.png)
Drinks With the Dinks
Long-term love, no filters, and zero boundaries. We're a couple almost 2 decades in, serving up the realest relationship talk — the laughs, the fights, the freaky stuff, and everything in between.
If you’ve ever loved hard, argued harder, or overshared after one too many — this one’s for you.
🎧 New episodes every Monday. Hit follow and grab a drink — it’s about to get deep.
Drinks With the Dinks
009 The Good, Bad, and Hangry: Vacationing as a Couple
Ever wonder what happens when those picture-perfect vacation photos disappear from social media? The raw, unfiltered moments of couple travel are exactly what we're diving into this week. From crying behind sunglasses after an argument to the strategic coordination required when navigating new destinations together, we're pulling back the curtain on what traveling as a childless couple really looks like.
We take you through our favorite destinations, with the Pacific Northwest and particularly the San Juan Islands holding special places in our hearts. Emma shares her emotional connection to seeing wild orcas and how that experience shaped our travel preferences moving forward. You'll hear about our division of travel labor (spoiler: one of us does all the planning while the other just drives), and the infamous "Yellowstone Breakfast Incident" that nearly ruined an entire day of wildlife viewing when hunger and poor communication collided.
Perhaps most revealing is our comparison between traveling alone versus with friends who have children. After recently experiencing both scenarios, we break down the stark differences in flexibility, cost, and overall vacation experience. While we treasure our time with friends and their kids, we candidly discuss why child-free travel works best for our relationship—from sleeping in separate hotel beds to spontaneously changing plans without considering nap schedules.
Whether you're the planner or the driver in your relationship, you'll find yourself nodding along to our travel tribulations and triumphs. Share your own vacation argument stories with us—we're convinced we can't be the only ones who fight over missed turns and forgotten phones while still posting those "relationship goals" photos hours later.
Follow us on Instagram!
Hello everyone, my name's Ryan.
Speaker 2:And my name's Emma.
Speaker 1:Welcome to.
Speaker 2:Drinks with the Dinks. Welcome back to another episode. We actually just got off of a cruise, a little friends trip, so we thought why not talk about what it's like to vacation together?
Speaker 1:Yes, this was actually our second annual friends cruise.
Speaker 2:We weren't going to go on this trip, but somebody talked me into it.
Speaker 1:You're going to turn down a vacation.
Speaker 2:No, vacations are life for me.
Speaker 1:You have two more planned already, don't you?
Speaker 2:I do, you just don't know it yet.
Speaker 1:All right. So vacationing as a couple, vacationing as childless couple where do you want to begin?
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about where we like to go. I guess we can start and give a little background about where we love to vacation.
Speaker 1:Where we like to go the most or just in general.
Speaker 2:I think just in general.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we're I would say we're West Coasties.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, we are PNW people. We love it. I love the coast. I'm like not a beach girl but I love those beaches over there in the PNW, the mountains. I'm a mountain girl at heart so I love being anywhere the mountains are, so we love going to the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1:And our number one favorite spot is.
Speaker 2:Washington State.
Speaker 1:The San Juan Islands.
Speaker 2:We love the San Juan Islands. I'm a big orca lover so that's like my favorite place. We go there about every I would say two to three years Is that right Two to three, we went there for our honeymoon.
Speaker 1:We did I mean it wasn't right after we got married, but I think a year or so after yeah, we went a year after and I just I never would have thought.
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously we were like, okay, we want to go see Orcas, we're excited about that, but I just never would have fallen in love with a place like that the way that I did you cried. I did?
Speaker 1:I sobbed because you were always a fan of orcas.
Speaker 2:I wanted to see willie guys, I brought my free willie necklace I don't know if any of you guys had the VHS and then you got the necklace with it. I legit brought my free willie necklace. And then I also brought a harmonica and literally on the San Juan Islands I played the harmonica and they came um, not for the harmonica, but they did I think it was but we did see them. It's one of the most spectacular things I've ever lived through, and so we really want to retire there.
Speaker 1:I love it so much hopefully retire there within the next couple years help us out.
