It’s July and all my friends are on
vacation. At least that’s the way it feels. I think I am the only person in my
zip code who is sitting at home scrolling through pages of Facebook and
Instagram pics of palm trees and sunrises and little umbrella drinks. I have a
bad case of FOMO this week. (Fear of missing out) for all of you over the age of
40. I am missing out this week! And it’s driving me bonkers! The good Gemini
twin in me is happy that everyone is spending time off and enjoying themselves but
the bad one is very jealous and making the “hmph” face in complete jealously
that I am missing out on all the fun!
Here’s the thing. The first week of
May, my family flew (my first time EVER flying) to Florida and spent a week in
Cocoa Beach (our first ever Florida beach vacay) and we had the most amazing
time! It was magnificent! But that was almost three months ago! And while I’m
sure everyone wanted to kill me while they were at work on a Monday in May and
I was posting Instagram pics of the sunrise over the Atlantic...
Well…that was
different. Ok, not really. It was the same. Probably worse. That still doesn’t
make my FOMO any better this week, however.
My husband has a week’s vacation next
week. We blew our summer vacation funds (and then some) on our amazing May
Florida vacay, so it’s not in the budget to jet off to the Caribbean
next week. It’s not even in the budget to jet off to Lake Moomaw next weekend.
I thought I would be happy just relaxing at home and catching up on some
projects (I love projects!) but that is no longer doing it for me. I want to be
adventurous! So I had an idea.
I made an itinerary for next week. We’re
going to be world travelers after all! That’s right. We are going to travel the
world!
We start Sunday afternoon in Manhattan
at the Tribeca Film Festival. We will feast on NY style pizza and NY style
cheesecake and then we are off to the Film Festival (Hull’s Drive In for a
double feature of Minions and Max.)
Monday’s forecast (so far) seems to
be threatening thunderstorms, so we will
be heading to Seattle to enjoy morning coffee and then jetting off to Hawaii in
the evening (an evening of Hawaii Five-0 reruns, Teriyaki shrimp and rice and
Hawaiian shaved ice.)
Off to the Caribbean
for a day of sunshine and surf on Tuesday (Douthat State Park.) We may even get wild and
crazy and rent a paddle boat. We will wrap up things back home with Caribbean
Jerk chicken skewers and Bahama Mamas by the firepit.
Wednesday we are heading to New
England to watch our beloved Red Sox at Fenway Park (Salem Red Sox.) We’ll
swing by our favorite local restaurant (Red Lobster) for some New England Clam
chowder first.
We’re breaking out our
passports Thursday and heading across the Atlantic to Italy. The kids are going with
Papaw to Cucci’s for lunch and fun and the mom and the dad are going to Roanoke
for a movie and an Olive Garden lunch. We’ll be sure to swing by the Wallyworld on
the way home to pick up some creamy gelato for dessert! Ciao!
Friday we will stay put in the 24426
and catch up on things before pulling out the passports once again to jet off
to take in all the splendor of the Eiffel Tower!
That’s right! Paris!
(King’s Dominion style!)
Not everybody has the means to jet
off to all the exotic places they would like to go, but everybody has an
imagination!
Hopefully this will inspire you to use yours and have an exciting
vacation even when the budget won’t allow for the “real deal!”
Arrivederci!
-Lightningbug
