Hi, friends! I had a lovely week off, and I took my time away seriously. I stayed away from the news, things happening at work, blogging, and social media. It was so nice to just completely disconnect for a bit. My mom and I spent a few days in Orlando for her birthday, and we had the most relaxing time. We didn’t do all that much aside from floating around in the pool, sipping fruity cocktails, taking lots of naps, and enjoying our most bougie life by renting a cabana for both days. It was the getaway we both needed!
I was thinking about how I wanted to structure this recap post since there isn’t much to recap. So I decided I’d give you some of the main reasons I love traveling with my mom and will sprinkle in photos from our vacation throughout this post. Think of this as a little birthday shout-out for the most important person in my life!
1) She’s happy to let me take control over the planning.
While my mom will make suggestions on things she wants to do on a vacation, generally, she’s happy to let me take control. She loves taking vacations, but doesn’t love all of the research and planning that goes into making a trip itinerary. Me? I have so much fun creating our itineraries and making them as detailed as I need them to be. It’s nice to have total control over what we’re doing and where we’re going. It satisfies the anxious part of my brain that needs all of the logistics figured out.
This trip didn’t require any sort of itinerary. I planned a fun day for her birthday – we went out for brunch, went to the Orlando SEALIFE Aquarium, and then in the evening, we had dinner at The Boathouse at Disney Springs. The other two days, our only plans were to float in the pool, read our books, and take naps. It was a delight!
2) We have very similar energy levels.
My mom and I are introverts and we don’t need to be out and about all the time. One of my favorite parts of our vacations together is when we come back to the hotel room after dinner. We get in our jammies and then we either play a game or sit side-by-side, reading our books. It’s cozy and familiar and quiet and lovely.
When I’m creating our itineraries, I know that we both don’t want to be on the go the whole day. Building in downtime, whether that’s going back to the hotel to relax or finding a quiet space to sit and play on our phones, is important to both of us. I think it would be a lot harder to vacation with my mom if she was an extrovert who wanted to do all the things and didn’t have an off button. I’ve been on vacations with extroverted friends and while I love them dearly, I also find those trips rather exhausting.
3) She doesn’t drain my social battery.
This is the big one! I love traveling with my mom because she’s probably the only person in the world who doesn’t drain my social battery. I can hang out with her for hours and days and weeks and months and never get tired of being with her. Our personalities mesh so well together—and I do not take that for granted. I know the mother/daughter relationship can be a complicated one for so many people, and I am so grateful it isn’t for us. I just love spending time with my mom, and I feel safe and comforted around her.
4) We have similar picky food tastes.
My mom and I are not foodies, and that works out really well when it comes to vacations. We don’t need to find the best restaurants or have any specific food experiences. We want something easy and simple. If it has a burger on the menu, I’m good. The only thing I try to prioritize for my mom is breweries. She loves trying local beers (specifically IPAs), so I try to seek out a local brewery for her. And this usually works out well for me because most breweries have food that is perfectly within my wheelhouse (pizza, burgers, etc).
Does it make it a little tricky to find restaurants because we are so particular about our food tastes? Sometimes. I carefully inspect every menu to make sure it’s Mom-and-Steph friendly. But mostly, it means I don’t feel bad about being so picky and wanting to eat at “boring” restaurants or chains. She doesn’t care either!
5) We’re making cherished memories.
I feel very lucky to have a young mother. Most of my friends’ parents are in their 70s or older, and traveling with them is a lot different. I know my mom will start to slow down at some point, but she’s still young enough that we can do just about any vacation or experience we want. We’ve done so many cool things together: zip-lining in multiple different countries, parasailing over the Caribbean, exploring Ireland, getting drenched in Niagara Falls, hiking, pub crawls, ghost tours, horseback riding… these are cherished memories that I’ve made with my favorite person that I look back with great fondness. That’s what I love most about traveling with my mom! She is pretty much down for whatever adventure I want to do (as long as I’m not dragging her to museum after museum, ha), and we have so much fun together.
It’s well-known that I have a lot of anxiety surrounding my mom. I don’t want anything to happen to her because she’s my soulmate and the center of my universe. And it’s because of the memories we have made together that I want to keep making more of them. I love spending time with my mom, I love creating new memories, and I love exploring new places with her. I think there’s something truly special about that. <3
It’s so nice that you and your mother are so compatible! Nice for both of you, I mean. And it sounds like a great trip: I’m going away next week, and so looking forward to that kind of decompression and relaxation. We all need it sometimes!
I hope you have a lovely time! It was so nice to get away and not think about LIFE for a bit. And after all you’ve been dealing with, you definitely deserve that!
I love that you have travel compatibility with your mom! You’re right that now is the time to take those trips. Now look, for me personally there is nothing that I would rather do less than to take a trip with my mom, so when you have that compatibility it’s all the more reason to make the most of it.
I totally understand! I feel very lucky that my mom and I are such great travel companions, but a lot of mother/daughter relationships aren’t like that!
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This is how I feel about travel with my best friend! We’re going on a trip later this week and she has literally planned everything (where we’re staying, eating, and what we’re doing) and I know that every day we will have a break at some point to sit and read or sleep. It’s lovely when you find the perfect travel companion!
I’m so glad you have the perfect travel companion, too! And eeks, your trip is so soon! I’m really happy that you get to have a little getaway with your best friend!
Looks and sounds perfect. The energy level issue while on vacation is a big one. Being in sync is so important to having a good time.
