As we prepare to head out on another trip in a few days, I’ve come up with some things that I’ve decided to give up while on vacation.  I’m sharing in case you too would like to adopt similar ideas on your upcoming trips . . .

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Social media – On a trip to Yellowstone last year (read all about it here), I gave up checking my work email for the week (which I can do by a separate app on my phone).  I turned off my work email notifications and never opened the app all week.  It was very difficult for me.  All of the working years prior to that where iphones and work email apps existed, I could always build a strong case for why I “needed” to check it.  It changed my life in a good way to let it go for a week, so I’ve decided to bump it up a notch on my next trip and give up social media too.  I do run an online magazine for women, Little Red Bird Press, so there are posts that need to go up that week – but, thankfully, those can all be pre-scheduled.  When I think about it, would I rather chat with Chris and take in all the stuff happening around us on vacation, or watch someone else’s instastory where they get cut off every 15 seconds, spend the next 7 seconds repeating what got cut off in their last video, and then in the end they are just saying the same things I heard them say the day before? (Don’t get me started on why people do 25+ instastories in a row that are 15 seconds long rather than one live video — I’ll never understand it).

Saying that I’m starting a diet when I get back – Every time I’m on vacation I find myself saying how I am going to start some diet or rigorous eating plan when I get back.  I guess it’s a way to comfort myself when my shorts are tighter than I remembered from previous years, and when I order desserts after dinner or eat less than a healthy breakfast every day on the trip.  I’m done with that.  I’ve been eating good 75% of the time the past couple months and I’ve been working out at least four days a week.  No one cares about the fake diet I am or am not going to start when I get back.

Shorts that don’t fit – I don’t like wearing shorts.  If they fit, then what shoes are good to wear with shorts that you can walk long distances in?  And even if you decide to just wear tennis shoes with your shorts, then you feel under-dressed when you go to a nice restaurant for dinner.  Or, and more importantly, and I don’t know why women everywhere aren’t talking about it, I don’t like going to a restaurant, movie, public transportation, wherever, and having the back of my thighs on the cold seat.  And never mind that the seat is cold, why are my bare thighs on the seat in the first place?!  How many other people’s bare thighs have been on that same seat?  Gross!  So, I’m going with t-shirt dresses with casual tennis shoes, cotton skirts, or capris.  Bye, bye, shorts.

Overpacking make-up – I don’t really wear that much make-up to begin with, really.  I mean, I have a make-up routine, but nothing in comparison to some of these twenty-somethings who are doing make-up tutorials on YouTube.  My routine consists of bare minerals (requires 1 brush), blush (requires another brush), bare minerals veil stuff (requires another brush), eye shadow, eye liner, two different mascaras, and lipstick.  I’ve decided to ditch the mineral veil stuff and veil brush and one of the mascaras.  I’ll still have enough make-up that I won’t wish I would’ve brought more, but I don’t need to go the whole nine yards.

Buying water – Chris always takes a Nalgene on trips and I’m always the “I’ll just buy water at the gift shop” type.  I think the airport, at least in Columbus, installed better water filter machine thingys so it doesn’t feel as gross to fill up a water bottle now.  So, I may save myself the money and grief and do this trip Chris Hocker style.

Skipping plans when I’m tired – I go to bed at 10:00 p.m. and am asleep by 10:02 p.m.  It’s a healthy habit.  I’ve always been the type to get tired early — I like to say it’s because I get a lot done in a day, not because I’m lazy.  I was the first girl asleep at slumber parties when I was younger (but often going to a friends house after a four-hour gymnastics practice which will make any girl tired).  But, when we’re on vacation, if we see an event that is kind of cool and doesn’t start until 8 p.m., or God-forbid, 9 p.m., it’s likely I’ll say, “eh, we don’t have to go to that, that starts so late.”  When we went to Portland a couple years ago (also known as the best trip we’ve ever been on), I was really tired after a day of hiking but I had been wanting to go to “The Moth.”  Thankfully, Chris said we should go even though we were exhausted – and while we didn’t get seats and had to stand on a concrete floor for hours, it was the best night of the trip!  I am so glad I didn’t choose the tired route that night.

Feeling like I need to wear my hair down – I’m not a fan of heat, and we’re getting ready to go on vacation in July.  I also think there’s an unspoken thing going on in the world where many of us (women) feel like we need to have our hair down “just in case someone takes a pic.”  Well, I’m blessed with hair that is halfway down my back, and to be honest, on vacation, I just want to put it in a top bun.  And if that’s what I look like in a photo – well, that’s what I look like in real life.  There’s always lipstick to offset the look, I guess.  Plus, who wants to spend the time straightening their hair on vacation when they could be out eating pastries and drinking coffee at cool places?!

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Here’s to a hot one in New Orleans . . . you can find me in a t-shirt dress with my hair up!