What? Vacation planning doesn’t sound like a hot date night? I disagree. I continually find that traveling with my husband shows me something completely new about him (like when we went to Mexico a few years ago and out of nowhere he busted out fluent Spanish. Me: “YOU CAN SPEAK SPANISH?!”). So I really look forward to planning new vacations and making new family memories.
Plus, we’re finding that as our life gets busier and busier (just like everyone else’s), setting aside time to properly plan for vacation is actually hard to do. That’s generally how we end up in random places with no plan, googling and yelping as we travel there, which sometimes turns out awesome (Vieques, for example). But we’ve got a big vacation on the brain that is going to take some serious planning: The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
My husband and I went to London for the 2012 Summer Olympics and didn’t know we were going until about 5 days before we left. Joel happened to have work in London at the time, my inlaws graciously agreed on short notice to take the kids, and that was that. We had a few event tickets from a client, but like the good Jersey boy he is, my husband hustled the rest. Now we’ve been to London many times, so we were fine spending a lot of the time schlepping all over town tracking down random ticket sources, pub-hopping as we went. But I want to actually see Brazil and we want to take the kids, so some real planning is in order. And working together on a challenge proved to be so much fun the last Olympics, that I happen to think it’d make a great multitasking date night in. Here’s what I’ve got cooking ….
1 / I love Lonely Planet’s guide books, which I’d definitely pick up beforehand. We’re thinking we might do a week at the Olympics in Brazil and then possibly a week after in neighboring Argentina.
2 / Staying in for date night doesn’t mean you can’t fix yourself up. I love Kate Spade’s Brazilian-inspired collection, including this Ipanema Scatter Necklace.
3 / What would a South American vacation planning session be without Mara Hoffman’s bright colors? This little shirt dress even has alpacas!
4 / Caipirinhas. Did I even need to say it?
5 / Even planning ahead, alcohol + sugar = lets make some impulsive decisions (e.g., “yes, of course we should go for the room upgrade!”). I’d make these traditional Brigadiero for sure.
6 / I have travel bags stuffed full of maps, brochures, ticket stubs, etc. I’d like to do this one right and get a travel planner/journal. This all-in-one book has room for itineraries, checklists, and journaling.
Let the games begin!
A Feteful Life 
