A Repeat of a Perfect Vacation Week

Careful readers may have noticed a change in my blog in the past 10 days.  I have been away.  Often when I'm away, I blog as usual, but that's when my spouse is at home.  When we're both away, I try to be careful on social media.  

I do realize that my attempt to be cautious is perhaps laughable.  I doubt that burglars are monitoring my Facebook account and saying, "Now is the time to break in!"  No, anyone paying attention to the house day after day will realize we're away.  But still, it's wise to be cautious.

We had such a good time during our low-key, Hilton Head vacation in September that we decided to try for a repeat in May.  And we were succesful!

In September, my spouse and I drove up from Florida, and my mom and dad drove down from Virginia.  We only went out to do some grocery shopping, some walking on the beach, and exploring an outdoor park where there was a farmer's market of sorts.  We are lucky in that we all like to cook and eat the same type of food and that our idea of relaxing involves books, not outings.

This time was similar, even though we're all fully vaccinated.  We didn't go out to eat, and we didn't do much exploring of the island.  My mom is great at finding deals, so we were in the same beautiful Marriott resort.  That resort has done a great job of keeping chairs around the pool distanced, and we were at a quiet pool.

This vacation was different too, in that my sister joined us.  On Friday night, she flew into the Savannah airport, and we picked her up on our way north.  There were many places that plan could go wrong, but we had back up plans--and we didn't need them!  It couldn't have been more perfect.  We parked at the airport, waited for 10 minutes, and then her plane arrived early.  Hurrah!

In September, I had decided that I wouldn't be visiting any other friends, so that the potential for disease exposure stayed low.  This year, I made the same decision, in part because of disease exposure (my sister has only had the first vaccine dose), but in part because I didn't want to do the additional driving, the additional planning.  Hopefully I will have other travels where I can see friends.  I decided to keep the focus on my family this time.

In the upcoming days, I will likely do some additional writing about the trip we just took.  But now I need to go to an annual doctor appointment, one that was put off last year.  Another difference between now and September--I have 2 days off, today and tomorrow.  Our school's new owners celebrate the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and so, I am off.

I've always wanted to have time off at the end of vacation to have an easier re-entry.  This time is the first time I've been able to do that.