Survival Tip: Plan a Trip

For my husband’s 50^th (ssshhh.. he still thinks he’s 35) birthday, I surprised him with a cruise. Even though his birthday was in April, I planned the cruise for September. Two reasons: to save enough money to pay for it and with my son away at college, we wouldn't have to worry about him left at home to his own devices. He was 18, and technically an adult. He no longer wanted to stay at friends’ houses when we left town. I got that. And when we would leave for one or even two nights to someplace close, we would let him stay home alone. But out of the country for four days? Was not ready for that. (See “ironic twist” at the end of this blog.)

It turns out that planning a trip shortly after our chick fledged was a great decision. It gave us something to look forward to and proved to be an excellent diversion as we stumbled through that first month of “empty nesting.”

The trip was our first cruise, and we had a great time. We swam with dolphins, witnessed an incredible sunset, drank a few too many mojitos and got in trouble for helping ourselves to tequila samples at the duty-free shop. The only regret: not turning off my “roaming” on my phone. Turns out, international roaming is quite expensive, and I came home to $300 in charges. Oops.

Formal Night

Being pushed by a dolphin

Splash!

Ironic Twist

My son and his friends decided to come home for the weekend when the rival high school teams were playing each other in football.  It turned out that it was the same weekend we would be out of town on our cruise. So planning to take this trip while he was at school and not home, therefore lessening the temptation to have a party, proved fruitless.

He said he didn't have a party… just four guys.  But this is what four guys did to the house

1.       Bent an inside tine of a fork

2.       Broke one of the legs of the kitchen chair

3.       Loosened the toilet from the floor

4.       Caused one blue towel to go missing from the guest bathroom

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