Anatomy of a Vacation

Sam and I are on vacation. A real vacation. The sort of vacation that is long enough, and hopefully relaxing enough, to really, or almost nearly, forget about the crazy, hectic, jam packed days that make up the rest of our life.

Not that we want to forget, we love that part of our life and are choosing to live it. But for heaven’s sake – these last 2 years have been insane!!! So when our friends Terry & Sandy mentioned back in January that they would be spending 2 weeks in Italy in June, Sam and I mentioned that we would be available to take care of heir house while they were away. Our offer was completely selfless of course.

We enjoy the heck out of Terry and Sandy – but their house – well there is just something downright spiritual about it. The first time we visited them after they moved from Kansas City to St. Augustine, Florida, we nearly cancelled the trip the day before we left. We were stressed and frazzled and had been traveling a lot the past 2 months, and the last thing we were looking forward to was another weekend of travel. But we got on the plane anyway, and something happened as soon as we walked through the front doors of their house. We relaxed. I mean we really relaxed. We slept better than we’d slept in years. We both slept the entire night without waking, something that never happens for either of us. And then we kept on sleeping. And when we finally awoke, we were rested. Rested. Sigh….

We’ve been back since and it’s the same thing. We sleep. We eat. We sleep. We talk. We sleep. We eat. We talk. And we leave deeply relaxed.

So you can see why we selflessly offered, ahem, I mean, asked, ok we practically begged, to stay at their house while they were away. Being good friends, and gracious to boot, they readily agreed.

I took home some sea shells from the beach that weekend to remind me of what I had to look forward to. I kept them in a little arrangement on the shelf in my bathroom and each morning while I was getting ready I would remind myself that I was going to get to spend a week in Florida at Terry & Sandy’s house. Ahhhh. I could almost hear the waves crashing against the beach, and behind that, the soft tinkle of the fountain outside the window of the room in which we slept.

We decided to leave on Friday, June 13th, which was also my birthday. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate turning 42. For the next 9 days we will be “living” in Terry & Sandy’s house, enjoying this little corner of paradise and an escape from much of what constitutes our “real life”. If I am not too busy sleeping and eating, I plan to chronicle our plans to do absolutely nothing. I am sure it will be fascinating reading!