With the holidays winding down it’s time for Amanda and me to start planning our winter break. Most of the time, Amanda gives me a budget of a couple thousand dollars and we escape to some place with crystal clear water and warm temperatures. I can’t express how much I look forward to running away to a tropical oasis each year.

But, this year is different. We made a promise we intend to keep; and that means we won’t be getting off the plane and feel a warm breeze in our face.

We’ll be exchanging our dollars for British pounds in 2015.

We’re planning a trip to England. Yes, England — the rainy island — in February. If you’re concerned about miserable weather, well, you’ve got that kind of right. The temperatures that time of year tend to be in the 40s (the island rarely gets snow). The average temperature for that time of year in our home base in Pittsburgh hovers just below the freezing mark.

The other hang-up that comes to mind is, “isn’t that expensive?” Well, yes, it is compared to Mexico or the Caribbean. We will have to double our budget to around $4,000 about half of that is just the airfare. I already know it will take me hours of searching for the right flights in order to keep those tickets to $1,000 apiece.

We’re planning on spending two nights in London (at about $150 a night or below) so we can catch one or two of the city’s highlights Amanda hasn’t seen. We then plan on renting a car (from preliminary estimates, the cheapest part of the trip so far) and heading to the southwest coast, stopping at Stonehenge along the way. I do suggest to anyone visiting England to make the trek to Salisbury to visit the ancient monoliths. The simple stone circle will take your breath away.

The main goal, and the entire reason we are skipping the sun, is to visit some friends. I have known Kate for years, and she and her husband recently opened a bed and breakfast, the Anchor Inn, next to his family’s pub. We plan on staying there a few days and catch up on the last several years as well as explore the small seaside towns and villages.  So, that’s it. I’ll keep you all in the loop as the departure date is set and the prices we plan on paying and the reality of what we are getting for the price.