Most of the time before I leave for vacation, my day goes something like this:  Up at 6:00am to get ready and head to work, fighting traffic in an hour+ commute and trying to get in by 8:00/8:30am.  Spend the day putting out fires and desperately trying to get as much done as I can before the end of the day.  This also usually involves a mass influx of last minute requests because people forgot that I am about to go on vacation.  Snarf down a crappy deli sandwich at my desk or skip lunch altogether trying to wrap things up.  Fight traffic home and then still have to try and pack, iron and not forget anything.  Sometimes we try to fly out on a Friday evening so I may even have to rush, rush, rush to the airport or I’m up for an insanely early flight the next day.

Needless to say, that sucks.  For our French Polynesia trip, our flight didn’t leave Dallas until 6:00pm but Steve and I decided to take the whole day off and relax.  This. Was Awesome.  I have never felt better prior to leaving for a trip and it was like a weight had been lifted.

I started my day by waking up on my own without the alarm clock around 7:00am.  I went for a nice long walk to the lake with Steve around 8:30am.  I spent my morning having coffee, packing the rest of my bag at a leisurely pace and generally just chilling out and reading the news.

Steve and I then took Miss Begbie to the kennel.

We had lunch reservations at a new Italian hot spot in town, Dolce Riviera where we sat on the patio and enjoyed the weather and each had some wine/prosecco with lunch, along with some calamari and I had a fabulous grilled salmon. We headed back to the house for our bags and called uber to take us to the airport so we could sit back and let someone else fight the traffic.

One of my travel splurges is our membership to the American Airlines Admiral’s Club.  It’s $300 for the year but it is a nice way to spend your pre-flight time and layover time.  They are located in most major cities around the world and the one at DFW in terminal D is super nice.  We got to the airport early for a glass of wine at the club before our flight.

I can’t even tell you how nice it was to ease into our vacation.  I may have to do this every year now before a big trip.  I was already relaxed and destressing before we left and a loooong flight later, this was my view:

I think I found a new travel ritual!