Monday, August 30, 2010

The trip

The day Ryan and I got our first tax return as a couple, we had big plans for it. Before he started his life of servitude future career, I would quit my job and we'd live off that tax return in Europe for as long as it lasted. So when Turner called and said he had two weeks before his first day, we kinda wrote off all our plans. You can't plan a trip to Europe in two weeks. And even if you could, you certainly can't visit Europe for less than two weeks. Right?

Turns out, you can.

Really, you can do anything if you just stay up late enough.

It took us until two in the morning to realize that.

We were up looking at flights, cruises, any kind of deal that could take us out of town for a while before Ryan's start date. Right around 2 a.m., I shut my laptop, saying--as I had the night before that and the night before that--we'd find better deals tomorrow. Just as I was putting the laptop under the bed, I stopped. I opened it back up. I found a travel package to Rome, leaving in seven days. And I pulled out our credit card.

Are we crazy? I kept asking Ryan. I checked my calendar. He checked his. I checked my work calendar. Emailed my boss. Thought through a million reasons why we probably shouldn't go, but instead we entered our details, grabbed our passports, and clicked confirm.

The week leading up to it was, of course, crazy. We had work deadlines to meet, employment details to work out, and--oh yeah--a trip to Italy to pack and plan for, but it was exhilarating. Each night we went to bed with emotions teetering from crazed to excited then stressed, though usually settling on giddiness: Hey, wanna go on a date this weekend? To Italy, maybe? or I was thinking of stopping by the Colosseum in a couple days... wanna come?

To make things easier, we decided to pack one carry-on bag each and leave behind anything that needed to be charged or plugged in. After two long flights (and one very bad plastic-wrapped bbq chicken dinner), we arrived in Rome. We got lost for the first of many many times, saw some sites, some art, some statues, and then flew back home.

k, it wasn't quite that fast of a trip, but it felt like it. Stay tuned for photos and stories.

6 comments:

Tara said...

Whoa! You guys are awesome!! Can't wait to see pictures!

Lindsey said...

That's the best way to live... on the seat of your pants! I love it!

Emily Heider said...

That's awesome! I need to hear what you did, because we are trying to plan a trip to Italy in October! (Harder to be spontaneous with the kiddo!) And were you able to find any kind of deal on plane tickets? Glad it was fun, I'm excited!

lisa said...

Emily--you are going to LOVE it. We definitely need to talk. And Lindsey, you have no idea how many times I think about quitting my job and working for an airline--all because of your stories and pictures from all those free flights!

Alexis said...

Gabe and I seriously almost did the same thing in April. He called his mom to see if she would watch Theo and he almost booked a trip to London as a surprise. My mom convinced him that might not be the world's best surprise. I really wanted to go, but I was worried about my passport, which is still in my maiden name. Did you have any problems with that or did you have your switched over?

lisa said...

lex--we just bought the plane tickets in my maiden name and I used my passport for id everywhere we went. Also, I'm telling you... you have to wait until 2AM when there's no one around to tell you how absurd you're being.