Although it doesn’t seem to happen as often as I would like it to, periodically I do get the chance to take a few days off from work and go on a little vacation. I think it’s so important to take a break, go somewhere or even get a staycation in. Taking a break from work, the general busyness of life and just does a lot of good for our overall wellness, both physically and mentally. So, a few times a year Mrs. Money and I try to sneak away and this time we did a whole family vacation to the Caribbean! For the past 2 years I’ve been diligently saving up all sorts of credit card points and miles and finally got to cash them in!

Where we went and how we did it

As you may know, Mrs. Money and I have 2 kiddos – BabyMoneyFinance and SegundoMoneyFinance. They’re right now aged 3 and 1 so not the easiest age to travel with, especially on a longer flight semi-out of the country. BMF is >2 which means we have to pay for a full ticket, since infant in arms is <2. You may be wondering and yes BMF has a Skymiles (Delta) number. Not gonna let those Skymiles go to waste!

With all the uncertainty of COVID in the world, we decided to book the US Virgin Islands. Although somewhat autonomous; being able to do their own thing, we figured that we’d rather stay on American (our home country) soil rather than risk issues that may come up in this uncertain time. We also wanted to go to the USVI as we’ve a) been there before and b) found it very ‘doable’ with kids. Travelling with kids adds another layer of uncertainty and stress and so we felt much more comfortable going somewhere that we wouldn’t have to re-figure out everything and also that we knew wouldn’t be too crowded.

We ended up booking a Marriott – 5 nights for 155,000 Marriott points. I always have found Marriott points to be very easy to use and find that I can pretty easily redeem them. We booked a Jeep (at the bequest of BabyMoneyFinance who was very excited about it) and I’ll use Bank of America points as cash back to pay for that. We also hit up the grocery store on Day 1, which allowed us to buy lunch food and snacks and breakfast was included which means we were really only paying out of pocket for dinners. Even when traveling we like to travel frugally so that we can have more trips!

So, what did I learn and reflect on during the trip?

Acknowledge I’m not superhuman

We all have a lot of responsibilities on our plate, and for me personally this looks like being a good parent, being a good employee, being a good neighbor, friend and gym buddy. All of these roles carry a lot of different responsibilities and for me personally things are almost feeling back to the busy level that we had pre-COVID. Nights and weekends are filling up, on top of the 40+ hours I put in at work. As much as it is nice to get away from it all once in a while, it’s nice to also acknowledge that I’m not superhuman. While on vacation it’s nice to not have much on my plate and still get a lot of satisfaction and joy out of life. It’s nice to still be able to go to sleep without having done tons of dishes or chores or errands; it’s nice to know that life will go on without me. I can’t do it all and I shouldn’t expect that of myself. By getting away once in a while hopefully it’ll provide some perspective next time I’m in the thick of it knowing that it’s ok to not do it all.

Practice what I preach with wellness

The past 2 years have seen a larger focus (and it’s not a bad thing) on wellness, particularly around mental wellness. Many of us have learned (or relearned) the importance of our overall wellbeing and have taken to practicing more things like yoga, seeing a therapist, meditating or even just listening to your Apple Watch when it says “breathing even for a minute can reduce stress”.

I’m definitely a proponent of overall wellness and oftentimes it’s important to actually take the time to practice wellness and sometimes that means getting away and taking a few day vacation. I remember asking Mrs. Money if we should do a 3-night or a 5-night trip and she responded with ‘5 nights’. Her rationale was that we’ve done a few 3-night trips of that sometime those few nights away just aren’t enough, to which I agreed. I’ve found that it takes me a few days to truly unwind when on vacation and if this was going to be a restorative trip for my mental wellbeing, it should be a 5-night trip!

This trip has definitely given me the time to unwind, relax and focus on taking care of my whole self!

*I will say that the UNC-Duke game did throw a wrench in my overall wellbeing plans and although I was less stressed probably than I would have been at home, there was still stress involved!

Reflect and express gratitude

I’ve tried to practice gratitude more in my daily life; I think it’s of great benefit and helps you appreciate more of what you have and experience more joy and happiness in life. This trip has given me the time to focus on what’s very important in my life – family, and that’s allowed me to pause and reflect on how blessed we are as a family. I’m so thankful for what we have, and yes we’ve worked hard to come this far, but are overall thankful!

Just be

There’s a lot of noise in our world today, noise from our phones, noise from the news, noise from work and noise in our everyday lives, it’s nice to get away and just be. Just being allows me to reflect, express gratitude, practice wellness and realize that I am who I am and that’s ok (i.e. not a superhuman). It was unclear if we’d get cell service or not here (as it is a US territory and Verizon’s website said they would have coverage) and whether or not we’d be roaming, so we just kept our phones in airplane mode. It was great to disconnect. It was great to just sit on our porch and read, talk, or just sit and think. YouTubeTV didn’t work for us here which removed some more noise, and somehow our Disney+ got discontinued. We’re not great at watching live TV either. So, whether planned or not, we disconnected quite a bit! It was so great just to be.

Summary

I’m a big proponent of taking vacations, and it may look different in terms of what you can afford or where you actually go, but I’m thankful for the chance to have disconnected for more than a day or two!