3 Reasons You Need More Than a Vacation

First

We all have a yearning, whether active or dormant, to see new places. This desire to go has been encouraged through media outlets such as National Geographic magazines, Discovery Channel shows, travel-focused documentaries, and most seemingly, images that fantasize of far-away places. In addition to house-fed media, the desire to go can be genetic. I can draw the direct line of my love for discovery from myself, back to my Mama and Yaya–three generations of women on a mission to make the most out of the years on earth. 

Mama has always liked to be busy. My childhood looked a little like this:

-Cereal that didn’t have a chance to get soggy in the morning because we were off to a field trip or sporting event

-Picking up half the soccer team on the way to a game, not because their parents couldn’t tote them there, but because everyone wanted to ride in the Mitchell car. Mama made even the slightest road trip into an adventure. From the snack ‘bucket’ in the back seat, the ‘cool’ music on the radio, the windows rolled down, we arrived at tournaments feeling that we’d already won the game

-The kitchen not always being clean because she would rather spend time with us in the living room than scrubbing at the sink. 

-A weekend trip that felt like a week. She’s always said, “be gone for just enough to leave you wanting a little more.” This is a notion I have carried through my life and kept in mind with all the trips I’ve planned. 

Lessons in summary: 

• Crunchy cereal is supreme
• Celebrations are meant for everyday
• Kitchens are meant to be lived in
• Leave a trip wanting a little more–this keeps the excitement alive 

Yaya, otherwise known on my Instagram stories as “Queen Bee” has helped root me in an endless love for travel. In my growing up years, Daddy’s job required him to be gone about two weeks every summer and Yaya would plan a trip for the four of us (Banks (brother, 18), Cage (brother, 20), Mama, and Me) during this time. To name a few: the Outerbanks, ___ , and ___. 

In middle school, I traveled with Yaya and Mama to a spa in Extapan, Mexico, and then to Big Sky, Montana for a family wedding. Then in high school, she took me on my first trip out west to attend a family reunion and trek through five states in five days. We rode horses in Monument Valley, watched the sunrise while driving through Utah, and ate the best breakfast burrito at a roadside stop in Kansas. 

We are three generations of women staying curious about the world and working to build timeless confidence about our approach to life. 

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Second

• There is a thick line between “traveling” and “vacationing.” 
• Travel is waking up in the backseat of a rental car because you’ve driven all night. 
• Vacation is a pina colada on a white sand beach. 
• Travel is a baguette and wine for breakfast on a Parisian street. 
• Vacation is a set of fresh sheets every day and limitless warm water showers. 
• Travel is a missed flight and night spent sleeping on an airport bench.
• Vacation is a day with nothing on the itinerary except a massage.
• Travel is logging many miles on the Apple Watch and eating at the local lunch spot. 

There is a time and place for both traveling and vacationing. 

Snow-colored sand beach with a menu of endless tropical drinks, all-you-can-eat meals, and a relaxing itinerary sounds nice but travel gives feet to the restless wanderer and gives an unexpected answer to: what is on the other side of the mountain, ocean, or globe?  

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Third

Before deciding what kind of trip you want to take, some beneficial questions to ask: 

• What is important to me regarding this trip?
  • Allie’s answer: Creating memories over good food and wine, meeting new friends, and taking photographs to one day revisit memories.
• How long do I want to be away from home base?
  • Allie’s answer: Unless I am traveling across the atlantic, three nights is my magic number to be away from home. I love a long weekend.
• Would I rather stay in one place for a longer amount of time or move to new locations more quickly?
  • Allie’s answer: If I am planning to be away from home for longer than three nights, I like to move locations. For example, when I was in Europe, Cage and I visited five countries in 17 days. Needless to say–lots of moving around.
• Am I seeking relaxation or less predictable adventure?
  • Allie’s answer: I choose travel 85% of the time. I like to leave room for the variables that I don’t plan.
• Am I comfortable letting go and rolling with ameba-style travel or do I need a plan less likely to shift? 
  • Allie’s answer: I am! Even as a solo female traveler, I have found that by doing the majority of planning before leaving for the trip, I can then depard knowing that plans will change and that I am adaptable.

Travel will provide the unexpected, overwhelming, priceless, and memory-building moments that will be talked about for years. Travel stories give life to dinner table conversations. Trips provide new perspectives that one cannot anticipate. Travel has a way of teaching us lessons and fast-tracking learning. 

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So, summing it up

• Introducing the pull to go, go, go
• The differences between travel and vacationing
• Five questions to ask to reach the trip you’ve been craving

The see-saw of life on the road and life back at home can feel unmanageable. I get it. But, through asking the right questions and staying curious, making travel a priority can prove to be an equalizer.

xxx Allie