Well no, it probably won't be, but it's not like going down to the street to the local auto parts, looking for that specific part.
In this case, great distances are involved. In order to prove this it will take more advances in technology, observation, and searching, and most of all, it will take time. Like those that dared sail across the oceans many years ago, it took time.
Look how long it took this species just to travel to our closest neighbor, the moon. What did that take, thousands of years of gawking at the moon for generations until we were able to actually make the trip?
If you're a Singularitarian, they believe that technological progress is more or less exponential. So visiting other solar systems might not be so long off. To use your analogy, it may have taken millennia to put our toe in the surf (reach the Moon), but the first voyage to neighboring islands may come pretty soon.