Are We There Yet?

How many more days until vacation? That’s the question many parents start hearing now, as school lets out and families begin to plan for a trip. Whether it’s a day, weekend or weeklong trip, children look forward to a day away from usual surroundings. When I was little, the thought of getting to stay over at a hotel where you got to ride an elevator and visit the cool vending machines for a snack was exciting enough. Add in a pool, and I was thrilled. It didn’t matter where we were going or what we were doing, the hotel, vending machine and pool was enough to excite me. And the thrill of the planning and the excitement of the trip still works on me. And yes, so does the hotel and pool, although I’ve moved past the vending machines and looked forward more to the free breakfast in the mornings. I’ve always been a planner, and I start looking for hotels at our destination, eying the merits of one over the other, and wanting to make the reservation months in advance. I like to look over online menus of restaurants we could visit (because half the fun of vacation is trying out new restaurants) and looking online at stores I could visit. The Internet has really opened up my obssession to all new highs or lows, depending on how you look at it. “So what do you want to do on vacation?” I asked my oldest, as we started counting down the days until departure. “Go to Krispy Kreme,” she said without pause. We had discovered the delights of visiting the donut shop the moment the neon light comes on that means they are fresh out of the fryer. “So what do you want to do?” I asked the youngest. “Go see the Chocolate Monkey,” she said, mentioning a candy store that has a painting of a monkey made of chocolate on its window. She wants to seriously go see the painting, see the candy and sample a bite of chocolate. That’s it. It’s the simple things in life. A hot donut and a painting of a monkey. I can’t wait. So how many more days until vacation?