On Choosing a Vacation

Now this is a view I could get used.

Zach and I are in Jamaica. Have you been following along? It's been a wonderful two days so far, made even more wonderful knowing that the boys are in the best possible hands- my mom flew in from California to watch them and spoil them by taking them to the park every day and letting them pack picnics and walking them to the ice-cream store. Needless to say, they are having a great time.

So are Zach and I! We got massages yesterday and are drinking cucumber water and eating papaya and enjoying cocktails that are fresh and delicious. We have been getting 10+ hours of sleep a night (!!!!) and swimming in the most crystal-clear blue water you've ever seen and putting our feet in warm sand... all around, its been lovely. Especially after the winter we've had.

But here's the thing. Deciding on this trip was really, really hard. Because we don't go on "big" vacations like this often (we really only go every 5 years, as a part of our anniversary celebration), there was a lot of pressure to choose the "perfect" vacation. It tooks us months (and months and months and months!) before we finally settled on Jamaica, because in many ways, this vacation does not feel like a vacation we would typically take.

We're at a beautiful resort, but its a resort. Typically, when we travel, we like to stay in boutique hotels and charming bed-and-breakfasts.

We're in a different country, but in many ways, not- our plan is to stay mostly on the resort property, versus exploring the nooks and crannies and genuinely local culture of the place we're visiting.

We're eating good food and drinking delicious drinks- but I had a burger for lunch yesterday, surely not a Jamaican specialty. And while the food is delicious, it is not central to our trip, which is typically the case for us.

So Zach and I had to really think about what we wanted when we booked our trip. Did we want to go back to Spain, enjoying all it had to offer with amazing tapas and beautiful museums? Italy? Greece? All of these were on the table. But ultimately, we looked at each other and decided that what we most wanted was to relax. And to be warm. And that led us in a different direction. That led us to a resort in Jamaica where relaxation and warm weather are at the very center of our vacation.

We spent some time talking about how this is the perfect trip for this point in our marriage. How, when we look back, we'll remember that we had just survived the longest winter. That between the two boys, neither of us had seen 10 hours of sleep a night in years. How lazily sitting around on our balcony, listening to the ocean and getting to talk, gave us opportunities to connect.

All of which made us realize that like everything else in life, maybe vacations too should reflect the season of life we're in. I suspect that 5 years from now, when we plan our big trip for our 15th anniversary, we probably won't be celebrating it at a resort in Jamaica. But for right now, for this season of our life, this was the perfect trip, the perfect way to celebrate 10 years and settle in for another 40 or 50 more. With our toes in the sand.