Travel Link Up: My Favorite Vacations

Hello hello! How was your weekend? It was oddly cool here for a while, but that didn’t put a damper on our happy weekend reuniting with Jamie and watching Hadley dance in her first recital. Excited to share a few pictures tomorrow. 🙂

Today I’m linking up with Momfessional‘s “Show and Tell Series” (a day early) for her travel edition. The prompt asks bloggers to share all about favorite vacations, and I thought this one was a fun one to play along with!

I started quickly jotting down my favorite trips off the top of my head and decided to split them up into four categories: trips with Jamie, trips with kids, trips growing up, and trips with friends.

With Jamie

Germany – In September 2011, Jamie had a quarter-sized cyst on the back of his neck while he was in Afghanistan, and the doctor feared it might be cancerous. They scheduled surgery for seven days later in Germany at Landstuhl Hospital. I was in the middle of my contract working for Rachel’s Challenge, but they graciously gave me some time off to meet Jamie in Germany for his surgery. We were still newlyweds and hadn’t seen each other in six months, so there was nothing that would keep me from seeing him if given the opportunity. I flew over there and spent 10 days with him around the Ramstein/Landstuhl area. His cyst was just that, and we were able to do about a week of sight-seeing while his wound healed and we went back to our separate continents for a few more months. It was truly a trip to remember, and we still recall that trip with the biggest smiles and happiest memories. A scary situation turned into a huge blessing! We cannot wait to visit Germany again one day (hopefully sometime next year while my sister is stationed there).

Costa Rica – We scheduled our belated honeymoon for after Jamie’s first deployment, and we went to a boutique resort called Los Altos de Eros near Tamarindo in June 2012. The resort was listed in TripAdvisor’s “Best of 2011” list, and that’s how we found it. I could talk forever about that trip. It was the only vacation I actually teared up leaving because it was such a wonderful trip and I was so sad to leave paradise. We dream of visiting this place again, but next time with five other couples so that we can rent out the whole property. Ahhh. Here’s more about .

New York City – During Jamie’s time at West Point and I was at The University of Alabama, we met in New York City for the weekend a handful of times. NYC has always been one of my favorite cities to visit with very few things scheduled. We loved just putting on tennis shoes and walking all day exploring. We always had the best time simply running around. We saw a comedy show once and did a lunch cruise another time, but usually we just explored.

With kids

Disney World – You guys know that this trip back in March was four of the best days of my whole life. So worth every stinkin’ dollar. There were several conversations where we thought about how we could really use that money for a home improvement or to boost savings or whatever, but we ultimately knew those four days away was a total investment in other ways. Super glad we put a checkmark in that box.

San Diego – This trip holds special memories for us simply because it was our first true family vacation as parents. We stayed in Coronado at the most wonderful hotel across from The Del that we found on Trip Advisor, and we ran around to La Jolla, Sea World, and even did a champagne lunch cruise. Here’s more you can read about our hotel we loved so much, , in Coronado.

Destin & the Florida panhandle – We’ve taken Hadley to the Florida panhandle three different times, and seeing her play at the beach has been such a blast every time. We took her to Panama City with my family when she was 18 months, Destin to visit my sister when she had just turned two, and then back to Destin again shortly before she turned three (and Sadie was four months). I would probably never plan a beach trip with small kids during the middle of summer when it’s brutally hot, but the off season has been glorious!

Growing up

We drove up to Pennsylvania and New York a lot growing up to see our relatives, and I have nothing but great memories spending so much time with family. One time my parents heard that my aunt in Pennsylvania was going to get a huge snowstorm, so my dad decided to take the week off of work, get everybody packed up, and my whole family got up to Pennsylvania as fast as we could so that we southern kiddos could experience that kind of magic. My parents even grabbed a couple of my cousins to come along too so that they could share in the fun. I totally get my spontaneity from my dad! He used to go to great lengths to put a big box TV in the van for us to watch VHS tapes. Some of my other favorite family vacations were on a cruise to the Bahamas (I remember this being a big deal), to my grandparent’s timeshare in Orlando, and on a long-weekend trip to Memphis to stay at the Peabody Hotel.

With friends

Asheville, North Carolina – A couple years ago my two best friends and I all needed a getaway for different reasons, so we picked Asheville since none of us had been there. We stayed at the cutest B&B and had the best three days. I can’t wait to visit with Jamie one day. We stayed at this adorable bed & breakfast called .

New Years Eve in Times Square – During my sophomore year of college, three of my college friends and I drove up to NYC during Christmas break so that we could ring in 2008 in the middle of Times Square. It was the craziest, most exhilarating, sheer exhausting experience. I always tell people that I’m so glad we did it but once was enough. Never again. Ha!

Spring Break beach trips – In high school and college we usually went to Gulf Shores or Destin. I’ll be headed there again in a few weeks with some friends for my friend Ashley’s bachelorette party and seriously cannot wait to lay on the beach with some of my favorite girls!

Let’s chat!

Have you been to any of these places? What are some of your favorite vacation spots?