We got permission to travel to Australia in on May 2, 2021. This was the watershed moment; we knew we would be able to proceed with our plans to go to Australia. This amazing news also started a cascade of logistics. Not a cascade, a hurricane, a tsunami, or some other massive onslaught of tasks. Jeremy and I opted to have the division of labor to essentially follow that I would lead all Australia travel plans, and Jeremy would lead the home departure plans (including a home addition... more on that in a separate post).
The primary tasks included securing housing, then arranging schooling for the kids, getting a car, packing, securing flights for myself (with help from the Fulbright travel agency + flights for Jeremy, Baxter, and Miles), and so on. Because of the pandemic, Australian landlords were not issuing short-term leases, so we looked into options with AirBnB. Narrowing down the "suburbs" (aka neighborhood areas) was a process - Jeremy and I found several appealing options that were close to the beach, close to the CBD (central business district or downtown area), in the hills near campus, and outlying suburbs with more space but a longer commute. After extensive review, contact with rental hosts, investigations into the pros/cons of these varying areas, we decided on Camden Park. The place we are renting has space for an office for Jeremy to work, 2 blocks from a good public (government) school where both boys can attend, and a 6 minute drive from the beach. Ironically, the AirBnB host of the place we booked is married to an American guy from Cleveland!
The flights were another matter. Working with the travel agent and doing my own research on a Facebook group for people in quarantine in Australia, we opted to break up our trip into several legs. First, we chose to fly out to the west coast to break up the long travel day for all of us to have a bit of transition as well as to visit my west coast family, Aunt Amy, Uncle Jon, and my sister Lauren. Second, we opted to quarantine in Sydney because the city had the widest variety of family-oriented hotel quarantine rooms with suites, adjoining rooms, or apartment-like features. Once we decided to fly out of San Francisco, we had some trouble getting our flights. The government of Australia currently caps the number of international travelers into Australia each week, and some of the states have a daily visitor cap; as a result, the international flights are limited in passengers and 3-5 times the typical price for a ticket. We ultimately managed to get a flight reserved at the end of June.
The packing of bags and packing our house went hand in hand. Jeremy and I decided to sell our SUV in order to make room for long-term storage in our garage. We sorted things in the house into keep, donate, and toss, making countless trips to Goodwill and overflowing recycling and trash bins! We spent weeks intensively overseeing the kids in this process as they were deeply uninterested in packing, sorting and organizing! Nevertheless, we packed up the garage and basement, and figured out the key clothing and items we would haul onboard. Ultimately, we winnowed down to 6 checked bags (our maximum to travel without paying international bag fees!) and 8 carry-ons. Time will tell if we forgot key elements, but since we will be in the city in Australia we can buy replacements in Oz.
Lastly, we arranged for a tenant to rent our house while we are away. Given the insanely active housing market, we found a family who was looking to wait for the market to cool down before purchasing a new home; Ray, our tenant, was willing to deal with the hassle of the addition in exchange for below market rates. We hope it will be a win-win situation. Since Ray has a dog, my mom, Jacki is the keeper of our cats while we are gone.
There are countless other details (cell phones, banking, and more), but you are probably already exhausted hearing about these. We certainly are! We keep reminding ourselves that we won't be in space or living in the bush, so we can get most other tasks tackled once we arrive.