Letting Go

Jason and I are hightailing it out of here for a few days of rest and relaxation with family and friends in South Carolina. I am looking forward to this trip for many reasons, not the least of which is because I don’t have to do anything to plan for it. Ok, so I did most of the travel planning—i.e. researching airfares and rental cars. But other than that I am just along for the ride. This is a big change of pace for me when it comes to taking trips.

Hi, my name is Lindsay and I am planner. While this is true in my day-to-day life (which I am sure Jason would be more than happy to attest to) it is even more evident when it comes to traveling.

I am a pretty Type A person. I like itineraries and agendas. I like to know where I am going and what I am going to do when I get there. I also enjoy doing new things and seeing new places and when I am there, I want to make the most of it.

Part of my guidebook collection

The first thing I usually do once a trip has been confirmed is to buy a guidebook (or two or three) and figure out where I want to go and what I want to do there.  Lately it has gotten to the point where I color code particular activities with these handy-dandy post it flags. (While seemingly anal retentive, it actually makes for easy reference when you are out and about and need restaurant ideas in a certain neighborhood on the fly.)

Jason is not much of a planner. I think he would be happy to just fire up the netbook and figure out where to go and what to do once we got there. But, to me, that is just wasting precious time in a place you may never visit again! I can understand where he is coming from though, planning every minute of your trip can eliminate a certain level of spontaneity. And I also have a tendency to over schedule. On our honeymoon, for example, we spent more time on the go visiting every corner of Kauai then we did sitting on a beach (tropical drink in hand) and enjoying our first few days of wedded bliss. But at least we saw every inch of the place!

You can see the color coded flags...blue was water-based activities, orange was restaurants, etc.

While I enjoy planning trips and the satisfaction it brings when I check all those places off my internal list of things to see/do, it can be exhausting.  So it is really nice when you can kick back and let someone else take the wheel.  Which is why I look forward to our annual SC trip. It is familiar. It is comforting.  And it really allows me to let go and enjoy the ride.