O, Canada (watch out, here we come...eventually!)

First of all, let me wish everyone a happy 2019! In keeping with what has become a New Year's tradition in our house, Team WestEnders took some time over the boys' Winter Break to brainstorm ideas for our next big adventure. Well...that is, "I announced that it was time to think about a Summer trip, and the Male Posse gave me their award-winning blank, open-mouthed expressions while trying to formulate smartass comments".

But I've been at this long enough by now to expect such a reaction, so I was prepared to take control of the conversation, short-circuit the nonsense, and keep us on track. Therefore I knew better than to allow them time to get wound up; rather, I followed up immediately with "It's an international year, so I was thinking maybe....Dominican Republic?"

Surprisingly, this was met with an outburst of vehement rejection. Some of the responses included Riley's "Ugh. Aren't we DONE with tropical beaches?" (To which I simply must pause and reply: "I'm sorry, I recognize all of these words, but in this particular order, they don't make any sense to me whatsoever. And by the way, are we absolutely sure you're related to me? I mean c'mon...'tired of sea, sun, and sand'? I can't even...") Then there was Derek, who firmly stated that he intends to follow his own personal travel ban against the DR...when pressed for an explanation, he shrugged and added, "Eh, because it's...sketchy." (Pues, lo siento, Republica Dominicana. I tried...)

Ohhh-kaaaay, then. No amount of actual, you know, "facts" that I was able to present about the island--and its safety--were successful in swaying them to my side. So before they lost their focus, and I'd be forced to waste valuable time and energy wresting their attention back on topic, I moved on to Plan B, a radical departure in terms of geography, location, and climate: Vancouver, BC. I had various reasons for throwing it out there, some of which were: crossing the border into our friendly continental neighbor satisfies my every-other-year "must use passport" requirement; it seems like a cool city to explore; the weather should be a pleasant relief from the hot, drippy NC July; and there are abundant outdoor activities, including opportunities for hiking.

They were...let's go with "cautiously amenable" to this proposal--with the caveat that they wanted more information before committing to a week in the Great White North. Husband jumped right on that with admirable gusto, scouring the Internet for nature adventures in the surrounding area. Meanwhile, I took a low-tech approach and picked up a visitor's guide from Barnes & Noble, so we could all page through it for inspiration. And whattya know: in relatively short order, we came up with enough potentially interesting and/or exciting stuff to get everyone on board. Whew!

Now came the hard(er) part, which of course was figuring out the logistics of actually getting from here to there, and where to stay once we'd arrived. Husband talked to a coworker who grew up in that region and recently moved back, and he indicated that Vancouver is a popular Summer destination, which tends to make it crowded and expensive. So I felt some pressure to nail down at least the most important aspects of our excursion--namely airplane tickets and lodging--as soon as possible.

This led to a looooonnng day of computer clicking, as I fiddled with travel dates and flight options to try and find the happy intersection between A) an acceptable price, and B) sensible arrival, departure, and total travel times (6 a.m.? Nope. 3-hour layover in LAX? Uh-uh. 16 hours en route? Um....not a chance in...Hades!) Once I was satisfied that I'd procured the best deal I could under the circumstances, I turned my attention to the question of where we'd be sleeping during our Canadian quest.

This turned out to be an even more challenging undertaking, believe it or not, as I quickly discovered that Vancouver hotels seem to charge exorbitant rates during the tourist months. Furthermore, the places I would consider to be "within budget"...didn't appear to meet my minimum standards for quality, shall we say. (For example, besides one-star motels, there was the YMCA...or multiple youth hostels...which I used to frequent when I was young and single, for sure--but they wouldn't be the best solution for our family of 4!) And once you widened the net to include higher-end brands, it quickly spiraled into the $250-$400 per night range. Ouch! (Oh, and also: "no freakin' way, y'all"...)

Beginning to feel a tiny bit of desperation creeping in (not to mention, no small amount of fatigue by this point), I turned to Air B&B to take my chances with the mixed bag of listings you get for people's private rental properties. Lo and behold, after sifting through the virtual mountain of "too far", "too costly", "too small" offerings, I happened upon a lovely 2-bedroom, 1.5 bath townhome, available during our dates...and snatched it up (so to speak). Plus, we'll have our own kitchen, space to spread out, and a centralized HQ to use as a jumping-off point for all of our wanderings.

With some of those critical pieces settled (and after taking some deep, cleansing breaths to dispel the remainder of the lingering vacation-planning stress), Husband and I have begun marking up the guidebook with colorful sticky tabs on things that sound like entertaining places to go and things to do, and saving websites for later perusal and family discussion. But the best part is that we have 6 more months to hammer out the rest of the details. Whoo hoo--my work here is done (for now)!