Tomorrow I’m off to the Nassau in the Bahamas for a business meeting.  Yes, it really is for work and yes we really will have meetings, but we will also have free time!  Time to do whatever we want!  Very exciting!  For the first time in 11+ years I will be able to lay on the beach and just read a book and nap at will!  My kid-less friends do not understand the great appeal, but if you have kids then I’m sure you understand how exciting this is!  Yet, because of who I am, I am pretty sure I will be bored with the beach after a few hours.  I crave activity!  We are staying at a resort that offers all types of activities that are included.  I am most excited about snorkeling, the trapeze, and the opportunity to try wind surfing.  Luckily, I have a number of friends who agree with me and do not want to spend all day on the beach.  We’re ready for the resort activities!

Yet, resort activities is not all I want to do.  If you have read previous blogs of mine or my bio, you will understand.  I do not understand how people can go to a new location, wherever it is, and not dig deep to discover what the area is really like and what it has to offer.  You only truly discover an area when you go beyond the tourism and discover what life is really like for the locals.  What they eat, the beauty of the area, the unique and unusual, the good, bad, and even ugly!  This is my favorite part and goal whenever we travel.  This is the part that you will always remember and will change you in some way.  True to form, last night I did a ton of research and found a few great places to explore while on Nassau.  Now I just need to convince my friends!  My husband, rightly so, forbid me from exploring alone (don’t worry mom I really won’t go out alone!).

Hopefully I will  come home with some great adventure stories and memories!  But, right now is the most difficult part of the trip- preparing to leave the house for 5 days!  If you are a mother who has ever traveled you will understand.  I’m sure we all have husbands who help out a lot but it’s just not the same.  It’s all the little day to day aspects that occur in the household that they do not know about or even understand.  It’s exhausting and takes so much planning!  This time of year is even worse since it is the end of the school year and activities for us!  My kids have 3 different field trips next week alone!  So I am in the midst of organizing it all.

Grocery store to buy freezer to oven dinners and some veggies that have a pretty good chance of still being there when I come home – done.  Visit to the teachers to warn let them know I will be away just in case they observe odd things with the kids dress, lunch, hair, or homework- done.  Phone calls to friends and classmates moms to beg for help in hauling kids around to field trips and after school activities done.   Really really REALLY detailed list written so my husband knows the weeks schedule and who needs to be where when- done.  Five days worth of clothes laid out in order and labeled in each child’s room- done.  Three different invitations written and handed out for three different birthday parties that will occur the week after I get back- done.  Laundry- okay that’s ongoing, it always is!  House cleaned- never ending process but the major parts are done.  Kids prepped with list of chores and expectations- done.  Parents called with pleas to help out- done.

I’m pretty sure I am forgetting something but by this time tomorrow I will be in the Bahamas where I will not have use of my cell phone or be able to check emails ($1.99 per minute and no wireless = major withdraw for me!).  It will be too late and they will all have to fend for themselves which I know they can do.  I will just stop, breathe, and let it all go.  Then hit the beach, book in hand!