England, 2007

We had the luxury of having lots of time to plan, so our first step was not to seek out a travel agent. Instead, I started watching airfares in December, for our trip in July. Using mostly Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and Kayak.com, I soon established that flights from Minneapolis to London were going to start at around $900 per person - a little more than I had hoped, but doable. Then one night in January, just before we were about to settle on tickets, I saw a price of $565 on United Airlines through Chicago. I was so stunned I didn't believe it at first. But after cross-checking the fare with United's own web site, we snapped it up. We saved so much money on airfare that we decided to extend our trip to three weeks, from the original plan of two.

Fresh off the glow of that success, we decided to plan the rest of the trip ourselves, too. I began spending hours in front of the computer looking at hotel listings for London and considering where to go after that. Since this was our first big family trip abroad, we thought it wise to keep things as simple and stress-free as possible. No aimless wandering, not knowing where we might be staying the next night. We were going to have reservations, and we were going to keep the number of transitions from one place to another to a minimum.

Outside of London, we began focusing on the idea of renting cottages for a week in two locations — the "Cotswold" area (about 100 miles west of London, near Wales) and Edinburgh, Scotland. We looked at hundreds of online listings for cottage rentals, most through www.holiday-rentals.co.uk and found a wonderful refurbished mill in the village of Painswick, England, and an apartment in a converted factory in Edinburgh, both wonderfully located and relatively inexpensive compared to hotels. We would also be able to shop for food locally and save a fortune (and eat healthier) by making most of our own meals.

Our London hotel was a small, family run place called the Edward Lear (named after the writer, who once lived there) near Hyde Park. They had a hard to find "family" room for 4 people, and were able to wedge in a fold-away bed for Joshua. It was simple, but charming, and included a full breakfast. We stayed there the first three nights and the last three nights of our trip. With that taken care of, all that was left was the rental car. Hertz had an office near our London hotel, so that was the obvious choice. We were given an "upgrade" to an absurdly small, but fun little Mercedes hatchback that we used for the two weeks we spent outside of London.

While in London, we walked and used the Tube to get around. Annie had fun figuring out the Tube map. We saw many of their wonderful and free(!) museums, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Covent Gardens, The houses of Parliament and Big Ben. On our last night there, we took a slow spin on the London Eye.

In the Cotswolds, we saw many cute villages, castle ruins, Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. On our final day there it rained heavily and our cottage (the old mill was situated in a ravine, next to a creek) flooded, along with the lowest level of the owners' home across the driveway. We were never in any danger, or even discomfort, but it was a little tense for a while. For us it created an interesting memory, but we felt bad for the owners - a very kind retired couple.

In Edinburgh, we saw the castle, palace of Holyrood House, Scott Monument and climbed "Arthur's Seat" - the rocky outcropping at the edge of the city center. We also took day-trips to see Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace, Roslyn Chapel, the village of Faukland, and the nearby beach.

The trip went very well. The children seemed to enjoy the experience, and appreciate how special it was to see a place so distant from home and with a history so rich. We were glad to see our own home again after three very intense weeks, but it was also sad to have the adventure come to an end.

And it was impossible not to wonder how soon we might be able to do something similar again...