Vacations are supposed to be relaxing and fun. Many of us plan them up to a year in advance and wait in anticipation for the day they finally come. Sometimes we can’t sleep before vacations because they are really just that exciting.

 But if you aren’t properly prepared for your long awaited trip, things can go terribly wrong. Take, for example, an experience I had just a little over 5 ½ years ago….

A few months after we got married my husband and I decided to plan a Hawaiian vacation. We never had much of a honeymoon and thought this would be the perfect getaway. The only island my husband had been to previously was Maui; I’d never been at all. After getting online and looking at prices, we decided the most affordable stay would be in Oahu. My husband really wanted Maui (he’d been there 11 times before and was familiar with the vicinity), but I insisted we’d be fine in Oahu. The Oahu vacation packages we were looking at were the most affordable, and, I figured, what’s the real difference?  So, instead of carefully planning the best location and hotel to stay in, we picked the cheapest vacation package available and looked forward to our getaway.

VACATION TIP #1: Carefully plan the location and hotel you’ll be staying at. Make sure your hotel has all the amenities you’ll need.  Don’t cut corners just to save a few dollars. Vacations are expensive no matter what—and while your spending a ton of money anyway, it’s best to make sure you’re not going to regret what you’ve spent it on.

The day we left for Hawaii I couldn’t have been more excited. When our plane landed after eight long hours, I was highly anticipating the great trip ahead of us. But, as you’ll soon find out, our trip went downhill quickly.

My husband and I had planned to rent a car, but when we got to the rental station they wouldn’t accept his driver’s license.  My husband had just celebrated his birthday, and, as a stupid gift to himself, he decided to get a new license (no, his current license was not expiring. He just wanted a new one). Well, in the state of Utah they give you a temporary license before your permanent copy comes….it’s not given automatically. When it didn’t show up before our vacation, we had to use the temporary license. I was only 20 at the time and therefore not eligible to rent a car. The good people at Alamo refused to accept the temporary license as valid.

Fortunately, after two hours, we convinced them to rent us a car….we ended up with the ugliest, dumpiest car I’ve ever seen in a rental lot.

VACATION TIP #2: Make sure you have a license accepted by car rental companies! If you want to get a new license, do so with enough time to receive your permanent license before your trip! This will prevent chaos and frustration. And while I’m at this, make sure you have other necessities you’ll need on vacation. Make a list of essentials and DON’T leave them behind.

With a car finally in hand, my husband and I got on the road toward our hotel. And although we’d just gone through a very unfortunate experience, we were determined to enjoy the rest of our week. We were in Hawaii after all.

We drove for about 45 minutes before things got really bad again. We did have a street map; however, we couldn’t find where we were or where we were supposed to be going. Also, in this part of Hawaii left hand turns were not permitted between 3 and 5 P.M. (WHAT???).  To make matters worse, I coulnd’t read any of the street signs; they all looked like the same unpronounceable name.

At one point we thought we were close only to be disappointed (we were actually very close without knowing).  About two hours later a fight broke out. It included things like: “Can’t you read a map?” and “Can’t you drive a car?” I ended up bawling; my husband was extremely angry….and we still didn’t know where we were (and yes, we had stopped and asked for directions several times).

After another hour (and plenty of illegal left-hand turns), we found our hotel. By the time we realized where it was, we’d driven past it several times. This did not make us very happy. Honestly, I’m still not sure how we found the hotel. It ended up being in the middle of a strip mall and it didn’t have its own parking lot. It was essentially unnoticeable from the street. 

But we finally made it!!! And, of course, we were still in Hawaii.

VACATION TIP #3: Get thorough directions and understandable maps before you go to an unfamiliar location. Also pre-print directions from more than one source (MapQuest and Magellan are two great options).

Once in our hotel room (a very humid, insufficiently air conditioned room) my husband and I crashed. We had spent the better part of 5 hours trying to merely get to our hotel. This was not the way I had envisioned this day going.

Our first day in Hawaii was pretty awful. It included fighting, stress, crying, and exhaustion. I figured, however, the coming days would be awesome as we had planned a lot of fun activities.

