Where in the world is Carmen San Diego???

Does anyone remember that old computer game? I LOVED playing that game ... on our OLD pc in the kitchen (one computer shared by our entire family) ... usually while mom was cooking dinner ... or perhaps after homework. Anyway. You had to use clues given by the game to solve mysteries.

Hubs and I have been out of town for the past week. Check out the pics below to see if you can guess where we were. (No fair guessing if you already knew!) :)

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.

We're Back!

We're back! You probably didn't even know we were gone, but in case you missed us, we're officially back to the real world.

We had the MOST amazing vacation. Ten glorious days of being away, visiting new cities, seeing tons of cool things, and most importantly just being together. For the most part we took a self-imposed hiatus from phones, email, computers, etc. (although, I will admit to checking Facebook once a day ... just to keep up, you know!). It was wonderful. About half-way through our trip, Hubs said that he really needed some time away, and I wholeheartedly agreed! We've both been super-busy with work and other intense things going on personally, and it was nice to be able to shelve those things for 10 days and just enjoy life!

I wish I had been blogging about the trip while I was actually there, but a few catch-up posts will have to suffice. I have no idea how I'm going to tackle everything I want to say, but it will all be dumped out here. (This is mainly for me and Hubs anyway, so feel free to skip through these if you get bogged down!) So ... get ready! :)

Vacation Countdown!

The vacation countdown is officially on!

We've purchased our flights, are bidding on hotels, and I'm making a list of all the awesome places we want to check out. Hubs is making a list of all the places we want to eat. You can see where our priorities are!

Clarification ...

Okay ... Based on Debra's comment on my last post, I suppose I do need to give a bit more information so you can make your suggestions.

We are planning on taking a 9-10 day trip to the Northeast US. We plan to fly to Baltimore, spend 3-4 days in Washington, DC, take a train to Philadelphia, spend 2 days there, take a train to NYC, spend 1 day there, take a train to Boston, spend 2-3 days there, and fly home. We're pretty set on using public transportation while we're in each city but have also considered renting a car for a day if we decide to get out of the city to see anything.

We're planning on going in March, so it won't be super-warm, but hopefully won't be too cold either. Of course, we could end up with lots of snow everywhere we are. :)

We like good food, are very patriotic (therefore, are looking forward to all the awesome historical sites), and are not that into art museums. We want to keep to a fairly low budget, but are building in a splurge or two ... just haven't decided what those will be yet. I lived in NYC for 3 months, so that's totally covered. Just need some help on the other three cities. :)

Thoughts?

Need Your Help!

We're thinking about taking a little (big) vacation in the not-so-distant future. We've actually been thinking about it for quite some time and we're about to take the plunge.

I'm looking for "must see" places and "to-die-for" restaurants. Remember, we're on something of a budget. But we do want to work in as much as we can and have a few special treats along the way.

So ... Boston? Philadelphia? Washington DC?

Can't wait to hear what you guys come up with!