Let's Get Away for a While

Maybe everyone is like this, but if we don't get out of town once every six weeks or so, I feel like I am dragging myself through routines.  I like routines; I like knowing what to expect.  Sometimes, though, we just need a road trip (a small one, even) and a change of scenery.

Chris had signed up for a race in the Outer Banks (about an hour from our house), but his knee has been bothering him.  His knee has been recovering (and this is a re-occurring issue for him), but he worried if he ran a long race, it might set him back and blow the rest of early spring running for him.  I told him not to worry about it, sit this race out, and let's just have fun.  Last Friday, we headed to the Outer Banks for one night in a hotel.

I went to the Outer Banks as a very young kid (like, two or three years old?), but we didn't vacation there regularly or anything.  It was Chris's family's favorite spot.  And I went on a few vacations with them when Chris and I were dating and newly married, so it is a special place for us in our "early years".  I feel funny saying that because Chris and I have only been together for nine years coming in June, so someday I know I will count our whole first decade together as our "early years".

Chris and me in the sound in 2008.  We had been married for a year.

This time, it was just us and our baby boy.  We played on the beach.  We climbed the dunes and slid down over and over at Jockey's Ridge.  We drove around and talked about our memories from our vacations with his family.  We relaxed in bed and ate carry-out dinner from the hotel's restaurant.  We got doughnuts in the morning.  And then we came home.

We weren't even gone for 24 hours, but it was a nice little trip to break up the routine.  We came home and Chris worked on the pool.  I cleaned.  We graded.  The next day, we did more grading and some yard work.  Back to the routine--but it is such a good routine.

Chris and I decided that about four times a year (or maybe once a season?), we will take a mini vacation.  It doesn't have to be far.  It can just be an hour away.  It doesn't have to be long, maybe just one or two nights.  Getting out of town, though, does our brains a lot of good.  I'm not sure where we'll go next, but we were thinking of perhaps going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg in the winter since they have an indoor water park.  Eliot will be almost three and Jack will be around six months old.  It sounds like a great time to splash in some water in the middle of the cold season.