How soon is too soon?

With wacked hours and rarely having back-to-back days off, I find myself trying to plot my vactions for this year a little more than normal.

In the past, I’ve picked a week or something and planned around that. But this year, I’ve plotted a time I’d like to go on a trip, as well as a couple of other things I’d like to do. I now just have to run the dates by the boss and make sure those times are cool and all.

I got to wondering, however. How much time do people put into planning vacations. For example, I know I’m going to Montreal for at least four days this summer. But I’m looking into different things and I’ve started planning already. I’m hoping the weekend we picked will have a home Alouettes game again. I’ve been looking at different parts of the city, hoping I can see some new things this year. I’d really love to take one of the days and drive up to Quebec City as well. Or at a minimum, take one of the boat tours up the St. Lawrence a little ways.

It will also be my 10th trip to Montreal, so I’m looking to make it a little bigger. We always say we’re going to different things, then we get into the same habits. It’s not that bad — we always have a blast. But as I get older and others start falling off, it’s hard to keep committing time to make this trip. So before it stops becoming a yearly trip, I want to make sure I see everything I want to see! Not to say I’ll never go back (I will for sure), but I want to make sure I see these things.

So my goal is to go in late June/early July. It’s early in the softball season and early in the O-Tigers season, so hopefully I won’t miss a ton. I’d also get to visit Montreal again during Jazz Fest as well as Canada Day, which would be fantastic.

If I don’t go then, all of July is shot and part of August is. Whether work, weddings or softball. Mostly work (weekends — big events).

Also, the past couple of years, the bulk of my vacation time is all bulked together in December and I’m finding it unfair that I have to use most of my vacation time in the middle of the winter when it’s tough to go do stuff. I need to be able to take a good bulk of time in the summer to go do some things and I don’t want to wait until the final part of summer schedules come out to make the plan.

Which leads me back to the original question — when is too soon to plan? Is it crazy that I am already starting to plot a four- or five-night vacation? Or is it normal? I mean, yes, I am months and months away from leaving this area and making the travel to Canada, but still, it’s always good to think ahead, right?

Also, if I am going to plan a trip to Quebec City one day, I need to plan way ahead. It’s a 2 hour, 30 minute ride to Quebec City and it would take some planning to know we are going up there, touring the city a little and having to drive back to Montreal. I wouldn’t want to travel in the dark in places I have no clue about.

Crazy things vacations are. But I find it makes work easier at times when you can know you have some good things to look forward to and not just a vacation where you sit around on the computer all the time (as I seem to do during December vacations!)