We had scheduled the most awesome vacation for this past July – travel to Chicago by train in a sleeper car for a Square Dance convention!\u00a0 Plus visit some family in nearby Moline, IL, and then spend a few extra days in Chicago and fly home.\u00a0 We were REALLY looking forward to it.\u00a0 But, alas, it was not to be – Lis’ mom got sick in the spring, and we ended up canceling this and a couple smaller trips to be available for Lis’ mom and family.<\/p>\n
After Lis’ mom passed away in September, we decided it was time to reschedule our long-delayed vacation.\u00a0 We also decided that, after our rough several months dealing with terminal cancer, we deserved to splurge.\u00a0 And so we booked ourselves for 10 nights at the Four Seasons Lanai<\/a>.\u00a0 Lanai is a private island just off Maui, and is essentially deserted, so we should have plenty of what we are craving, which is peace, quiet, snorkeling, and someone else cooking.<\/p>\n We have been telling people that we are splurging because of the difficult time we just recently went through, which is basically true.\u00a0 But (and here is where I am spilling the ugly truth) — we would have gone to the Four Seasons anyway.\u00a0 The truth is, it turns out we really love luxury travel.\u00a0 And, it turns out, we both feel fairly embarrassed, or at least self-conscious, about loving luxury travel.\u00a0 And so whenever we splurge on a stay at the Four Seasons or a Regent cruise<\/a>, we always have these long explanations about how we found a really good deal, or how this or that happened, or something to downplay the whole thing.<\/p>\n But\u00a0we’re trying to work on just owning the fact that this is what we like.\u00a0 Everybody has something that they’re willing to spend extra on – ours just happens to be stays at high-falutin’ resorts.<\/p>\n So\u00a0no more shame!\u00a0 Out and proud!\u00a0 We’re here, we stay at the Four Seasons, get used to it!\u00a0 (Maybe our slogan needs more work…)<\/p>\n