Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Vacation Plans

Jeri and I have finished some vacation plans. If anyone is interested in going to Spain this summer for Expo 2008, you might want to look at the vacation plan and budget I drew up (I started thinking about this about six years ago).

Of course, six years ago when I first started thinking about taking the family to Spain for Expo 2008, the dollar was worth about 1.03 Euros, and now it's worth only about 0.65 Euros. That adds significantly to the costs. Also, air fares have become about twice as expensive as they were (in inflation-adjusted dollars). In the plan I made, I used a spreadsheet to convert costs into percentages of the median full-time year-round male American worker's earnings. That way, in future years, people could always compare the cost of such a trip to a typical wage and see if the trip was taking a larger or smaller portion of a typical worker's income.

I'm mainly interested in seeing historical sites and art museums while in Spain, but the Expo 2008 will be a highlight. The theme of the Expo this year is water, and I'm quite interested in sustainable water use and issues of fresh water scarcity. The last time I went to a world's fair was in 1992 when I went to Seville. I loved it, and I'm looking forward to going to another one.