Happy 2016–Take that Trip!

My family said goodbye to 2015 amidst the bang of distant fireworks, clatter of pans banging and voices cheering–our poor dog hid in the basement. We prayed for the safety of our pseudo-adult children somewhere out there with their fellow revelers cheering in the New Year.

While 2015 brought many wonderful events for us, including graduations and amazing travel experiences, the close of the year brought the news of a very serious health challenge.  For those of you who have known these realities in your own life, you will understand the vivid memories you recount when the future looks vague and murky. My husband and I have delighted and comforted ourselves the most in recounting our trips with our family and together as a couple.

We have discovered there is no such thing as travel regrets!!!

• If you have young people in your life, don’t be too cool to go to Disneyland–there is nothing like watching their little legs run all the way to the gates, to see the joy and excitement reverberate through them as they discover the Magic Kingdom. Don’t be afraid to ride Splash Mountain over and over again, you won’t get that wet! 
• Go camping and hiking in Yellowstone Park. Find all the burping mud pots, follow the trail to Fairy Falls while smelling the perfume of pine needles under your feet. 
• Walk through the wildflower meadows at the basin of Mount Rainier–it is beauty unimaginable.
• Watch giant sea turtles lay their eggs and babies hatch and race to to the sea under a full moon on the beaches of Nicaragua.
• Ride all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower even if the line is long–because you will have done it together.
• Watch the marionettes play from the Munich Rathaus-Glockenspiel when the clock strikes twelve.
• See the changing of the guard in London.
• Stroll Central Park in NYC.
• Eat dinner with local folks, try new cuisine, swim in the Mediterranean, walk the Mall in DC . . .

There are no regrets (travel difficulties, mosquito bites and expenses feel petty from this perch), just gratitude remains for the opportunity to make these memories.

All of us face challenges great and small–for the Jacobsens, we expect this to be the year of renewed health in body and spirit. To this end, we are making plans for a future trip that involves toes in the sand and sunshine, a graduation, and a Broadway musical.

We here at Sleeps 5 wish you a Happy New Year. Take that trip! You won’t regret it.

Holly Jacobsen
Sleeps 5