Speaker 2:We'd love to be able to just move across the country and help a girl fulfill her dream. That's my dream, that's my life goal. I don't need a huge house. I will live in a tiny house on a plot of land.
Speaker 1:I live in a van. I know I would live in an RV not a tiny little van, the biggest RV you can find.
Speaker 2:Yes, I want a massive RV.
Speaker 1:Basically a house on wheels.
Speaker 2:Yes, essentially, but other places we love. We actually just went to Yellowstone this year and that it's so crazy. It's so vast and there's so many thermal features I just I've never seen. Obviously I've never seen anything like it in my life.
Speaker 1:It was like another planet.
Speaker 2:It did look like another planet. It was outstanding. So I will say I love that, love the tetons national parks. Yeah, we're big national park people. I mean, like I said, we just got off of a cruise, so we do love cruising. I grew up cruising with my family, so that's always been a thing for me and that's how I got into cruising.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is family that's right, and so we've always loved that. But we go to the same places. I guess, technically, with the mountains, we go to the same places too, but I don't know. The mountains are just in my heart and soul. That's where I need to be um.
Speaker 1:The mountains are calling and I must go.
Speaker 2:Is there any? We have not. I will say we have not been overseas to like Europe yet, and that's that's definitely where we want to go eventually. But I'm just so nervous about I.
Speaker 1:We've planned trips. We have planned, we've had trips booked, but we never actually go through with it.
Speaker 2:Like Italy. We've booked two times. Covid happened so we couldn't go, and then we had a cruise booked over to Greece and Italy and I just I'm so terrified of the travel aspect, like going overseas and like transit, I don't know. It absolutely terrifies me. I need to get over that fear so that we can go, but I do. I want to go see Greece, I want to go see Italy, I would love to go to Norway. Obviously it's very similar to like Alaska.
Speaker 1:That's where you want to swim with the whales.
Speaker 2:Oh, my lifelong goal is to swim with orcas. I will do that one day, hopefully sooner rather than later and I will film it from inside the boat no, you are jumping. This man will never swim with dolphins, which I don't really condone that like in captivity. Anyways, you're terrified we've said this before you're terrified of anything that's larger than you. So I, I would actually like to film you like. I would love to like push you in the water.
Speaker 1:I would have a heart attack. I would die.
Speaker 2:That would be my burial site oh, they could smell the fear on you I mean, I love orcas they're my favorite, one of my favorite animals, but I'm okay not swimming with them. No, if we're paying thousands of dollars, you would be getting in the water with me.
Speaker 1:You have to, though I have to pay just to be on the boat.
Speaker 2:Yes, so you might as well jump in with me. Oh my God, that would be so funny.
Speaker 1:I think that would go viral.
Speaker 2:So I think I'm more of like a cool weather, girly mountain girly. I hate being hot. So even though the cruise was fun, it's like miserable outside. You just want to be in the water at all times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not too big on the tropical. Every once in a while is good, but for the most part mountains, cool weather, climate, like I think. Let me pull up the weather right now.
Speaker 2:Are you pulling it up?
Speaker 1:I'm pulling up the weather right now. Are you pulling it up? I'm pulling up the weather in san juan island, so currently it is 59 degrees oh, that's a dream with a high of 72 oh my god, I would love that that's perfect just year round.
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously it's mid-summer right now, so it's gonna drip, dip down, but but I mean, that's my perfect summer weather not 104 degrees, no thanks, so we? I think out of college is when I really was like you know what balls to the wall I'm gonna travel bug yes, I was like I'm gonna travel. We did like I said. We did cruises with my family so much that I I I only saw the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I only saw the same like three or four places in my life and I'm like I am so tired of you know wasting vacation time to just go on cruises to the same exact places and I'm like I want to branch out and see other parts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to see the world. So I think that's really when I started saying you know what? I'm going to plan as many trips as I can, even when we're not financially able to afford them. No, we are, but it's definitely a lot. I mean, it would be a lot more if we had kids.
Speaker 1:But 100 percent.
Speaker 2:What would you say are our jobs when traveling? Like what, oh?
Speaker 1:this is easy like because starting from the point where we decide, hey, let's do a trip right, how?
