I have always loved to travel. From camping to Europe, I love to get away. I even liked to pack. It was the anticipation that I enjoyed.
Since having a child, however, I have come to dread vacations a little. I still love to get away, but the packing for the whole family, including gear, toys, books, diapers, milk, snacks, etc. is such a pain! There's the looming knowledge of coming home to stacks of mail, piles of laundry to mar the last day as well. Ray is helpful in many things, but packing is not one of them. I spend a week shopping, making sure clothes are clean, getting things together...and he makes a pile of clothes 30 minutes before we leave.
Traveling with young children adds the complication of sleep arrangements. B sleeps in a pack and play, and is pretty good at going down by himself, but not when we are in the room. So for a few hours in the afternoon and after 8 pm we are sort of stuck. On our last trip one of us sat on the desk chair in the hall outside of the room while the other fled to the lobby.
This past weekend we headed to the Hershey Lodge for 4 days where Ray was attending a conference. Despite my urge to strangle him, we got everything packed and headed out ahead of schedule. His conference started at noon, although check-in wasn't until 4. So B and I perused the outlets for a while on a 20-minute car nap and waited for a call about early check-in. By 3:30 we were back at the hotel requesting again. Now they managed to put us in a tiny room on a narrow hall at the back of the property. I wanted to cry. What I did instead was crab at Ray until he called to ask if we could get into a room with an exterior door. They were able to switch us, but it would now be 5:30 until we could get into the room. So we went back to the lobby and chased the York Peppermint Pattie and the Kit-Kat around for awhile. We had snacks. We terrorized the other guests, but at least a few of them were in the same situation.
We finally got into a new room, and it was great. Centrally located, bigger, and with an external door with two chairs outside. It was 95 degrees, but still better than sitting on the floor in the hall. B never slept anymore that day, but did remarkably well, except for a struggle to fall asleep at bedtime. He did repeatedly unplug the alarm clock, try to talk on the phone, and switch the wall unit from AC to heat, but we all survived, and even enjoyed ourselves.
We learned some lessons too...arrive a day early, and be sure to request one of those rooms in the future. And for now, I'm looking forward to the next trip, at least until it's time to pack!
