Whining, Wine-ing & Winning

Road Trippin’ — Vacation Edition

I pictured this trip a little differently in my head. You know…matching swimsuits, happy toddler, relaxing hotel vibes, maybe a poolside drink while my daughter slept after six hours in the car, but instead my two year old discovered she LOVES road trips and stayed awake for the entire first six hour stretch like I gave her half of my Starbucks.

Then came the hotel disaster.

The live roach.
The spiders in the pool.
The blood by the hot tub.
The internal debate of “Do I become THAT customer?” while trying not to throw up because I used to work at the bar there and stay there all the time. The staff knows me by name. I practically walked in and they toss me a room key like Norm from Cheers.

To their credit, they were sure to take care of me, and I’ll be back because it’s my favorite place to stay and now I’m in a hotel that sucks because it’s not my OG hotel. They just had a really bad day I guess.

Changing hotels sounds simple until you have…

A toddler.
Pool bags, more bags, the other bags.
Snacks and a cooler
Random chargers.
A pack and play.
Half your emotional stability.
And somehow you STILL lose the brand new swimsuit AND reusable swim diaper you bought specifically for the trip.

I have no idea where they went.
Probably living a better life than I am currently.

At one point today I left my kids with my mom at the hotel, drove to Walk-On’s by myself, sat down with a beer, and cried in the parking lot for five solid minutes while talking to my husband on the phone.

Poor man was just as confused as I was.

“What’s wrong?”
“I DON’T KNOW.”

I think sometimes moms spend so much time planning the trip, packing the trip, organizing the trip, keeping everyone alive during the trip, and making sure everyone else enjoys the trip…that the second something small goes wrong, your brain just taps out.

Meanwhile my daughter and son are thriving.
Living their best life.
Running on zero naps, chlorine, snacks, and pure vacation adrenaline. Now that I’m sitting here alone with a cold beer and no one asking me for fruit snacks for five minutes…I think I might survive this vacation after all. I’m not wine-ding down today, it’s a beer day. So beer-down with me and enjoy the rest of the show. More vaca stories coming soon.