Travel

Why Do We Need a Vacation Before the Vacation?

Have you ever noticed how exhausting & stressful preparing for a vacation can be?

Author generated photo using AI (because I liked the pun of packing is a bear and we hope to see bear)

I am incredibly excited about my upcoming luxury cruise through Alaska’s Inside Passage aboard the Silver Moon with Tauck. I’ll be traveling with my mom, who just turned ninety, and my daughter. Three generations sharing an adventure- that alone makes this trip incredibly special.

But I have to admit…somewhere between the shopping, the laundry, the packing, and getting the house ready, I found myself completely exhausted.

I am leaving Arizona, where it has been a blistering 116 degrees, and flying to Vancouver for two days, where the temperatures should be in the mid-seventies, a gentle introduction to cooler weather, I suppose. Then we board the ship, where the forecast calls for temperatures in the sixties along with plenty of rain and wind.

Anyone who knows me knows one thing:

I do not enjoy being cold.

So, I decided that preparation was the answer. I bought a Gore-Tex rain jacket, Gore-Tex shoes (I didn’t even know there was such a thing), rain pants, and packed more layers than I ever thought one person could need. Every travel forum seemed to have the same…