The Vacation of a Lifetime

A couple of weeks before we started out on this little adventure, Mom commented that this was the "vacation of a lifetime." We laughed a little bit, but she was right. It was definitely the vacation of a lifetime ... until the next one anyway!

We had an absolute blast. It was wonderful to be away for 10 whole days ... just the two of us. About halfway through the trip, we both commented on how good it was to be away from work, away from the house. We truly had enough time to decompress - even though we were super busy! - and forget about all the various things going on while we were gone. We turned off our cell phones, didn't check work email, and just enjoyed being together.

When mission teams come back from their trips, I encourage them to figure out what they would say to people about their trip given 30 seconds, 5 minutes, or 30 minutes. That way, whatever the situation, you're prepared to make the most of any opportunity to share about your trip. Obviously, this wasn't a mission trip, but I thought it was still a good idea to try and capture what I was thinking about our trip. Here goes!

Given 30 seconds ...
"It was great! We had a blast ... the vacation of a lifetime! We're already thinking about where we'll go next!"

Given 5 minutes ...
After 10 days away from "the real world," I have a few thoughts and takeaways.

• Time away is good for the soul - and good for our marriage. We haven't been away since our honeymoon a year-and-a-half ago. Sure, we'd been away for a night here and there, but not for an extended period. I didn't realize how much we both needed to escape our everyday lives and just be together. We had the opportunity to be as busy as we wanted during the day (which was very busy!) and could be as lazy as we wanted each evening (which was very lazy!). It was perfect! We came back totally refreshed and ready to tackle another few months of the grind.
• I am more patriotic than I even realized. I have always loved our country and am so grateful to have been born in this country. I am super patriotic. I once told Hubs that if he didn't vote he would be "spitting in the eye of freedom" and I would have to reconsider our relationship (we weren't engaged/married at the time). Yes, a bit overly zealous, but it was from the heart. *wink* I got totally misty-eyed when we visited the White House and I might have shed a tear or two when we went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
• Dreams really do come true ... and it's so fun when they do! We have talked about taking this vacation for years and I've been thinking of it before we ever started talking about it. So it really felt like a dream come true to take the plunge and plan the trip that we'd talked about for so long. I honestly didn't worry about anything and just had a blast!
• We enjoyed everything that we did and saw, but a few of our favorite things were: the White House, the U.S. Capitol, Fenway Park, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, lunch at the City Tavern, pedicab tour of Central Park, the Eastern State Penitentiary, the Holocaust Museum, the Newseum, dinner at S'Mac, the National Archives, and the Freedom Trail.
  
• My husband is amazing. This is certainly not a new revelation, but it was totally reinforced during our vacation. He let me plan everything to my heart's content, and then went along for the ride. (I did take what he wanted into consideration when planning.) We spent so much time talking - really talking - and it was just wonderful. And, after 10 days and nights of being together without any sort of break from each other (hotel rooms are pretty small!), he still wanted to be with me when we got home and we're already talking about where we'll go on our next vacation. :) I'm so thankful for my husband!

Given 30 minutes (or a couple of hours) ... well, I'm going to try to cover the entire trip in more detail in upcoming posts.