Vacation Unbinded

This week we are in Colorado for spring break. We have declared it, Vacation Unbinded. What makes this vacation different from the others? We have slowed down and have let go.

Let me explain.

Brandon and I both are very, very good at planning trips. We really enjoy choosing where we will go and then scouring the area for everything we should do while we are there. We ask our friends, we read travel blogs, we look for every article of “Things You Should Do In…” Once we gather all of our research, we plan our itineraries. When we travel, we usually know where we will go, what we will do, and where we will eat on every given day of our trip.

For the most part, this has served us well. But we realized, this abundance of planning came from a mindset of scarcity of time. We realized we were trying to squeeze in every possible thing we could in one week because it would be another 51 weeks before we would have the opportunity to travel again. With an entire year at stake, we felt every trip had to include anything and everything we could.

Now don’t get me wrong, we have taken some amazing trips and have done some amazing things, but, behind all of that, there was a lot of planning and worrying, and making sure we squeezed in as much fun as we possibly could. Squeezing in that much fun was sometimes, well, not so fun.

But this trip is different.

This trip is different because we have slowed everything down. We do not have an itinerary. We are not setting alarm clocks. We are not doing everything on the “Things To Do In…” list. In fact, we haven’t read any articles or checked any lists. What we are doing is playing cards, having dance parties, and putting together a puzzle. We are telling old stories and making up new ones. We are playing our favorite songs of our favorite playlists, we are visiting in the hot tub, and we are cooking meals together. We have slowed down our days and, in some ways, we have slowed down time. In the realm of kids growing up, this is a big deal.

This trip is different because we have let go. We have let go of planning “the perfect trip.” We have let go of making sure every minute is accounted for and, instead, letting every minute count. We have let go of planning fun things to do, and, instead, we are simply having fun.

This trip is different because it has not been 51 weeks since our last trip and it will not be 51 weeks until we travel again. In fact, we already have our next week-long trip planned for June and another one in July.

Over this past year, we have realized that when it comes to trips and travel, we always wanted things to go as perfectly as possible. We realize now it did not have anything to do with getting the most out of our travel days or even getting the most for our money. We realize it had everything to do with getting the most out of our time.

The truth is, we now travel more and plan less, and we are having more fun doing fewer things. The truth is, we have learned to slow down and to let go—we have learned to vacation unbinded.