SO IMPORTANT. I went on a cruise with an extrovert once and I was so exhausted from all the running around, ha.
This is such a sweet post!!! You and your mom have a fantastic relationship. And how great that you are able to find ways to nourish it.
My husband and I are a perfect travel fit for a lot of the reasons you list — I am especially thankful that he enjoys the planning! I get so stressed out by planning stuff. With him at the helm, I just get to show up and I love that.
I love that you get to experience the “passenger princess” life since your husband enjoys planning vacations. I have to admit I enjoy that for some trips, too, especially trips with friends. I just let everyone else do the heavy lifting because I do not want to make decisions for a large group, ha!
Awww, Stephany, this is so lovely! What a nice tribute to your mom (happy birthday, Stephany’s mom!). Also, true confession, this morning I was going to send you an email to check in on you because we hadn’t heard from you in a while! I’m SO glad you had a great time unplugging and recharging. Floating around drinking fruity cocktails sounds pretty nice to me!
I smiled at your #1 because that is me and my husband, except that I am your mom and you are my husband. Wait. That sounded weird. Anyway, Rob is the trip planner, he likes to organize every last detail, book every last thing, figure out every accommodation and flight and activity, and I just Go With The Flow. It makes for a good relationship, honestly. There could not be two of him and there could not be two of me.
Also, insert “wine” for “beers” and I’m your mom again!
You’re too kind! I meant to put up a Friday post and mention I’d be away from the blog for the week, but time got away from me!
I think in every successful relationship, you need someone who wants to plan every last detail and someone who can go with the flow. It would be a lot harder to plan these vacations if we were both insistent on the details!
I love that you and your mom are such great travel companions! I’m the same age as your mom, and I think I would be able to have good travel time with my daughter too. We travel well together, but she likes to sleep in and I like to get going and see things.
Haha – my mom and I are the opposite of you and your daughter! My mom is the one who likes to sleep in while I want to wake up on the early side. Thankfully, on these trips, she is happy to adhere to MY schedule! 😉
I’ve said this before and it’s worth saying again, I love that you love your Mom so much and that you guys are good travel buddies. That, my friend, is priceless!! I love my parents but my Dad needs to be entertained a little and my Mom is not very adventurous so we can have a good time but too long of a trip can feel a little long sometimes!
It is a priceless relationship! I’m so glad I get to have such a close, special relationship with my mom. Trips with people who you don’t mesh with well can be really difficult! That reminds me of the time I was on a cruise with my mom and every day, we could hear the couple next door fighting. Imagine being on a cruise with someone you can’t get along with! Close quarters, nowhere to escape – gah!
I’m coming off a mom-intensive two weeks myself, and this resonates so much…
How lovely for you both to have similar tastes in so much! It looks like a fabulous time!
It is truly a gift to not only spend so much time with my mom but that I genuinely enjoy being with her!
What a wonderful post, Stephany! It warmed my heart to know that you and your mom are such close friends and so well-suited to each other. That is a gift! What I really love is that she doesn’t drain your social battery. That’s the thing I love most about my husband. We can be together all day long, and I’m never worn out. Your vacation sounds amazing, and I love all the cute, fruity drinks. The pineapple on the straw!!
It is so important to find that person who doesn’t drain your social battery, especially for introverts! Now if I could just find that in my dating life… HA.
Happy belated birthday to your momma! I love that you guys have such a special relationship and are such compatible travelers. That is not always the case! I have friends that I am super compatible travelers with (like Amber from Canada) and then I’ve gone on trips where I thought um, “never again”. Ha.
I haven’t done 1:1 trips with my mom but my parents have gone on trips with us in the past and we love having them along. They are very go with the flow and they are always happy with everything! It’s nice to not have to worry about someone complaining about accommodations or a meal, etc. Maybe it’s because of their middle class origins but they are just thrilled with everything! Which is what I prefer v nitpicking about things. And they get to make memories with our boys so it’s a win/win for all!
I’m glad you have had such positive experiences traveling with your parents. I know that can be fraught, especially when young kids are involved! You get some extra helping hands, your kids get to make fun memories with their grandparents – that is a winning combo for sure!
I love this so much! I can absolutely see why you love spending time with your mom- having similar energy levels and not draining your social battery are really important things. And, it’s nice that you appreciate having a young mom that you can do all sorts of things with.
If your mom ever needs someone to try some local IPAs with her, I’ll be right there! Her beer looks delicious : )
We should totally get together some time at a brewery! I will happily drink my cider while you guys enjoy some local IPAs. 🙂
What a lovely post. You truly have such a unique relationship.
Having a travel partner that is similar is such a great thing. I am sometimes a bit sad the husband and I have such different ideas of a great vacation. We try to compromise but I am not sure either of us is really satisfied. Sigh.
He is also rather particular about food while I eat the thing I have never eaten before, the local food and would love to go explore culture that way. It is not easy.
Wishing you many more travels with your mom.
I love this so much. You are so lucky to have your mom, and she is so lucky to have you. I don’t have a ride-or-die travel companion, but I will live vicariously through and others. Traveling solo is great – no one else to please! But it also means that everything falls to me. No one to blame when I screw up! 🙂
I love that you’re close with your mom and that she doesn’t drain your social battery. I know exactly what you mean. I feel that way about my sister and I actually have a couple of friends that are also “travel-approved”. LOL
It sounds like you had the perfect little getaway for her birthday!