In a little over a month, we leave for our 2014 Midlife Crisis Tour (T-shirts for sale at the lobby merch table). We’ll be spending two full months exploring Italy, Switzerland, France, and the US East Coast.

If you know me and how I travel, you’ve probably guessed (correctly) that by now I have every detail planned, confirmed, and double-checked. Plane tickets were bought before Christmas. Hotel rooms and apartments have been reserved for months. Museum admissions and sightseeing tours are booked. Yesterday I even made lunch reservations for a restaurant in France that we won’t get to until the last week of June!

Truth is, I enjoy the research and preparation almost as much as the actual travel. In my preconceived notions of each trip, the weather is always beautiful, the food is always amazing, and there are no crowds anywhere. Sure, this can set me up for disappointment in a real world that is all too often rainy, inedible, and packed with other tourists (usually Germans). But it also makes every day before my vacation feel just a little bit like I’m already there.

And where exactly am I when I’m already there? You can take a virtual pre-trip with me by peeking at our itinerary here. (Yes, “Roz” who created that Google Maps overview is my mom, who is even more of an obsessive trip planner than I am—as evidenced by her creating a map for a trip she’s not even taking!)