Back from Vacation

So, we’re back from vacation – the “adults only” version of vacation which meant that it couldn’t last more than three nights, since we’ve never both been away from Zane at the same time – and it was delightful. Truly, truly delightful. Who knew that one could have so much fun with your loving partner after 11 years together? (I guess, I kind of suspected since this vacation was my idea, but, really, it was even better than I could have imagined).

We hiked. We shopped. We bought shoes. We enjoyed the beach. We ate out. We slept in. It was nirvana.

And since it’s not really all that much fun to read about what a good time someone else had, I thought I’d just share some of our pictures and the lessons I learned from the trip.

Lesson #1 – It will be way harder for you to leave your kid than it is on your kid to be left.
Absolutely. When we left for our trip, Zane didn’t even bat an eye – actually, he would barely look at us. We thought that this was because he didn’t really understand that we were leaving him for 3 nights. Not so much. Apparently, he has known that we are holding him back for a while now. He was willing to speak with us sporadically on the phone but only to report the fun things that he and Mimma were doing. He was reasonably glad to see us – until he figured out that it meant that his days of chugging soda and getting ferried to every kids’ attraction in town was over. I’m sure, right now, he’s thinking wistfully of the weekend we were away.

Lesson #2 – If you tell your mother that her only job is to keep the kid alive and not to worry about keeping your house clean, she will listen.
Yep, came home to a trashed house and a sugared-up kid. But he was alive and had a fabulous weekend without us, so I guess I should just shut up.

Lesson #3 – I will never get over my instinctual, irrational fear of snakes.


A wee garter snake crossed out path while we were hiking, and even though I wanted to be cool with it, I wasn’t. I completely wasn’t. I do understand that a 12 inch snake whose mouth doesn’t open wide enough to eat my big toe cannot really cause me too much harm, but I was jumpy for the rest of the hike. And another wildlife lesson…

Lesson #4 – Always hike with someone who is smaller than you.
I typically choose Zane as my requisite small person, but as he was not available, I filled the bill for this particular walk. I swear I heard the following conversation between two cougars who were watching us in the hills:

Cougar 1: Hey, there are two hapless, weary hikers. Let’s grab a bite to eat.

Cougar 2: Sounds good. Let’s go after the big burly one.

Cougar 1: What? Are you nuts? A smart cat doesn’t go after the big ones - especially when there’s a little one who’s clearly unsure of her surroundings available.

Cougar 2: Yeah, you’re right. Dark meat is more tender, anyway.

(Okay, so I didn’t actually hear the cougars have that conversation. And, well, I didn’t actually see any cougars. But there were “Beware of Cougar” signs posted in the park, so I’m sure that something similar occurred just out of earshot).

Lesson #5 – Walks along the beach at sunset are very romantic, but only when you are walking away from the sun.


Yep, the return trip to your car is not so much romantic as squint-filled. And you may have trouble avoiding that dead fish that is in your path since you are concentrating so hard on not being blinded. Oh, and beaches have many bugs that come out to munch on you when the sun goes down. But the first part of the walk was very romantic.

Lesson #6 – If you are feeling depleted, worn out, and a bit “blah”, then a trip with your partner is the bee’s knees.
It was really fabulous. SRH and I haven’t had that kind of uninterrupted alone time since Zane was born. It was fun. It was romantic. It was the best time I’ve had in a long time.

And I’ll leave you with the epitome of cheesy vacation pictures – a picture that SRH and I took of ourselves on one of our hikes.