Notes to Self: A Vacation Post-Mortem

• Given a choice, never take the red-eye again. Changing planes in HNL probably isn’t that bad a thing.
• Look at the directions for how to get to the hotel/condo you’re staying in before getting into the rental car.
• And check to see whether the rental car has a dome light before driving off.
• Because if it doesn’t, it might be worthwhile to get your flashlight or headlamp out of your suitcase before heading into the darkness. Because there might not be street lights.
• Better yet: don’t arrive in a strange place at night.
• No matter how many times you assure yourself there is, there truly is not any place worth eating in the American terminal at LAX.
• On the first day in a new place, you should walk around the place you’re staying so you know where you are. A mile in at least two directions is probably good.
• If there’s a locked gate on the sliding glass door in the master bedroom of the condo, it’s a good idea to leave it alone.
• Take at least two iPods and make sure that at least one of them is not on the night stand.
• Hawaii is good — it forces you to relax. This process takes 5-6 days, apparently. Plan accordingly.
• You’re not going to read much while you’re on vacation.
• Or write.
• Don’t check email. No matter how much it needs checking. Yeah, you could get totally screwed up at work by not checking, but: it’s only work.
• If you ever need to go job-hunting again, edit this post first.
• (OTOH, yes, take the laptop.)
• Don’t expect you’re going to get a lot of fun activities done on the day you fly out. Wake up, get dressed, and head to the airport for your non-red-eye flight.
• If you’re staying in a place that has a washer and dryer, you really don’t need more than three shirts and a couple of pairs of pants/shorts.
• On the other hand, if you’re going to be hiking in rivers and wet country, two sets of hiking boots was a good idea.
• Get a medium-sized suitcase.
• You’re going to eat out more than you think.
• 19 lbs. is a lot of turkey.
• Vacation condo renting is probably the way to go. So is staying in one place the entire vacation long.
• Inasmuch as you’re able to deceive yourself into thinking that vacation is “real life” and never-ending, let it happen probably.
• Heck, any time you’re able to pull off an act of self-deceit, let it happen. You could use the experience (and practice).
• Go ahead and be someone else if you want to. No one cares and you’re on vacation anyway.
• Leaving a couple things undone in a place is probably a good idea. Gives you a reason to think about going back.
• There’s no such thing as a free smoothie. Especially when you’ve already agreed to pay $28 for the buffet.
• The week after vacation, when you’re back at work and readily able to compare the two experiences (vacation vs. work), is going to suck. No matter what.
• Rent the Jeep.
• Good luck.

bkd