to SLC following the Mormon Trail and stopping at every Church History site and Temple along the way? Ya...it would be inspirational.

I'm also considering taking a trip by rail. Tickets are actually pretty reasonable, and I feel its something I should experience. I'd probably just stick to the US on this.

Finally, Vanuatu. I haven't been back in a while and I'm missing it bad. How wonderful it would be to just go disappear in the islands for a few weeks or even months.

I'm sure you've heard of Euro Rail passes. You buy the pass and can travel all over Europe. (not as cheap as I'd hoped) Have you ever heard of Air Passes though? It's similar to the rail pass only it's with airplanes. That is the way to travel the South Pacific I tell you.

So right now those are the main things I've been considering. Do any of you have any opinions? If you have another idea I'd love to hear it. Right now I'm mostly planning for next summer if its a bike tour or between the holidays if its something shorter. Oh ya, I also need to make a little bit of money.