(This is the next in the series of excerpts from my illustrated memoir, “Double Take.”)

Planning a vacation? If you’re like me, the minute you buy your plane ticket or book your B&B, it feels like you’re almost on your way. It may look like I’m still going to work and doing laundry, but a chunk of my mind is already packing.

In this post, I’ll show you a great way to maximize your enjoyment before your vacation even begins. The secret is to do “research” in advance, but don’t cringe. It’s fun and will enrich your experience. So, pour yourself a cuppa and travel with me back eight years to an enchanting garden tour of England with Road Scholar, an educational travel program for adults.

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May 24, 2016 – about to leave for Logan Airport in Boston

Finishing up packing and finally on my way! I started this 80-page sketchbook over two months ago (in mid- March) in anticipation of this trip that officially begins today. I’ve jotted down my research notes right here in the sketchbook, creating a two-page spread for each stop on the tour. I logged the background info on each garden on the right-hand page, and left the facing page blank – to be filled in with sketches when I get there. What a great way to make a 12-day trip last for three full months!

May 26, 2016– two days later, sketchbook ponder after Day One of the English Gardens Tour

Still fully jet-lagged, but with no time to waste, we headed out to the amazing Chelsea Garden Show. It is stunning sensory overload in every way. Every May, over 150,000 people attend this massive five-day garden show. It is so well-organized but no surprise there; it has been in Chelsea since 1912, previously in Kensington, starting back in 1862. I’m glad I took loads of photos; they’ll be great reference material for future sketches and possibly paintings.

Later, in a shady area by the bandstand… I’m sitting under a tree in a lovely resting area, eavesdropping on four local women who are picnicking nearby. They sound and look like regular attendees, and sure know how to pack a wicker basket feast! Their voices are lilting, hovering, diving across two octaves of enthusiasm.

I love being entertained by strangers while I sketch. Although it looks like I’m just drawing, my mind is also taking notes on possible characters for a future novel. Sketching is a great covert activity.

May 29, 2016 – three days later, building momentum

Despite being spelled “Goodnestone,” it’s pronounced “Gun-stun.” Of course, right?

I’m so glad I created these detailed right-hand pages for each site while I was back home. Day by day, I’m filling the facing pages here in England, and I’m surprised by the affectionate feeling of familiarity I have with places I’ve never actually visited before. I also know about special areas at each site, places I don’t want to miss, that no one in our tour even knows about.

May 31, 2016 – Day 6 of 11, English Gardens tour – This trip continues to be so educational- Road Scholar is the best! Each morning our instructor, a university professor, gives us graduate-school-level lessons on the history of ornamental horticulture and landscape design across Europe and England, starting in the 1400s! It’s fascinating and we’re so lucky because she’s retiring after this tour, retiring from both her work here at Road Scholar and her work lecturing at university.

The format of this tour is brilliant as well. We begin each morning in the hotel conference room, listening to the day’s lecture (complete with slide show) about a specific era of English garden design. Then, after a quick lunch, we all board the coaches and travel to one of the sites we have just studied! It’s so exciting, every step of the way. All of us elders are taking scads of notes throughout class, as if we’re preparing for an important final exam. The instructor has laughed, saying she wishes her graduate students were so keen.

In this morning’s lecture, I learned a great deal more about the wonderful friendship that developed between Gertrude Jekyll (pronounced “Gee-kul”), an experienced artist and plants woman, and Sir Edwin Lutyens (pronounced “Lutchins”), a young architect. Despite their 26-year age difference (they met when she was 46 and he was 20), they joined forces to become the first garden designer / architect team to collaborate rather than compete. They celebrated and benefited from each other’s expertise, and the results were sublime in the more than one hundred gardens they designed together.

Today we visited RHS Wisley, a gorgeous place, but my rain gear was no match for the constant heavy downpours. I returned to the coach early, shedding my soaked-through raincoat and sweater. My sturdy umbrella had been decorative at best against English downpours. Ah well, all part of the multi-sensory experience!

(to be continued…)

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 As always, thanks for spending some time with me “aloft.” Happy sketching!