Our second day on vacation entailed a “Family Fun Cruise.” If “fun” is in the name you can’t go wrong….right? I have to once again remind you that we booked our trip online. One of the add-on options to our vacation package was this cruise. Once we got on the “cruise” ship (more like a not-so-cruise) ship, I knew we were in for trouble. The boat we were on was extremely rocky and the ship hosts were way too over-the-top. I believe the “cruise” lasted two hours. My husband and I spent the entire time sitting in a corner feeling sick. It’s not like we don’t like to have a good time either….it was really just THAT bad.

VACATION TIP #4: When you plan for trip activities, make sure you know what those activities entail. If you have kids, make sure they’ll be welcome. If you don’t like sing along games and charades with strange, drunk people, don’t sign yourself up for “fun cruises” that might entail these activities.

Toward the end of our trip we had planned (once again, courtesy of our online planning options) to take a nighttime dinner cruise. The online advertisement for this cruise made it look very fancy. To get to the cruise, we were required to travel by bus. The night of the cruise we boarded the bus and sat for 15 minutes with no further instruction or movement. The bus was also not on, which means no air conditioning. We finally asked what was going on and we were told we’d be leaving shortly. But we’d already been waiting 15 minutes and decided to forgo the experience altogether. I’m not sure what the nighttime dinner cruise experience entailed that night. However, the non-air conditioned bus gave us enough warning to know we didn’t really need to go.

SEE VACATION TIP #4 ONCE MORE

5 ½ years later, my husband and I still consider our first Hawaii trip to be the worst vacation of our marriage. Even though the first day was the only time we ran into a lot of trouble, it tainted the rest of the week and put us in a negative mindset. And, when you are planning the “vacation of your dreams” only to find it’s not quite what you expected, it’s hard to recover.

Fortunately, we’ve become smarter about vacationing in the last few years. We make sure we know where we’re going and what we’re getting into. And we don’t pre-plan any activities beforehand. We have found that, without a doubt, we can always sign up for “fun cruise” adventures after arriving at our destination.

I know the story above is quite silly, but in all seriousness there are some things that can make a huge difference on vacations. Please find some additional tips below:

· Make sure you know where to find good medical care if it becomes necessary on your vacation. My little brother broke his arm on vacation last year and my mom was forced to find an emergency room.

· Carry emergency contact information with you and make sure your friends/family back home have your contact information. Creating an itinerary of hotel addresses and phone numbers is a good way to do this.

· If you or someone you are vacationing with has special needs, make sure the location where you are staying can accommodate you.

Before I started writing the most entertaining, awesome blog in history (just agree with me), I was a gymnastics coach.  The following story took place on my very first day as a coach:

It was a cold, snowy, miserable February day, but I was excited to get to the gym. I had found a job as a gymnastics coach, and as a former gymnast myself, I couldn’t wait to start helping youngsters develop their talent in this great sport.

I was taking my boy to the gym, too. He was two at the time, which was one of the age groups I had for the morning. Not wanting to arrive late due to the snowy weather, we packed up and headed toward the gym with plenty of time to adjust for slick roads.

When we got to the gym, I had about eight armloads to carry. I had my diaper bag, my son’s blankie, a cup of milk, another bag full of toys, and my son’s hand. Right then I was merely focusing on getting inside with everything I needed to carry.

Once inside, all seemed well.

I set up for my classes, made sure my son had enough to occupy him during my first class (he was only participating in my second hour of classes), and waited for my new students to show up.

Two hours later, I was exhausted! Putting my son in a class I coached turned out to be a HUGE mistake as nothing I said could get him to listen or stay with the group.  Also, chasing a dozen kids around for two hours and trying to keep them entertained is not an easy task. I felt like I had accomplished a great feat.

On this particular day I was in a bit of a hurry to leave the gym because I had planned to go to lunch with some family members thirty minutes away. I figured I’d have just enough time to get there if I changed at the gym and drove straight to lunch.

I put myself together in a great rush, made sure my kid was presentable, and gathered the millions of things I had brought to the gym.

We finally got to the car—Yes! We were still making good time—only to find that my car keys were missing. AAAHHHH!

