The family road trip

Every once in a while we get seized with an inspiration to take that "feel good" road trip. And that's exactly what happened during this long weekend. While everyone around us were perhaps planning to stuff themselves with turkey we decided to be gluttons for punishment and get on the road with a bawling little creature in tow.

Trips also mean a lot of packing. Given my obsessive nature I take a lot of pains in making them perfect. I always plan ahead and pack to face any eventual emergency (the car can break down,we might drive our way into neverland even get kidnapped by aliens and the likes,very valid,legitimate fears) and it drives people nuts. And as I did it took me a trip down memory lane.

Flash back to the year 2005 when packing for a trip was a piece of cake. My list then consisted of

1.Right outfits to take:

Day dress

Dress for fancy dinner or club outing

Fashionable 'tourist' wear when sight seeing

Poolside/beach wear

Accessories (totally necessary)

Comfortable fashionable jeans (ah,don't we all need them)

All color coordinated and neatly arranged in a fancy suitcase.

2.Obsessed about those matching sandles- A pair for every "Special" dress. Both for the day and for the night ofcourse and those "Sexy" dainty ones proven to leave a trail of drool and green eyes behind are a must .

(the trips always caused mysterious growth spurts in the already good pile of shoes everytime I planned though. Quite spooky indeed)

3. Lotions and essentials (Ahem..which consisted of let's say 10-15 assorted items )- Packed smartly in a cool tote .

4. Hair care equipment (brushes, comb, blow dryer)- Frizzy hair like mine requires herculean efforts to be tamed. I can give Chewbacca a run for the money if confronted on my really "bad" hair day.

5. Books- to enjoy relaxing on the plane or lying sprawled soaking up the sun on the beach.

6.Music-Ipod and cds loaded with my favorite and updated tunes.

7. Hit the gym a lot more religiously so you can be right in shape to flaunt on the beach.

Oh,the joys!!

Cut to present. I still obsessively pack albeit with few changes

1. Outfits- Anything that's clean or atleast gives an impression of being clean (read as stain free from any bodily discharges) and doesn't make me look fat and literally fits the bill.

2. Matching sandals- Huh?what's that? most of the times it's anything that fits and can sustain numerous walks in the park, grocery stores,playgrounds and running behind a energetic little body(Nike's,flipflops all inclusive). Throw in a couple of those good old fellas in the backpack and you are good to go.

3. Essentials- Now consist of lip gloss or a lipstick. Mostly either you are running out of time or energy(?) to go through the whole shebang .

4. Books- Yep they now prop me up when I try to catch a quick snooze wherever I can lie down for a few minutes.

5. Music- What?you want to put on the blaring music while driving and wake up the toddler and shatter those few placid moments of nirvana we find??are you nuts or a masochist?

6. Hair care- Anything that atleast can make my hair not look like a bird's nest caught in a hurricane. Chewbacca is a new found friend. As for the straighteners?curlers?dryers? yes if you can remember to pack them and most of all if you can remember where you last spotted them before the toddler attacked them into oblivion.

7. Gym and flaunting in the beachwear- *laughs uncontrollably like a maniac*

Gasp!I seriously can use some help dealing with this frumpy side of mine,I was supposed to be one of those ultra cool moms when I decided to don the maternal mantel. *Sniff,sniff *

Anyway we did take that trip this weekend. We ended up facing a endless nerve wracking traffic which delayed us by 2 hours,the lanes we changed everytime thinking it would move faster always seemed to move the slowest,there was a bit of swearing heard from the driver seat (yours truly )everytime a novice driver or one of those soccer moms or dads used to cut us off without signals, a little person at the back constantly reminded us of her sound presence,quick bathroom stopovers,quite a few temper tantrums and armed with loads of coffee finally we reached the destination. We took in the beautiful Algonquin park showcasing the fall in all its splendor . We thought of taking the boat ride and trail walk through the woods after shelling out 30$ for a measly coffee and wraps and heaving a sigh of relief . Life just couldn't get better,anymore things cannot really go wrong could they?and then it rained!

*The rain made the woods even more beautiful and it took a toddler's delightful clap to get us out of our cynical selves and appreciate it* Ah, The joys of parenthood comes also with lessons.