London's calling, but am I brave enough to answer?
I am taking Darling Daughter (17-year-old) to England in April for two weeks. It's kind of a mother-daughter/last hurrah/senior year trip (okay, the real reason is that England is waaaaay down on hubby's vacation hot spot list and DD and I are anglophiles who've been dying to visit). So it seemed like a good idea all around; it's an English-speaking country, therefore easier to navigate, I've been able to save money from my job to pay for it, the dollar is getting stronger compared to the pound, we'll finally get to indulge our fantasies and visit Pemberly, Netherfield Park, Rosings and the temple of Apollo where Darcy first proposed to Lizzie...
I'm learning a lot from this experience and we haven't even left. My husband is a travel fanatic and he always does the trip planning and arranging. Since I'm the homebody type, I don't mind letting him do it all. I think enthusiasm is needed to plan a really great vacation, and I don't get excited until I'm actually at our destination.
But I'm doing this all myself - planning the itinerary, researching destinations and accomodations, making reservations, budgetting and saving, car rental...the full monty (heh, heh). And this is a BIG DEAL.
Two summers ago I spent my first night in a hotel by myself when I attended a writing conference in the Bay Area. It felt so...empowering. How silly does that sound? But I've never had occasion to travel by myself before. Now that the girls are getting older I'm doing more of that - girl weekends, solo trips to the cabin. But anyway, this is something enirely different. I confessed to my husband that I woke up last night scared about the trip. Can I really do this? Can I alone handle the airport/intertnational travel stuff, pick up a car, DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD, tip the right amount, figure out petrol stations, convert pounds to dollars in my head, remember to say toilet instead of bathroom and find places to eat that serve something other than boiled meat and blood pudding?
I'm nervous, but I have a feeling that it will be another giant step of empowerment, a moment when I can say "Yes I can!", a self-realization that I don't need a man to make these decisions for me, a crucial trip that will bring my daughter and I closer before she flies the coop, an I-am-woman-hear-me-roar occasion...that is, if I can get past takeoff and the inevitable panic attack about our airplane crashing sans Sully to make sure we come out of it alive.
I'm learning a lot from this experience and we haven't even left. My husband is a travel fanatic and he always does the trip planning and arranging. Since I'm the homebody type, I don't mind letting him do it all. I think enthusiasm is needed to plan a really great vacation, and I don't get excited until I'm actually at our destination.
But I'm doing this all myself - planning the itinerary, researching destinations and accomodations, making reservations, budgetting and saving, car rental...the full monty (heh, heh). And this is a BIG DEAL.
Two summers ago I spent my first night in a hotel by myself when I attended a writing conference in the Bay Area. It felt so...empowering. How silly does that sound? But I've never had occasion to travel by myself before. Now that the girls are getting older I'm doing more of that - girl weekends, solo trips to the cabin. But anyway, this is something enirely different. I confessed to my husband that I woke up last night scared about the trip. Can I really do this? Can I alone handle the airport/intertnational travel stuff, pick up a car, DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD, tip the right amount, figure out petrol stations, convert pounds to dollars in my head, remember to say toilet instead of bathroom and find places to eat that serve something other than boiled meat and blood pudding?
I'm nervous, but I have a feeling that it will be another giant step of empowerment, a moment when I can say "Yes I can!", a self-realization that I don't need a man to make these decisions for me, a crucial trip that will bring my daughter and I closer before she flies the coop, an I-am-woman-hear-me-roar occasion...that is, if I can get past takeoff and the inevitable panic attack about our airplane crashing sans Sully to make sure we come out of it alive.