I always lock my car. 90% of the time my car is locked when it’s in the garage. But this day my full hands had prevented me from double checking the lock.

Although my car not being locked was a good thing at that moment, it also meant I had no proof that my keys ever even made it into the gym.

I started searching my car and belongings in and out. I had no luck there and started searching the outside perimeter of my car thinking I may have dropped my keys there. Unfortunately, it had been snowing quite heavily that morning so I couldn’t see anything. It was also very cold and I didn’t want to stay outside too long. At this point I was in “anxiety mode.” If I could find my keys in the next few minutes, I could still make lunch. But at this point they were nowhere to be found.

I made a mad dash inside the gym and—big surprise— there were no keys in any logical place. Of course, I searched the bathrooms, trash cans, lost and found, toy bin, and everywhere else I could think of, but my keys were not turning up.

By now I had missed lunch and wasted nearly an hour looking for keys. I just wanted to get home, which, apparently, was too much to ask.

I know I looked distraught at this point, and my new boss offered to let me borrow her car so I could retrieve my valet key from my house. My house is less than 10 minutes away from the gym, so that sounded okay. She even offered to let me kid play at the gym while I was gone! I thanked her profusely and took off.

I made it home without a hitch and got my valet key (FYI: a valet key is good only for starting the engine of a car. It won’t unlock anything, so this was another good reason my car was unlocked).

I started back for the gym with new hope for the day. Sure, my keys may have been lost, but at least now I had a way to get home with my car.

I got about halfway to the gym when the transmission in my boss’s car blew.

Her car was around 13 years old and she told me she’d been expecting it to die any day. Lucky for me, it decided to die this day. To make matters worse, I was on a frontage road where there aren’t many drivers….and even worse, I was in the dead center of the road.

I was now in “panic mode.”  I’d already lost my keys, chased hyper children around all morning, missed lunch, and left my own kid at the gym.  And now my boss of a mere week had let me borrow her car which was now completely ruined—and I was behind the wheel.

At this point, I was past rational thinking.  I was stuck in the middle of a frontage road in the winter. It was freezing outside and I had no control over my situation. I called my boss in a panic and told her what happened. She told me she’d call AAA (a must-have when your car is 13 years old) and try to find someone who could drive her to my location.

I hung up and sat in agony.

Quite fortunately, a couple men in a truck drove by about five minutes later. Seeing as I was in their way, they offered to push me to the side of the road. And seeing that I was actually in a great plight, they offered to give me a ride to the gym. I could tell they weren’t going to kill me, so I gladly accepted the offer.

I secured my boss’s car and went to the gym in great relief that I’d been rescued.

You know those days when you have no functional thought process and everything falls apart? Well, this was one of those days.  About halfway to the gym I realized I’d left my boss’s keys in her locked car. That’s right—I locked her keys in her car!!! Even better, I left the keys in the ignition (yes, I realize how completely stupid and insane this story makes me look).

I finally got back to the gym and had to tell my boss what I’d done now (let me remind you again — at this point I’d known this woman for less than a week).

Very -oh so very- fortunately, AAA was already on their way to her car.

I got my kid and my boss in my car, drove to her broken down car, waited 15 minutes for AAA to arrive. Once the AAA mechanic was finished retreiving her keys and putting her car on a tow ramp,  my boss and I parted.

Glad this debacle was finally over, I drove home trying not to cry.

I tell this story for a few reasons

1)      Panicking is not good in emergencies! It makes things much worse than they ever have to be.

2)      Remember your emergency contacts.  After telling this story, about 10 people reminded me that I could have called them and they would have come and helped us in the first place. 

3)      If something like this ever happens to you, learn from it. This really showed me my weaknesses in extreme pressure and gave me something to work on.

Now that I’m writing this blog and constantly thinking about emergency preparedness, I’ve remembered past events such as this that have helped me start to develop the proper mindset for mental preparation. I’m still not perfect, but I constantly realize how many minor emergencies our everyday lives bring. Getting through these and learning from them is a great way to prepare for larger things that may come our way.

And, just in case you were wondering, my boss kept me around!