It Can Freeze in Hawaii
In planning our trips, I do a lot of research that informs a trip-specific Excel spreadsheet outlining a bunch of possibilities by day (restaurants, activities complete with weblinks) as well as the more pedestrian logistic stuff like air, car, and hotel confirmation numbers and--if we're driving from city to city--travel times. Then I pass the spreadsheet on to Ned to narrow things down; then, usually over a meal when we're all together, we run possibilities by the kids. Sounds thrilling, doesn't it :) Well, the joke's on you--it actually is! To me, the planning process is like living the vacation in miniature--often over and over. And, as Ned knows too well, some of our trips never grow out of this imaginary state: I pick them up with great enthusiasm, research with intensity, and then just drop them cold for a million reasons from cost to timing to bad vibes. Or, in the case of a once planned and booked cruise to Cuba, I realize that this is NOT a trip our kid