Amy Lu's View

Chad and I are supposed to be on our big vacation now to celebrate our 50th Birthdays and our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

Obviously, we’re not.

And obviously, I’m disappointed, but I don’t intend this post to be an “I’m Missing My Vacation Lament.” While I am bummed that we’re missing our vacation, I am really gratefuly that we’re both healthy, and employed and safe. I’m even–in some ways–digging spending so much time at home.

I DO intend this to be a “Don’t Forget This a Year of Important Milestones for Amy” post. That’s right, 50th Birthday and 25th Wedding Anniversary. Don’t think I’m going to miss out on calling attention to myself just because I’m having to forgo all the vacation photo opps. (Our anniversary isn’t until May 27).

Also, I want to give Chad a shout out for coming up with the vacation idea and surprising me with it for Christmas 2018 (that’s right, we’ve been planning this for a LONG time).

But what was the vacation we were going to go on? We were supposed to be exploring the Pacific Northwest, including the San Juan Islands and the Olympic National Forest.

We were actually booked on a CRUISE, but a cruise on a very small ship, with only 22 passengers. The company we were booked with is even called UNCRUISE Adventures. I was very nervous to tell people we were going on a “cruise” as the COVID pandemic unfolded. I’ve never been on a traditional cruise, and of course this year would have been a horrible time to be on one. I was also nervous to tell people that we were leaving from Seattle, one of the earliest and hardest hit cities by COVID.

I was honestly relieved when the travel company informed us the cruise wasn’t going to happen this year. (We are rescheduled to May of next year). I was a little worried that they would go ahead with the cruise and make us cancel (and lose our money) or that they would just cancel outright (although now I’m starting to worry that 2021 looks iffy for travel).

If I can put my anxiety and obsessing aside, or at least reign it in a bit, I now have a whole extra year to savor the expectation of going on vacation. I do think it’s well-documented that anticipation is a key component of happiness (just look at this article title even if you don’t read it, “Get More Bang for Your Happiness Buck: Revel in Anticipation“).

I can now stretch our anniversary celebration/commemoration out for a WHOLE year (you thought my “birthday month” was impressive, but wait, I can stretch that out, too!) and the 26th Annivesary is the “jade” anniversary, which sounds much more sexy and mysterious than “silver.” (Silver is just my natural hair color now).

I’ll also have more time to blog about our anniversary, AND I won’t have to deal with the stress of packing (at least for another year).