We finally got our spring schedules about a week ago, and I found out that I got my vacation request for a week off at the end of March, to match up with Joe's vacation. This will be the first vacation week that we've had off together since Cal was born (though I don't know if I would rightly count my first post-partum week of medical leave as "vacation") so we've decided that we're going to take a our first big family trip and get the hell out of Dodge. We just have to figure out where we want to go.
Here's a quick list of the things we're looking for in a vacation spot:
- Warm. Because New York in the winter is...not warm. And we want to get away from it all, like in those commercials showing some lady running down the beach holding a gauzy scarf waving in the wind behind her, all carefree. Why are you carrying a scarf on the beach, lady? Also, I think Cal might enjoy the beach, with the appropriate hat and SPF 900 sunblock.
- Not too far away. We took Cal down to Baltimore in the car to visit family a couple of weeks ago, and he did fine on that four-hour trip, sleeping most of the way. But I don't think that, with his first air travel experience, we should push it. Maybe a three-hour-ish flight would be good, factoring in the boarding time and the inevitable delays. He's good, but put me on a 12-hour flight to Hawaii and even I start crying. (I mean, until I get there.)
- Family-friendly. This is why Cancun during the height of Spring Break is probably out. Too many inebriated college students hanging out of the windows naked screaming"Class of 2006! Woo!" before pushing a flaming mattress into the pool.
- No cruises. I hate cruises.
- Cheap is a plus. Because of the monies, or lack thereof.
So one obvious location from the above criteria is Florida. Cal actually does have a passport (we got one for him a few months ago), but domestic flights would surely be cheaper. That said, I don't know anywhere to go in Florida, aside from Disney World, which is just a total rip-off, and besides, Cal's too young to understand the whole amusement park thing. (He's also too young to understand the whole concept of unwrapping presents, which is why I didn't wrap any of his toys up for Christmas. What's the point, wrapping it up just so I could unwrap them myself hours later?) Where do people go in Florida? Miami? Tampa? Ft. Lauderdale? Why do these all sound like places where people's grandparents live? Grandparents with a bowlful of dusty ribbon candy.
Bermuda is a nice place to go, and only about a two hour flight away, but I just think it's not going to be warm enough in March to go swimming. The Bahamas is further south, and I think it's cheaper to stay there too (Bermuda has gotten all blue-blooded and pricey in the past decade--damn you, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones!) but I don't know how much the flights and hotel cost. Puerto Rico might be a nice option, but that's ever farther than the Bahamas, and I don't really know anything about Puerto Rico outside of what I learned from the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade here in the city (which mainly means that I can identify the Puerto Rican flag, in flag, T-shirt or beaded necklace form).
Or are all these vacation spots just way too obvious? Or should we go somewhere else cool and different, like Arizona or Oregon or Portugal or someplace like that? Keeping in mind that those locales violate one if not all of our stipulations for vacations spots? Because of their farness and coldness and expensiveness? What to do? Where should we go?
Back to obsessively checking the Travelocity site for good deals.
Currently reading: This article in the Times, which is vindicating our choice to let Cal sleep in our bed with us, at least for now. But seriously, how else am I supposed to ever see him, or get any sleep myself? Nice to see that we're not the only ones who feel this way, and that this doesn't make us crazy hippy long-hairs. Or, you know, Michael Jackson.
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