I’ve been listening to a lot of Jimmy Buffett music this week.

Maybe it’s because yesterday we booked our 10th anniversary cruise and I’m pretty excited about checking out a different part of the tropics than we’ve visited before, but also, island music just has this natural way of slowing life down that I think we can all use a bit of from time to time, and so during my recent errand running and trips to pick up the child from school, I’ve been queuing up some of the classics…

One Particular Harbor

Son of a Son of a Sailor

A Pirate Looks at Forty

Good god, am I actually approaching that fateful age myself now that I’m officially past the halfway point of 35?! Oh no… 😯

I feel like it’s a state of mind that I have to steer myself back towards from time to time, and coincidentally I almost always find myself thinking that I need to do this kind of stuff more often – things like walking on the beach and enjoying the sea breeze in your hair while the sun sets over the horizon, enjoying a nice dinner of shrimp and crab and even a cold beer even though I don’t really drink beer any other time anymore, or putting the windows down and taking the long way home while we listen to the perpetual beach bum himself sing about wasting away again in Margaritaville and the magic of the islands and vacation and plenty of free-flowing rum to help keep the senses duly lubricated. 😉

The last time we went on a cruise (circa 2012, I believe?), we made it a point to stay on the boat … mostly because money was tight and partially I think also because of my undiagnosed social anxiety. We wandered around the little shopping complex at one of the ports, but that was about it, and it was nice but I do think I’m actually looking forward to getting out and exploring a bit more with this trip, even if “an excursion” means a ticket to a beachfront resort near the port where we can enjoy a nice local lunch and sit with our toes in the sand, and maybe take in a bit of snorkeling along the shore one afternoon!

My main goals are really just to relax and to reconnect with Sara, what with it being our 10th anniversary together and all. 😉 I look at the brochures with all of these zip lines and kayaking through caves and outback jeep adventures, and admittedly they do make me feel a bit old. If it’s just the same, I’d much rather wander at my own leisure, wade in a (relatively) quiet beach and take in the scenery, and just enjoy the magic at my own pace … without feeling like I’m one beer away from a spring break shore excursion!

It’s going to be a good time, and I have little doubt that they’ll have plenty of both Jimmy Buffett music and rum packed on the ship to boot.

Only 144 days and counting…