Mileage Maniac

Jason and I did a lot of traveling before Emily was born. We visited New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Birmingham, New Orleans, and St. Lucia. We traveled all over Italy, Scotland and England. Then Emily arrived and our hobby of traveling came to a screeching halt. The two of us have not left the state together since before she was born... until now. In less than two weeks, we're off to San Francisco for the weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary!

Planning this trip reminds me how much I love travel and lately I've been daydreaming about big trips again. I hoard frequent flyer miles and actually get many more from dining and shopping than I ever have from flying (enough to send us to Italy for free!) AA once gave 2,500 miles to anyone who would test drive a Lincoln. We stopped at the lot for 5 minutes -- long enough to tell the salesman that we had no intention of buying a car, but we'd be happy to waste his time for a signature. He quickly signed the form for us and we walked away with 5,000 more miles between us. I even entered (and won) an essay contest online once about how I'm a "mileage maniac" -- super corny, but very much worth the 25,000 mile prize!

I've already started calculating... I have enough miles for the three of us to fly to London in Coach. Orrrr Jason and I could fly First Class to Paris! (À tout à l'heure, Emily!) I'm not sure how long I can handle being away from her, though... Our weekend away will be a new record at two nights. The thought of taking her on a long flight, however, is equally as scary. I'm fairly certain we'd be that family on the airplane... The one you hope to God you don't have to sit near. Maybe if I expect the worse for her first flight, I'll be pleasantly surprised when the time comes. Or not.

I don't know if we'll actually do a big trip anytime soon, but it's fun to think about. For now I'll continue daydreaming and racking up miles. We'll talk it over more while doing all things touristy in the Bay Area. I've already looked up where I can dine for miles while we're there.