I find my self on the eve of our next adventure and I am as excited as ever. Although I have NO doubt this trip will turn out to be fabulous no matter what, I tend to romanticize a trip before I take it. I can envision moonlight strolls and dancing the night away followed by sleeping in before going to brunch. Less glamorous dreams include going to the gym everyday and working up a sweat for at least an hour before I go to dinner and triumphantly turn down the chocolate melting cake that I would never dream of putting on my thighs.

Romantic or not, most of these things probably will not happen. My husband doesn’t dance, I tend to fall asleep by 9 pm, and I’ve already had a few dreams of eating (not rejecting) that chocolate melting cake. I so love the planning process of a trip, I am into details and I have a folder with every reservation, confirmation, and any bits of information  that pertain to our trip. But my mind also likes the planning of my dream activities, and if I’m not careful I can actually set myself up for disappointment when they don’t happen. The lesson I’ve learned (and really that I’m STILL learning) is to let go of those expectations and let things happen naturally.  It’s great that I have our rental car confirmation in hand and that I’ve researched the quickest way to get to our hotel, but to plan our conversations is always  counterproductive. (I even plan Christian’s side of it- although I don’t provide him with the script- can’t he read my mind?)

Spontaneity  is a life lesson that I’ve learned very slowly and the hard way over the years. I find if I can let go of my pre- conceived notions of exactly how things should go, the result is often beyond what I could’ve dreamed it would be. Our funniest travel stories came from circumstances I couldn’t have foreseen. But I know sometimes things don’t go perfectly, some days my stomach hurts from all the chocolate cake and I’m too tired to go to the gym. But magical moments of watching the sunset and talking about our dreams for the future make it all worthwhile, and they make me glad I wasn’t trying to stick to my schedule, which would have ruined the moment.

So today I’m going to take a deep breath and recheck (4 times) that I’ve got passports, all my confirmations, and all the things on my packing list. And even while I feel the jolt of excitement running through me, I’m going to try to remember to let go of my preconceived notions of how every moment is going to play out. After all, adventure comes when you let the unexpected happen.