I knew it was going to be a bad week. Then Facebook made it worse.

Every winter for the past few years my family has been privileged to travel south in search of sun, surf and a week of “sitting back” to take a break from the unpleasant realities of the Canadian cold. During the last three years, we’ve always flown south on February 14^th in order to accommodate The Boyfriend’s university teaching schedule and take advantage of his reading week break.

Now whenever I check Facebook, it sends me “Memories” of photos and posts past from our last three vacations, just as the cold and snow are biting especially hard here this particular winter. Yes, I miss the sunny warmth, the sand between my toes, and those all-important decisions about what time to get up and when to jump into the pool. But, for me, travelling is so much more: it’s about the break from the routine of our daily lives and often represents the highlight of the year. Travel is the punctuation that keeps our lives from being just an endless run-on sentence of work and school.

The first pleasure of travelling is making the plan. Where will we go this time? Where haven’t we been before? What language do they speak there? What’s the currency and exchange rate? Does the flight schedule fit into our dates? How long is the transfer from the airport? Is the price right? This all involves endless enjoyable hours looking at photos on the internet and doing research on the various destinations.

Once that has been established and the trip paid for, there is the actual getting ready. Making lists and checking them twice to make sure nothing essential gets left behind. This can entail the least pleasurable aspect of travel preparation – going out and purchasing a new bathing suit because last year’s doesn’t fit anymore. Then there are the tasks of arranging pet care and placing the newspaper subscription on hold. Finally, it is time to order the too-early morning taxi for the ride to the airport.

The actual flying isn’t my favourite part of the experience either, but right now I would be overjoyed to be crammed into a commercial airliner with a bunch of equally underslept and overexcited strangers, inhaling the smell of jet fuel as we all impatiently wait for the plane to be de-iced.

The arrival in our destination is a relief – and an assault on our senses. We wend our way out of the crush inside the airport, having successfully navigated customs and luggage retrieval, all while avoiding various vendors and unscrupulous time-share salespeople. Outside the terminal, the heat and new smells hit us – welcome, but still overwhelming. The palm trees wave hello. Our ears attune to the new ways of speaking. We are getting close to our promise of paradise!

Darn, our room isn’t ready yet! Yes, please hold on to our suitcases while we explore. We get branded with our waterproof resort bracelets that scream “Tourist!” to every local with a pecuniary interest in purportedly optimizing our vacation experience. Welcome cocktail? Sure! Blech – let’s go find a bar and a real drink.

Now to scout out the place – restaurants, bars, pool, beach, entertainment locales. Spa? Too expensive. Gym? Pass! Still feeling jetlagged and disoriented, we finally get into our room, recently vacated by last week’s visitors, now en route to the airport. That’ll be us this time next week. Never mind, just live in the moment!! We’ve got seven glorious days to cram full of sun, sand and great experiences.

The next morning, we are up bright and early to face the representative from our tour company who explains about the details of our departure (what happened to living in the moment?). Then on to the salespeople hawking the overpriced day excursions. No, I don’t want to get drunk on a fake pirate ship! Maybe something more authentic? Yes, a trip to the rainforest sounds good! So does that snorkeling outing. The ruins? Sure, why not? Can’t just sit around all week.

With all those decisions behind us, all we need to do is hang out by the pool or walk the beach. Let the tipping (in U.S. dollars) begin! And the reading, crosswords, snoozing, eating and relaxing. Ah, paradise found!

The days whiz by and all too soon we are on our return flight. The same discussion that occurs every year ensues – why didn’t we book ten days? Or fourteen? Oh yeah, work and school. Retirement is looming large – then we’ll stay longer.

Finally, we are home and it is nice (except for the snow). Nice to sleep in our own bed again, use our own money, drive our own car, and not have to tip everyone for everything. The pets are thrilled to see us home. Isn’t it great to get away for a few days so that we can enjoy returning home? Time to start planning the next escape. …

No worries, Facebook, we’ll be making new travel memories as soon as we can!