Vacations (read: experiences) are very important to CSP & me. We’d much rather drive basic cars and have basic furniture and buy basic clothes (I spill too much on myself to have expensive clothes anyway) and spend our money on trips. I’ve even read articles that say there have been studies that show that people who spend more on experiences are happier than those who spend more on things. We are also planners. Me more than him. That being said, we’ve decided what we’re going to finally do in either 2 or 5 years.
We’ve always wanted to take an Alaskan cruise. Everyone we know who’s done this say it’s just amazing. And I’ve always wanted to drive cross country. So we’ve decided that for our 15th anniversary in just over 5 years that we’ll drive to Vancouver and board a cruise ship to Alaska. It’s a good 3000 miles from Charlotte to Vancouver. Luckily I love to drive! Then on the way back we’ll swing through Seattle (another city we’ve always wanted to visit) and take a different route home. 
We’re going alone. At least that’s the plan now. By then we plan to have children but we feel that time alone as a couple is very important to a marriage. So, anyone wanna babysit Kidlet & Lil Bit for 2.5 weeks? Oh, and 3 pugs? 🙂 Where the 2 or 5 year thing comes in is that we are at the very end of our adoption work (just a few new home visits and a CPR class ahead of us). Then comes the wait. We are asking for a single child aged 0-3. This could take a while. If Lil Bit isn’t home in 2 years then we’ll go then. If he/she is home sooner than we’ll wait and go in 5 at our 15th anniv.
I’m amazed at some of the feedback we’ve already gotten about this. I’ve already heard “You’ll be changing your tune once you have kids. You won’t want to leave them. You won’t be able to afford vacations.” Of course we won’t want to leave them. But a healthy marriage is so important to raising happy children (if you’re married). And this could all be pie in the sky. We don’t know what ship we’ll take (that would just be cruel to cruise on the Disney Cruise Line with no kids in tow) because all that can change. Who knows? By then we may just zip on up there in our jet packs! I think it’s important to have goals, long and short term. It’s fun for me to plan these trips. And it will be even more fun when we make it there!
Bless Your Heart 