Speaker 2:how do we vape? I would say, how do we vacation plan like? What does that look like for us as a couple? How do we vacation?
Speaker 1:all right. So what I do is I get told what we're going to do, and then we get there and then my job kicks in. So you're admitting, so I think you need to talk about how we vacation plan, because I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, you thought of the topic jobs and I'm like what does he actually think he's going to say was his job? Because he doesn't plan anything.
Speaker 1:Listen, I know what my job is and I do a great job at it, but my job has not come up yet, so you need to start with your job of how the whole planning process goes.
Speaker 2:So I book every single vacation. He acts like he doesn't want to go to these places. I do.
Speaker 1:I don't act like I don't want to go.
Speaker 2:I'm saying you just said like well, I do talk to him and say like hey, these are like the vacations I'm thinking of doing. Are you okay with those? So I'm not just booking something and saying like, deal with it, it's places that we want to go.
Speaker 1:I mean honestly, I would go anywhere.
Speaker 2:Right, I would go anywhere with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not the place, it's just. I'll go on any trip.
Speaker 2:Once I see that price tag kind of kind of hits me for somebody. Somebody does get mad at me of the prices of some of these, but it's okay.
Speaker 1:It's okay. Are you talking to yourself?
Speaker 2:I think memories mean more. You see all those posts that it's like travel now, worry about the money later. That's so my mindset mindset and it's so actually irresponsible, but I don't care. We've made some great memories over the last 18 plus years together, traveling.
Speaker 1:So it's all thanks to you.
Speaker 2:I literally book everything. People always say, oh my God, you should be a travel planner. I don't know how well I do doing it for other people, because I travel plan to specifically what we want. We're a very specific type of person like. We're not overly adventurous, we like wildlife watching, we like small trails taking our time yeah, taking our time.
Speaker 2:so I will go like on Pinterest and find, hey, like the itineraries. I love those blogs that are like oh, here's your three day itinerary for this and that, and then I book everything and then plan out every single day. So I literally get on a map and I like map everything out to say, okay, here's what we're doing day one, day two, day three. So I map it to a T and then we fly there, we get there and then I think your job really kicks in.
Speaker 1:Yep, we pick up the car and I start driving.
Speaker 2:And then Ryan's job is to drive everywhere. I do not drive, I don't even think I get on the insurance most of the time. I just let you do the driving and you know what. He's perfectly fine with that, so that's fine. You do have another job, though. You take all the photos, you, so that's fine you do have another job, though you take all the photos you record. Okay, ryan loves photography, it's one of my hobbies. He's got some good photos out there. I will say that We'll have to post them sometime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm the driver. I enjoy driving, especially out west.
Speaker 2:Yes, because it's not boring.
Speaker 1:There's stuff to see wherever you're going and it's beautiful, it's so beautiful, it's just a whole nother experience than driving where we are right now.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite vehicle to drive?
Speaker 1:Truck, 100% truck. But hey, some people ask you know, can you handle it?
Speaker 2:We went to Yellowstone and they were like running out of vehicles. I booked like the cheapest car there is and we get up there and I looked outside in the parking lot. I'm like there's literally nothing left. And the guy was like hey, do you want a truck?
Speaker 1:And I In front of this man.
Speaker 2:I said, Ryan, do you think you can handle a truck?
Speaker 1:In front of this man.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that was so demasculating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that a word? I think so I was like the nerve I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'm like, is it a shift like a stick shift truck?
Speaker 2:or if it was a manual, then we would have a problem because, right, I'm not trained in that well, I mean, I didn't know if you could handle a big like f. I drove a truck for work years ago but you did good and now you want a truck 100% after that it was really nice. Actually, that was one of my favorite vehicles we've ever had. Perfect for the dogs we got to just sit on the back when we went animal watching and just posted up on the bed of the truck and took photos and watched animals and it was amazing.
Speaker 1:We lived our Yellowstone dream, our Yellowstone dream. Speaking of Yellowstone dream, though, two years ago was when we were originally supposed to go to Yellowstone.
