We used miles to get our plane tickets. Thank goodness we were able to get business class tickets on miles for the dates we wanted. We were also able to use miles for most of our hotel rooms. It was a little challenging navigating the American Express travel site but it all worked out.
Packing is always hard but when I do it right, the rest of the trip goes swimmingly. Here's what I do:
- I prepare outfits for each family member by day, and then I make a stack of clothes for each day. It's a LOT more work to pack this way and it's not the most space-efficient way to pack. BUT it means that every morning, I just have to pull out a pile to have clothes for everyone. Everything else stays put. No piles everywhere to put outfits together. At the end of the day, I put all of the day's dirty clothes in a plastic and the bag goes into the empty space.
- I carefully pack my carry-on bags. For Japan, I opted for a backpack with a lot of pockets and my diaper bag. The backpack holds mostly my things, including reading materials for the plane, my wallet, our itinerary, copies of our passports, etc,
- The diaper bag includes diapers, wipes, extra clothes for me and MJ, snacks, a sippy cup, kid spoons, books and toys.
- CJ has his own backpack, which includes his DS, a magazine, a few books, his homework, some snacks.
- Even our printed itinerary is carefully researched. For every city we're visiting, I visited fodors.com and found recommendations for the top sights and restaurants. I only have a few must see places on this trip, but it's always good to be prepared with suggestions when the group gets together in the morning and starts to organize the day. Our itinerary also includes all flight and hotel information, important phone numbers, gift requests, and addresses of people to whom we want to send postcards.
