I recently had a chat with an old friend.  She and I had a nostalgic conversation that started leaning towards what if's.  I felt myself slipping into memories and thoughts, like a stranger staring in the window of a store.  As if now, in present day, I was on the outside peering into what wasn't mine anymore.  Anymore.  What a strange word.  They were my memories, that was my life and surely that was me in the story.  But what I found to be most strange was that person had this selfish, lust for life in a sort of carefree belonging to no-one spirit.  I suddenly felt un-accomplished amidst my two beautiful children and standing in the house my family helped build.  Weeks after this realization, I suffered a panic attack and several bouts of melancholic days and finally after 6 years, I decided that I was giving everything to everyone else around me and for myself I didn't have anymore.

There's power in numbers.  Especially when those numbers include several elderly people and a multitude of children. We basically take over terminals, hog all the Ubers and stay at the swankiest spots.  Am I embellishing?  Maybe just a bit.   We travel so much with family, I hardly remember what it was like to travel solo.  It's kind of like being a Mom.  You forget what it was like to use the restroom without someone requesting assistance, (in the form of pounding down the door) for important tasks:  Like finding Lego Batman's missing right arm.  That's why I'm sharing my ultimate travel hack guaranteed to make your national vacation one that you can actually enjoy.  What would you give to not sleep in the same room as your snoring in-law?  Your right arm? Let's just leave it at Lego Batman's right arm, if I can find it...