Speaker 2:It is so we actually, I think it was three years ago, it was 2022. Yes it was 2022. So I had I'd planned this two week extravagant not extravagant, but two week trip. We were going to go to Grand Teton, we were going to Yellowstone and then we were driving down to Rocky Mountain National Park. So we did Grand Teton and the night before we were leaving for Yellowstone there was like a slight rain storm Slight rain.
Speaker 2:It was not a lot of rain. So we woke up and it was our time to go to Yellowstone. And you know, if you've seen it on the map, grand Teton and Yellowstone they're back to back. So we just drive up about an hour, we get to the ranger station to get into Yellowstone and they go yeah, so sorry you're not getting in at the gate, like at the gate, and we're like what? What do you mean?
Speaker 2:and they go yeah, so sorry, you're not getting in. At the gate. Like at the gate, and we're like what, what do you mean? And they turned every single person away and we were like what is going on?
Speaker 2:so finally, like we start seeing the news where roads had like completely flushed out washed away I was sobbing because usually, like, if things don't go to plan for me, I am devastated and I don't do well in those situations, so I'm like sobbing. We were like do we stay here and see if we can get in tomorrow, or do we change our plans? And I think you were like let's stay and see if we can get in. And I was like there's no way they're letting us in there tomorrow with roads completely gone.
Speaker 1:I'm an optimist oh my god.
Speaker 2:no, that would have been pointless, so I had to rework that entire part of the trip and then we ended up going to Steamboat Springs in Colorado and then went to the Rocky Mountains. So while that was horrible, it's a funny story. We talked to a lot of people in Yellowstone about how we were at the gate and they shut everybody down and we heard some crazy stories about people evacuating. But I'm glad it didn't happen then because I feel like it would have been rushed and that two-week trip and this way, we had more time this trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did a whole week there, so I think I'm more appreciative. We have what we call travel angels. It's like all of our family that's passed and I truly think they watch over us and give us the best trips possible and. I think that was them saying like nope, this is not your time to go to Yellowstone. Your time will be when you have, you know, like a full week to really appreciate it. And I feel like we really did this time.
Speaker 1:whenever we're on trip, there's always something that's like oh my God, that never happens, or the weather's never this beautiful.
Speaker 2:Like, or it's like, oh, the week before it rained or the week after it snowed and we were there at this like ideal timeframe.
Speaker 1:Always works out.
Speaker 2:We get very lucky. I'm very appreciative of that.
Speaker 1:So driving my job, and then that's about it. Right, I'm done my job's over.
Speaker 2:And I think we both pick food places. I'm not like a huge foodie in that sense where I'm like, oh, I want to go try the local food.
Speaker 1:So we're just kind of I usually just pull up a map and be like how does this sound?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, pull up a map and be like, um, where we want to go. How does this sound?
Speaker 1:yeah sure, I will say what I really recommend this.
Speaker 2:Um, it's not an ad, but I just I would love it to be an ad, but get, uh, not get your guide. Oh my gosh, guide along. Oh my god, we love that, yeah, guide along. So it's like, um, somebody who talks to you and it based on gps.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's based on gps and it will tell you things as you're driving and tell you different pull-offs. So we use that for the first time at yellowstone. Amazing I was when we were leaving the park and the guy was like all right, well, we hope you had a good time. I actually got a little sad because I was like, oh my god, we've.
Speaker 1:I feel like we know we're leaving a friend right.
Speaker 2:I feel like we know this guy for an entire week and he was really helpful because, even as much as I'm a planner, there was stuff that he was like, hey, pull over here, that I didn't even look up. So I really recommend it. It's called guide along.
Speaker 1:I think they do a lot of national parks yeah, and I think they said they're adding more yeah every year, so I would 100 recommend yeah, that was amazing oh I'm reminiscing on the trip now. I miss it. How did you say we plan or decide where to go? Well, how do you decide where we go? Because you want it to be something for both of us, that we both would enjoy, but how do you make the decision on where to go? I don't know you just? Oh, I saw this place on a video, or probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, we should I mean we usually pick, like you said, like out west is where we usually choose to go and I just kind of stick to the national parks yeah, I mean we're trying to tick off all the national parks tick off. Who are we ticking off? The list I really we need to. We need to go to, like the Arizona places, the Utah places. I do know the Grand Canyon is having a massive fire right now, so my heart goes out to.
