I’m spontaneous. When I go on a trip, I just go with the flow. I see what I wanna see, and do what I wanna do.
I’m a planner. Before I go on a trip, I usually know what I’m doing, eating, and even wearing every single day.
Which of these do you think is me?
Both are!
I’ve done trips on both ends of the spectrum, and while I enjoy my travel companions, my solo trips tend to be the ones of the first variety, and in turn are some of my favorite excursions. Tor worked during the day and had meetings most nights, so for the better part of the day I did only what I wanted to do. On the first day, it snowed so I sat in the hotel room and wrote most of the morning. I was perfectly content with my hotel breakfast and my laptop, sitting by the large picture window weaving my tales. The snow melted rather quickly so I spent the afternoon at a mall, and then a book store. It was a good day!
It occurred to me later that night that some might think I wasted the day. I could write and shop in Texas, couldn’t I? Why do it in a lo
cation that has so much more to offer? Because I’m a big girl and I can do what I want, right? You bet your granny’s sweet tea I can! I decided to let go of the idea of what I “should” be doing and just go with the flow. Vacation police are not a real thing.
On Tuesday I went to Salem where I spent hours in a graveyard. It was my third trip (third and a half really but that’s another story) to Salem, but my first trip to that particular grave yard. That’s all I did in Salem. But that was okay because the grave yard was the highlight of my day. That’s when I told myself, “It doesn’t matter what I do each day, as long as I do at least one thing each day that makes me happy!”
Wednesday I visited my beloved Concord. That’s a whole other post in itself, which I will get to, but several things that day m
ade me happy.
Thursday I decided, since this was at least my 4th or 5th trip to the Boston area, I must actually see Boston. A flat tire interrupted those plans, so instead I went to the hotel restaurant, had a cheeseburger and wrote. You’d think nothing that day would make me happy, but I got a lot of writing done and that was one damn good cheeseburger!
Friday was checkout. That morning I began to think about all of the other things I “should” have done. Had I wasted the week? If I had, it was too late because the trip was almost over. I headed back to Concord to a shop I’d read about online. I saw many things I wanted, but I’d put myself on a tight souvenir budget, preferring to 
spend my money on experiences, rather than things. But then I saw something that was not only the perfect souvenir, but the perfect ending* to the perfect week. It says, “Do one thing everyday that makes you happy.”
Mission accomplished!
*It was the ending of my week in MA, but the beginning of a wonderful weekend in Maine.
