Travel & Thank: Day 1. There Are Two Sides to Any Story

What a perfect start to the vacation! What a fantastic first day!

At the C.-Country airport I was met by some guy with my name written on the plate he was holding – mom and aunt arranged a car for me. I was at aunt’s house door early, at just 20 minutes past 6 in the morning: it was still dark outside, and even though it was already technically a morning it still felt like deep nighttime. Regardless of it being so early, both mom and aunt were up waiting for me. I got all the warmest greetings, hugs and kisses and was invited to the table to have my early breakfast after a mostly sleepless night flight... And I was served nothing less but pancakes with red caviar!! One of my most favorite meals! This unexpected fix of luxurious Omega 3’s in the morning felt truly indulgent.

A few warmly mellow hours were spent chatting and catching up. After all, it’d been almost two weeks since I hadn’t seen them – mom and aunt left for country C. before me and were to leave shortly after my arrival. At 9 mom and aunt announced we were all to go lingerie shopping at this new boutique they had discovered with the help of a helpful neighbor… They actually even presented me with a garment they bought for me already, and at 9 am off we went to indulge some more. I was encouraged to try on absolutely everything I only laid my eye on and when I chose two beautiful bikinis and a gorgeous beach dress my aunt just paid for them all – she said my birthday was coming up soon anyway, so I could totally use an early present. Stunned and happy, off I followed them further into town to visit a few more shops, have lunch at a cute outdoors café and shop for fresh fruit at the local market. This vacation is off to a luxurious start!

Sounds pretty good, eh? However, there are two ways to look at it. all Being me, I chose to focus on all the positive things. But maybe someone else would have rather moaned about getting a bad tummy ache during our lunch break on the town, would have mentioned having to take painkillers for it and having to go back home sooner because of it. Maybe if I looked at the negative side of the day I would have whined about those 5 hours I had to spend in bed and not being able to enjoy the pool or even be out in the sun much. I could’ve focused on that, but instead I chose to realize how amazing my day was and be thankful for it.

I’m thankful the stomach cramps didn’t bother me during my flight – it would have made it hardly bearable. I’m thankful I had a chance to start my morning so beautifully, I’m thankful the stomach  cramps weren’t yet there when we were shopping and I could actually try on all the clothes comfortably. I’m thankful I was cared for and catered to by my loving mom while I was in bed and aching. I’m thankful I still felt well enough to get better fairly soon and got a chance to meet the neighbors, chat to the friendliest ones and be goofy with an adorable and incredibly social 9 month old Jacob, who looked like a little turtle in his bathing toddler gear. I’m thankful I had a perfect relaxing finish to a perfect first day in C.-Country, and I’m thankful I had my beloved laptop that I could take with me and had an opportunity to write down all of the above.

What would have YOU chosen to focus on?

Disclaimer: Travel & Thank™ is a mini-project within and is part of The ‘Thank You’ Project blog ©2009-2010. Travel & Thank™ updates are featured twice a week, are pre-written and not made in real time - each post was created during the author’s actual vacation in the mid-fall of 2010. For privacy reasons, the names of the persons, places and geographical locations may have been shortened, abbreviated or changed and are not subject to disclosure.