Speaker 1:The Grand Canyon. Yes, I didn't hear about that. You haven't seen that.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, my heart goes out to everybody who's battling that or who's, you know, lost something. I know the lot, like one of the big lodges, got burned, but it said I saw a news article that said it was the smoke plume is so big it's creating its own weather.
Speaker 1:Jesus.
Speaker 2:So my heart goes out to everybody who's dealing with that right now?
Speaker 1:Do we know what started it? Because of the heat?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I can't remember, but oh, but that's going to be so devastating. We haven't been to the Grand Canyon, so that's definitely on our bucket list, so I hope that they can get that under control.
Speaker 1:Is it on your thousand places to see before you die?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you did get me that book and I need to go through it.
Speaker 1:How is it? I've been hoping.
Speaker 2:I plan things for myself.
Speaker 1:Just like everything I buy you Never used. That's all right.
Speaker 2:But I'm sure it's on there. Well, I did want to talk about what it's like traveling together as a couple, because, you know, as amazing as our trips are, there are things that I think every couple fights, you know, when you're traveling together. I mean, you fight at home, you fight when you're on a trip. So what is it like surviving a trip?
Speaker 1:with your significant other. I think the added stress also can cause more fights than normal, oh for sure. Because you're out of your comfort zone. You're in a place that you don't know if it's the first time traveling there. So it can definitely cause more stress and I will say we've gotten better. I'd like to think we've gotten better.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 2:We've had more practice on trips, so I am a lot calmer, Like when we started traveling, like oh my God, I would be a freaking wreck on planes and just like it would be. Like oh my God, what's going to happen when we get there. And I lately have had this overwhelming sense of calm, like as we're starting the trip. I feel like that's really helped tensions not be so high. That's helped me a lot. And then I've really had to tone down on some things, so like I've got a list of things that I have to survive with you.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you have the same, I have no lists oh, okay, this is a list of things like I need to do or things you need to have with you to be able to survive traveling with me no, it's surviving.
Speaker 2:The trip for me is like what I have to deal with the bullshit with you. That's part of this list.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 2:You don't have that list for me. No, what did you mean by surviving the trip then?
Speaker 1:just talking about how to survive a trip with a significant other when things are, you know, not going perfectly oh well, no, I have specific items that I've listed I, I feel like we can't be the only couple who goes to this.
Speaker 2:They're just like specific little things that just kind of piss you off about your significant other and it really gets highlighted. Okay, it really gets highlighted when you're traveling together. I mean, obviously, if you're a couple and you live together, you see it every day. But again, I think, just like the heightened tensions of traveling and trying to make sure everything goes smoothly, that that just makes it worse okay, okay, well, I'll start, okay, because I only have one thing that I could think of, and it's something you've gotten better at okay, it's
Speaker 2:backseat driving I that's part of my thing I figured for you. Yeah, backseat driving oh my gosh you used to be the worst oh, he pisses me off when driving. I like we've gotten in literal arguments to where I'm sobbing and like we're not speaking for hours because I've talked about his driving. So the thing with his driving and I have had to tone down, but it just like it eats me alive, like the internal anger that I get.
Speaker 1:I am not good at directions.
Speaker 2:And having to like have this pent up, it's just really like oh my God, I need to get this out somehow. So for him, he's good at directions. And having to like have this pent up, it's just really like oh my God, I need to get this out somehow. So for him, he's horrible at directions. And if he doesn't turn, this is the thing I don't know. If you know that you do this, Okay One, you never turn around. Yeah, yes, yes. I cannot stand this.
Speaker 2:So when he misses an exit, he just keeps freaking driving and I'm like why, if you knew we were supposed to turn back there? Why are we just driving aimlessly in the wrong direction?
Speaker 1:I'm looking for a good place to turn around. Turn the freaking car around. I don't want to turn around illegally.
