Tom and I had the truest sense of a vacation, no agenda, no obligations. Just beach, pool, donuts, shopping and Dr. Oz with our morning coffee. Tom even tried a couple of new things like fried calamari, which he liked. And skimboarding, which didn’t like him. He has the torn up skin to prove it.
On our last day we found the outlet mall. Shopping on vacation is a very tricky thing since chances are you’ve packed your suitcase full just to get to your destination, much less have room for goodies to bring back home. But somehow I managed to get back with a Marc Jacobs trench coat, two sweaters and four camisoles from Banana Republic, six pair of socks from the Gap (3 stripped, 3 argyle), hairbands for the gym from Puma, a Kate Spade purse and matching wallet, a bracelet from a beach shop, a new water bottle, a souvenir for our nephew, a Christmas gift for someone, a birthday gift for someone else, and a new ball for our dog Chyna. Tom got something new too.. a laptop bag from the Hartmann outlet. They were practically giving their luggage away. And we got it all home as carry-ons…with only a couple of dirty looks from the flight attendants as we stuffed our (one too many) bloated bags into the overhead bins.
Not missing a beat we got back in time for happy hour on Friday, almost as if we had never left. And along with happy hour everything else will start to fall into place like cream of wheat cereal in place of peanut and butter jelly donuts, spin class instead of walks on the beach, Yoga on land rather than the pool, and on Tuesday, after being out of the office for ten days, it’s back to work…in a new outfit!