While the Girls Were Away . . .

When I began planning a 3-week long trip to Europe a few years ago, I never dreamt that I wouldn't be spending the entirety of that trip with my girls.  While it would have been much easier to just cancel the whole thing, I was never willing to take this opportunity away from my children.  Instead,  the four of us conquered Paris and Venice and I found the courage to spend two weeks away from them while they continued on to Greece and Croatia.  Much of the plane ride back was spent using my hoodie to hide the tears streaming down my face, but I survived.  I survived thanks to special people willing to spend 14 days distracting me:

Visiting my little sister in NYC

 Central Park

View from the park near her apartment

 

My favorite reason to visit Little Italy

Home for 9 of the 14 days

 My view

Bermuda

Horseshoe Bay lives up to the hype

 St. Marteen at sunset

 San Juan

Hiking through the Puerto Rican Rainforest

Living it up one Mojito at a time

 Haiti

Truth

I could not have asked for a better way to spend this unwanted time away from my girls (although, I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon). For the first time in 8.5 years, I had a chance to make decisions almost solely based on what I wanted to do.  Those decisions included a nap in Central Park, fitness classes, mid-day Mimosas, adult-only comedy shows, dancing the night away, rock climbing and so much laughter.