The last paragraph is truly a metaphor that in these days of selfishness and a culture of “me me me” that should be be ingrained from an early age imho
Loved this again. The whole planning and organising for everyone description hits very close to home. I may soon just totally give up on that and see where it takes us and if my husband and daughter will even notice a difference.
But it’s your last words that I really embrace wholeheartedly. What a great way to summarise the beauty of travel.
I would love to give up planning everyone else’s holiday - but I’m not sure I’m brave enough. I just imagine it would descend into chaos. Maybe there’s a happy medium - some planning with some spontaneity....
I love moments like this! You are so right - the best moments are usually the ones you don’t plan for. I roadtripped the east coast of the US from DC to Canada via Maine and my favourite place was the one we were kinda 🤷♀️ about going to - it was just to tick off a state and a park. We ended up staying longer than we’d planned and I fell in love wholly and completely.
It’s fascinating isn’t it how much effort we put into things only to find that the thing we didn’t put any effort in to is what we remember. I wonder is it something to do with expectations. We build the planned stuff up too much. Your road trip sounds great!
I think so - there’s a certain joy and beauty in spontaneity and just going with the flow. We drove into Boston and did the same thing - totally fell in love and stayed an extra night! We’d planned a few things but found such delight in just walking around the city, following our whims.
I don’t have kids though, so I have the luxury of following my whims entirely! I just had my mum to organise 😅
I love that just staying an extra night because you just fell in love with somewhere. Makes me want to travel more freely and believe that I’d find a room for the night even if I hadn’t booked one six months in advance!
If you get the chance, do it! I stayed a night in the white mountains, New Hampshire and I’d booked the room about 15 minutes before walking into the motel, on the road in from Maine. It’s the second road trip I’ve done across the states and the only hotels I’ve ever booked ahead of time were at the start and at the end. It’s really good fun! I made sure to build in extra days so we could flex our time like that. Only problem was it left me with about two days worth of driving to do in a day 😅
Oh my you are really making me think about doing a road trip (minus kids of course). I think there’s a sense of freedom that comes from just booking a night at the start and a night at the end and handing the rest over to the universe! I guess we should live life like that - day by day...
This was beautiful to read, especially because I went to Italy with my family for the first time last summer! you described it all so truthfully and with detail. Travel, holiday, trips... it’s a fine balance of trying to being realistic with expectations. Throw in kids and it’s a doozie!
Thank you Stephanie - yes the realities of holidays can be so different from the expectations. Kids - well I’m not sure I can even go there enough. Italy though very much is somewhere I want to see more of (possibly minus kids!).
The last paragraph is truly a metaphor that in these days of selfishness and a culture of “me me me” that should be be ingrained from an early age imho
Loved this again. The whole planning and organising for everyone description hits very close to home. I may soon just totally give up on that and see where it takes us and if my husband and daughter will even notice a difference.
But it’s your last words that I really embrace wholeheartedly. What a great way to summarise the beauty of travel.
I would love to give up planning everyone else’s holiday - but I’m not sure I’m brave enough. I just imagine it would descend into chaos. Maybe there’s a happy medium - some planning with some spontaneity....
The separate folder for booking is a great piece of house keeping. #metoo
So glad I’m not the only one!
I love moments like this! You are so right - the best moments are usually the ones you don’t plan for. I roadtripped the east coast of the US from DC to Canada via Maine and my favourite place was the one we were kinda 🤷♀️ about going to - it was just to tick off a state and a park. We ended up staying longer than we’d planned and I fell in love wholly and completely.
It’s fascinating isn’t it how much effort we put into things only to find that the thing we didn’t put any effort in to is what we remember. I wonder is it something to do with expectations. We build the planned stuff up too much. Your road trip sounds great!
I think so - there’s a certain joy and beauty in spontaneity and just going with the flow. We drove into Boston and did the same thing - totally fell in love and stayed an extra night! We’d planned a few things but found such delight in just walking around the city, following our whims.
I don’t have kids though, so I have the luxury of following my whims entirely! I just had my mum to organise 😅
I love that just staying an extra night because you just fell in love with somewhere. Makes me want to travel more freely and believe that I’d find a room for the night even if I hadn’t booked one six months in advance!
If you get the chance, do it! I stayed a night in the white mountains, New Hampshire and I’d booked the room about 15 minutes before walking into the motel, on the road in from Maine. It’s the second road trip I’ve done across the states and the only hotels I’ve ever booked ahead of time were at the start and at the end. It’s really good fun! I made sure to build in extra days so we could flex our time like that. Only problem was it left me with about two days worth of driving to do in a day 😅
Oh my you are really making me think about doing a road trip (minus kids of course). I think there’s a sense of freedom that comes from just booking a night at the start and a night at the end and handing the rest over to the universe! I guess we should live life like that - day by day...
100% you’ve got to try it! It’s fantastic fun. I want to do more but there are other things to be doing at the moment.
I like it as a metaphor for life ☺️ winging it!
This was beautiful to read, especially because I went to Italy with my family for the first time last summer! you described it all so truthfully and with detail. Travel, holiday, trips... it’s a fine balance of trying to being realistic with expectations. Throw in kids and it’s a doozie!
Thank you Stephanie - yes the realities of holidays can be so different from the expectations. Kids - well I’m not sure I can even go there enough. Italy though very much is somewhere I want to see more of (possibly minus kids!).