Vacation Planning

 After two years of hubby living in New Mexico, the daughter’s wedding, teaching all year, remodeling my daughter’s condominium, remodeling three bedrooms at our home, gardening, chasing two dogs and two granddogs, running a business and a bridal shower, two parties and countless dishes, cleaning, and mowing, the hubby and I are taking a vacation without children, dogs, friends or relatives. Just him and I…. weird. 

Originally, we had a fancy vacation planned but fires in New Mexico that he had to evacuate from fairly quickly ate up some of the miles we were planning on using, but I am a simple girl. I needed beach, sand and ocean. Nothing fancy, nothing too grand. Just a beach. 

Everyone needs a vacation means a time to relax and re-charge, it can be at  home but I know how I operate. If I stay home, I catch up on laundry, cleaning, etc. So I have to leave, read be pried, from home. The dogs always need something, the yard could use a couple of hours of work, the house needs a quick once over, ironing needs to be caught up. So I need to leave the house!!!

Which brings me to the point of this post, I needed to plan a simple vacation for the two of us. 

 

First, I looked for the closest beach to us. Hubby has to travel home from New Mexico… so we are driving to the closest beach. Guess which beach is closest?

Charleston!!! 

What a great town? Perfect. Last time I was in Charleston, I had these two in tow!!

  

Next task, what to do? I mean serious beach time, but what else. 

Well, quick research of my Southern Livings, the internet and a couple of friend requests brings us some great restaurant recommendations, a couple of “must dos” and yes, I want to do some dorky tourist things. A carriage ride through Charleston… 

Besides, I do not have kids telling me how silly all this is… A grown-up vacation!!! 

  

Now, my typical vacation mode;

·         List of clothes and toiletries needed

·         Itinerary including maps and addresses

·         Grocery list and cooler items needed.

·         Kindle packed

·         Beach items checked and ready

·         Camera with multiple lens packed

·         Special trip items:

o   Book of South Carolina birds

o   Binoculars

o   Civil War Book of South Carolina

o   History of Charleston 

·         List of numbers for the kids staying at the house

·         Food in the fridge for them to eat

·         Plenty of dog food while we are gone.

Vacation planning may seem counter intuitive when you want to relax but let me tell you, I now can relax knowing that I have done everything to ensure we have the best time. 

How do you vacation? Are you a wing-it type of person? Or are you a planner, like me?