The Sawyer Stories

I feel like we’ve been planning a vacation to Europe for years.

The first time I can remember talking about it was in the years leading up to Amber’s 30th birthday which were quickly approaching being over a decade ago. The dream was to go on a trip across Europe with the wonderful Dudley family to celebrate Amber and Renee’s 30th birthday and 30th year of friendship.

Life happened, we moved to Washington, DC and, quite unfortunately we were never able to make the trip.

Over the last few years, we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to save to take this dream trip to Europe. To make things even better, I work for a company that rewards their associates with a sabbatical every seven years. My seven years was actually last September but I decided to save it for this summer so Amber and Liam would be out of school and we could go on our next great adventure.

Through the years, we’ve always enjoyed travel. Our stated goal as a family has been to foray into six of the seven continents before Liam graduates high school. At this point, I don’t think that is going to happen, so maybe we’ll maybe we can aim toward college graduation and due to the delay hit up all seven continents.

In December of 2023, we finally purchased flights to Europe and if felt like this trip would finally actually happen. Since then we’ve spent a significant amount of time researching, planning, and purchasing. Now, we are just a few weeks away and I am so excited to go on this adventure with my family.

Of all the places we will visit, what location am I most looking forward to?

It sounds odd but what location I’m looking forward to most isn’t one of the locations that we will stay at but a location between to places we are staying. Going into our third week in Europe we will be transitioning between Rome and London.

We will wake up on July 29th head to Roma Termini and board a train north. After a few hours, we’ll arrive in Milan and then board a train all the way through to Zurich.

While this isn’t a location, it is a journey that I’ve wanted to do for most of my life. To take a train across parts of Europe comes with high expectations. Whether it be weaving through the Alps or working our way through European small towns, I’m excited for the views and the experience.

When you couple the views and the experience with the fact that I’ll spend that time with Amber and Liam in a private ‘Executive’ car (whatever that means), playing games and talking about life, I just can’t wait to make that journey.