Girls Getaway Weekend
Sep. 27th, 2015 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alikiBack in August 2008, I was still living that married but childfree couple life, and on a whim, my sister and I decided to go for a 4-day getaway to Connecticut. We packed some clothes and swimsuits, hopped in my car, and I drove the two hours north to Branford, CT. We kayaked around islands, lay on the beach and worked on our tans, we pulled out a map and drove to all the nearest parks and hiked for hours through the woods until we were sweaty and bruised and covered in dirt, and we ate icecream for lunch (and dinner), went shopping at outlet stores, and stayed up late watching TV and eating popcorn in bed and laughing about life. I remember those 4 days being just so blissfully happy, in the way that two people who have known each other for 28 years can be together. I realized that it had been far too long-- since I was 22 years old and we were both attending the same college-- that we had spent some considerable amount of time together, and I missed her.
Since then, with kids in tow, there have been two separate times when my sister and I are both in Malaysia for the summer for overlapping vacations for two weeks or so. But I don't think of my time in Malaysia as a vacation. Do you consider returning to your parents' home a vacation? I just think of it as going home.
So earlier this year, I said to my sister: "do you remember that vacation we did to Connecticut? Remember what fun we had? Why haven't we done that again?" and my sister pointedly but silently looked at my two children. *sigh* But I was determined! So I looked at my school calendar and there was a 3-day weekend in mid-September for Rosh Hashanah, so we booked a last minute vacation at Wildwood, NJ, about two hours south of where we live.
We packed some clothes and swimsuits, hopped in my car, and I drove the two hours south to Wildwood, NJ. This time, we brought someone with us-- 5-year old Erika! She was so excited she could barely sleep the night before. We kissed Amelia and Brian goodbye, and off we went for our girls getaway weekend. We went to the zoo, and the nature center, and we built sandcastles on the beach. We hiked some nature trails at Cape May Point State Park until we were sweaty and tired and covered in sand. We went window shopping in Stone Harbor. We ate icecream after dinner and went to the boardwalk and rode the carousel (merry-go-round), and a huge ferris wheel in the wind which gave me knots in my tummy but I was with my girl Erika who laughed and laughed with the wind in her hair and she kept saying "Mommy, look how beautiful the world looks!" as we looked down at the Atlantic Ocean and the beach, and heard the sounds of happy children on roller coasters. I realized waiting 7 years to do this again was far too long.
Since then, with kids in tow, there have been two separate times when my sister and I are both in Malaysia for the summer for overlapping vacations for two weeks or so. But I don't think of my time in Malaysia as a vacation. Do you consider returning to your parents' home a vacation? I just think of it as going home.
So earlier this year, I said to my sister: "do you remember that vacation we did to Connecticut? Remember what fun we had? Why haven't we done that again?" and my sister pointedly but silently looked at my two children. *sigh* But I was determined! So I looked at my school calendar and there was a 3-day weekend in mid-September for Rosh Hashanah, so we booked a last minute vacation at Wildwood, NJ, about two hours south of where we live.
We packed some clothes and swimsuits, hopped in my car, and I drove the two hours south to Wildwood, NJ. This time, we brought someone with us-- 5-year old Erika! She was so excited she could barely sleep the night before. We kissed Amelia and Brian goodbye, and off we went for our girls getaway weekend. We went to the zoo, and the nature center, and we built sandcastles on the beach. We hiked some nature trails at Cape May Point State Park until we were sweaty and tired and covered in sand. We went window shopping in Stone Harbor. We ate icecream after dinner and went to the boardwalk and rode the carousel (merry-go-round), and a huge ferris wheel in the wind which gave me knots in my tummy but I was with my girl Erika who laughed and laughed with the wind in her hair and she kept saying "Mommy, look how beautiful the world looks!" as we looked down at the Atlantic Ocean and the beach, and heard the sounds of happy children on roller coasters. I realized waiting 7 years to do this again was far too long.
