Once upon a time, there were three friends, Vagablond, Jo Jo and Deb who met at bible study.  We were raising a combination of 8 children, changing diapers, managing careers and families.  We all moved through our lives putting family first, surviving divorces, deaths and illness, celebrating births, remarriages and being a survivor.

 Our reconnection began when Jo Jo suddenly lost her husband.   We made it a point after that to find mornings to meet for breakfast.  It was a comfort and we realized that we were still able to make each other laugh.   Women having supportive and good friends really does matter, it is about that connection that ranges from “we are so adorable” to “Ok – check my behavior on this- Am I being too _______????”   Losing a girlfriend connection from the past and then rediscovering the love, camraderie, support and honesty you had is one of the great gifts of the Universe.  

The idea to visit Disney together came from a conversation during one of our breakfasts.  We were talking about vacations and how visiting Disney is always a thrill.  Deb had a story about Disney at Christmas and how beautiful, fun and even spritual it was.  I was shocked – in all of the marketing and commercialism around what Disney does I wondered how they would align to the politcal correctness that surrounds us and still bring the message of hope from Jesus’ birth.  

How does Vagablond answer any question?  Why Travel of course – and the trip planning began!#DisneyDecember

A trip to Vegas – you never have to ask me twice!   Hubby found a great deal- it does involve viewing a timeshare- but we love Hiltons- so it should be fun.   I’m in sales and marketing and I actually get a kick out of watching people sell, experiencing a pitch from the other side of the desk and learning from the sales people that probably have one of the hardest sells on earth.   

Our plans include Hilton Grand Vacation on the strip, Penn and Teller, Jeff Dunham and any other entertaining thing we can find to do.  We like to gamble, but not lose money- so we will see how much time we spend at the tables.  We are taking the 18 year old daughter for just one night- then Wednesday night she is off to Phoenix for her own adventure- but it will be very cool to see her eyes light up when she sees the strip tonight when we land.  

Stay tuned…….can’t wait to reconnect with one of my favorite cities!

Day 3 was dedicated to decompressing from travel, sunning on the deck, taking in the gorgeous views, using the grill to make burgers, and enjoying island cocktails with abandon.
We have rented homes for 9 vacations. We love the convenience of more space than a hotel room, a kitchen where we can make breakfast or a snack, and the feeling of living in the places we visit versus just being tourists. There are many websites advertising and offering homes for rent for vacationers. It is a must to do your homework and follow some simple guidelines when renting on sites such as Vacation rental by owner (VRBO or Home away) or local real estate or property rental companies. First rule to follow is to have a list of questions and ask those to a person, avoid emailing or voicemail tag. You want to make sure that the rental is a legitimate rental, we did have one “owner” respond via email, with no phone number, just email. The price was extremely low and that is usually the first clue that something is fishy. Most owners will work with you if you have a budget, but if you get an offer that is much lower than the asking rate you should not get a “I won the lottery” reaction- you need to be wary and extra careful as there are scammers who will ask you to wire money as a deposit. Ours asked us to send it to England, which we did not do.
As we were looked for this house on St John we scouted several sites and looked up forum posts on TripAdvisor to get insights and info from other travelers who had experience with the island. We saw several discussions on the forum boards with this same type of experience. So as the saying goes- “buyer beware”. In the end! those insights and on line discussions provided a fairly easy path to figure out where we wanted to stay.
For this trip our choice was a house up on Bordeaux Mountain because it was remote, quiet and on past visits we have stayed closer to the water and wanted the experience of being up high, but still close to some restaurants, trails and beaches. We had rented from this owner for one of our trips to St Thomas and found them to be responsive, helpful and priced within our budget. www.seatopeakvillas.com. The houses have both been clean, well stocked and the villa on St John exceeded our expectations.
Day 3 was a relaxing and fun day and as we hit the pillow that night we had a beautiful steady rain shower to lull us to sleep.

There are strong and valid reasons to travel with your teens.  With all the fear of violence in this world, many Moms have turned into helicopter parents hovering over every decision or dream their adolescent has as they move toward independence.  I vowed that this would not be my path and took specific measures to fulfill my goal of raising self assured, confident and street wise children.  My goal is to instill a sense of wonder and wanderlust that creates a constant itch for new experiences, cultures and learning across the globe.

I learned a tremendous amount about my children and the skill sets they possess by traveling with them.  When my 3 older kids were taking French in school I told them if they continued through high school I would bring them to Paris to practice the language in senior year.  They did it and I booked a 9 day trip.  The details around the trip were all handled by Mom and that was just fine with all of them.  On the trip from the airport to Paris we took public transportation.  We had 4 large bags and carry-on bags and we found ourselves trying to figure out  which train went to our hotel, dragging everything up and down multiple staircases to find the right train.  After our long flight and the time change I had 3 very cranky teens that were voicing their displeasure with my planning.

Then I had an epiphany!

Put the teens in charge!

Once we arrived in Paris we sat down and discussed how this would work.  The oldest was responsible for Transportation –  The next was to manage the finances – the third  was in charge of itinerary coordination and selection of only local and NON-chain restaurants.  They were forced to think through a few things.   What metro train should we take? Can we afford a nice dinner, or should we go to the grocery store for lunch items? Where would we go each day? Since I can’t have McDonalds, What will I eat!!!

They got very excited to be “in charge” and worked together to decide what we would do with our time.  I was delighted that they all wanted to go to Jim Morrison’s grave – a bit of a surprise to me, but I felt validated as a parent because I taught them about good rock music!

We saw the major sites including the Musee du Louvre,  Eiffel Tower, Arc de triomphe, Notre Dame and took trips to Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny and the Palace of Versailles.  We never got lost and no one pouted that they did not get their way.  We also took a train to Geneva Switzerland and rented a car to Montreaux for two nights.  We went to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn and shared many laughs while making great memories.  They had agreed to save enough of our money to get a car service back to the airport as they had no desire to relive the trip to Paris from CDG again.

The best part for me as the Mom was seeing that I had capable young adults.  They walked the streets of Paris with confidence, my 15 year old son had his first kiss sitting on the steps of the Grande Arche De la Defense, my daughter learned about safe travels when she watched a pickpocket lift a tourists wallet out of a backpack, As we drove away from our hotel headed for the airport my oldest said, “As I travel, the more I see  the more I want to see!”  These young adults felt empowered and could not wait to figure out where they wanted to go next.