Jen and Rebecca Can’t Wait to Blow this Popsicle Stand!

We depart for Croatia tomorrow, but it still seems like forever because we still have to get through another day of work!  During the past few weeks we’ve been emailing like crazy discussing what to pack, how much to pack, last minute shopping trips to buy things we want to pack, how many books to pack, what knitting projects to pack, and what snacks to pack (Jen is always in charge of the candy.  Rebecca tries to pretend we’ll eat something slightly healthier by bringing a few granola bars and trail mix, but both of these “healthy options” include chocolate.)  We decided not to get as crazy with the driving in Croatia as we did in Scotland (in other words, we decided not to drive EVERY DAY of the trip, but to spend multiple nights in any given location, seeing less of the country and having more time to relax and explore each place.)  But as a precaution, Jen has finally taken some lessons on driving a manual transmission in the hopes that Rebecca won’t have to do all of the driving yet again if we end up stuck with a stick for the days we will have a car.  (A big giant shout out to Janelle for providing the lessons, and to Paul for sacrificing his car’s transmission!)  Now I suppose Rebecca will be expected to take scuba lessons since Jen has been taking them and will soon suggest a travel destination where we can scuba dive…

 

To give you a sense of our Croatia plans, we will be based in Dubrovnik for the first 5 nights, taking some day trips from there.  Then we spend a day in the car to get to Plitvice National Park where we will spend two nights and hike in pretty scenery (to clarify my poorly worded sentence, the hiking will take place during the day, not the night).  Our last two nights will be spent in Zagreb.  Below is a map of Croatia with our general route, and a few possible day trip locations marked.  For those who are geography challenged, note that Croatia is located across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.  (You can Google a full European map on your own if you still can't figure out where Croatia is!)