Sicily
I feel lucky every time I get to be in a new country. We are now on day 5 or 6 (I’ve lost count) of our family holiday in Sicily.
Back when I was 21 I was taking a gap year from college and my boyfriend, now husband, was a Lieutenant flying Black Hawks for the US army. We used virtually every penny we had on travel. We were very fortunate that we lived in Seoul, so a long holiday weekend or a week long trip could land us someplace far flung and fabulous like Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, even Myanmar.
After returning to the USA and landing in NYC, we still didn’t have major funds as we were in grad school, but traveling anywhere for a long weekend wasn’t as exciting. Not only did it cost more than traveling in Asia, it also landed you somewhere not quite as exotic as Indonesia or Tibet…(nothing against upstate NY or the Hamptons).
So now we are older and have more discretionary income, but we have two young kids, a 6 year old and a 3 year old. The way I look at it is — with young kids — we pick destinations that cause the least amount of pain for the most amount of joy. So things like traveling far, but not too far, if it’s only 3 days and not a week or more, all enter into the calculus of relocation vacation. We tend to select easy countryside trips rather than culturally interesting, busy city trips.
Every summer for the past 3 summers we’ve been taking trips to various Italian islands. First it was Pantelleria, then Sardinia, and this year Sicily. I have to say I had lower expectations for Sicily, but I am so pleasantly surprised by how wonderful it has been. Mind you, we are skipping Taormina, of White Lotus fame, and staying in beautiful more rustic small towns. What we’ve learned is that despite plans, much of travel ends up being happenstance ie are the accommodations as wonderful as the online photos depicted, did any flights get delayed, is anyone getting sick on the trip etc. The day after I wrote this draft our rental car died hahaha. You gotta just remember how lucky it is to have a broken down car in a beautiful place where you’re happy, together, and with cell service!
After the paywall: an adventure which went awry, what I’m reading / wanting to watch, and things that I have packed for several warm weather vacations without fail.
Momspiration
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