Getting Away

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had a vacation. A REAL vacation. Our last trip together, requiring air travel, was way back in the summer of 2007. We flew to Ireland on that pre-kids trip. I had no clue that nearly 4 years would go by before I took to the skies again.

We were invited to a destination wedding. I excitedly booked our travel in October for Florida trip in February. Trading the northeast winter for sunny West Palm Beach was a fabulous change, and a much needed break for this mamma bear. Or so I thought.

I like to think of myself as a seasoned air traveler. I’ve flown enough times in my previous professional life to acquire “Gold” status on an airline and a multitude of first class upgrades. In 2005, I had flown from Philly to Nice (France) back to Philly and then to Hawaii over the course of 2 weeks. I’m pretty sure I had no clue what time zone I was in that time.

This time was different.

February arrived and I tried to pretend I was not leaving the boys. The week of the wedding arrived and I still was not organizing what I needed to pack. I was in complete denial that we were going anywhere. I retreated to Twitter for a few days where I am pretty sure I was a paranoid tweeter with a mix of doom and gloom as well. It was never really about leaving the boys – I knew they would have a blast and hardly ask for us. It was more the idea that there was a possibility that we might not return to them. That had me nuts!

The night before we left I was telling my husband that he could go without me. That we were flying Southwest (awesome experience!) and that we should just call and reschedule our return for a day earlier. That maybe we should just cancel all together. I can’t even count how often I cried. We left packing to just hours before leaving and I saw “signs” in everything (like when my jeans tore, yes tore! Granted, there was a big fray for months on them but I took it as a big sign to just stay put).

Of course, we made it to the airport, to the plane and to West Palm Beach. Once on the plane I was OK and by the time we were in the air I was totally fine. I might have been mentally saying a few Hail Mary’s in French during take off (the French part helps occupy my mind). We had a blast and while the weather was warmer than in Philly (snowing) Hutchinson Island had a bit of a cold spell (50 degrees as a high on Sunday). It was fun to stay up late, sleep in and eat a hot meal!

I think we’ll do this again!