Speaker 2:Why are we going 10 miles down the road to an entirely different state at this point like to explore when we could have turned around eight miles ago. That angers me so much all right, 10 miles is a little exaggeration no, you go so far 10 miles, I go 10 miles and then you expect me not to be like hey, what are we doing? Like why aren't you pulling off and turning around here? It makes what, so what, I don't get what you're like. Why do you do that?
Speaker 1:because I'm looking for a safe place to turn around. We've already around in the middle. We've already passed 15 other exits.
Speaker 2:Why are you continuing?
Speaker 1:on. All right, settle down. This is usually like pulling out of a parking lot or something that we're just going down the wrong road or, if we're not on the highway.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Or if, like, we have already been to that place and you don't know where we are, to me and this is I will say you can make fun of me. Yes, this is completely irrational. I cannot stand it. If cause I? So when we go someplace, let's say we go there day one, I know my place, I know my way around. Day two, like I've got it down, pat same with like a cruise, like all right, if we've been there day one, I know where my room is, exactly to a t. He does not know where we are. He could, he. We've lived in our area for you know 15 years. He still doesn't know where we are. Oh yeah, the Wawa is this way what. We've lived here 15 years, the Wawa is not that way. So, like, imagine being in a new place and he just doesn't know where we're going. Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:It irritates the hell out of me. Does it irk you? It does. Is it an ick, Like when we went on the cruise and you kept turning down the wrong hallway?
Speaker 1:I did it once. I'm going to punch you in the face One time Because that's not where our room is. I did it once. I turned down the wrong hallway once One time and it was like I mean, it was a three day cruise, but it was like the second day. But things like that I have limited brain, yeah, I don't know that part of the memory part of your brain that is not important for me.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, that's why we got gps so like but you don't, if you, you don't even listen to the gps, sometimes you just drive right past it sometimes, sometimes I'm not paying attention.
Speaker 2:I'm getting really, really worked up right now I'm getting very heated, so there's things like that, even though I know that that's completely irrational, because you're on a trip, you don't know where you are. I get it. So that's, that's on me, that's definitely on me. Um, I will say another pet peeve I have is you forgetting things. Why do I have to make a list for you?
Speaker 1:You don't have to make a list, to remember, to bring things.
Speaker 2:You don't have to make a list for you.
Speaker 1:You don't have to make a list to remember to bring things. You don't have to make a list for me.
Speaker 2:If I forget something, then it's not meant to be, and if it's really important I'll buy a new one it's just like how do you not know that you don't have your phone on you, like when we went and parked at the cruise terminal. We get out of the car, we go down in the elevator and it's weird that I say this. I was like do you have your phone? And you're like, oh no. So we had to go back up, go to the car and I'm like, who doesn't make sure that they have their phone on them?
Speaker 1:somebody that's trying to live in the moment before we get out of the car and get on this cruise. I don't need my phone, but you do that a lot.
Speaker 2:You forget things. I think we forgot like a camera one time and that really pissed me off I don't remember one our trips, we forgot one of the cameras. So like I'm heavy on making a list the night before and then I literally go through and check it off and make sure that I have everything, I don't know what you do to pack or get ready, but it's not working.
Speaker 1:All right, shit talker. Yellowstone trip What'd you forget?
Speaker 2:What did I forget?
Speaker 1:Your face cream oh.
Speaker 2:I did. Oh, oh, was that not on your list? I bought um. Ask me what I forgot. What'd you forget? Nothing I did. I bought face cream cause I wasn't going to put makeup on. So I wanted um some moisturizer with SPF and I completely forgot it. But that's not the same as like forgetting your cell phone.
Speaker 1:It's not the same at all. I'm sorry that the sun doesn't harm your skin.
Speaker 2:I don't need my phone, it's not the same at all what I do want to bring up, and I would love to get people's opinions on this. So please comment if you, whatever side you're on on this.
Speaker 1:My side.
Speaker 2:No, I want to talk about the Yellowstone food incident. All right, let's talk about it, let's get in it because, I would you know, we both think we're on the right side of this, so I want to know what your opinion is all right, I'll start okay so the night before, I believe, you planned a lovely, uh early morning, yes, uh, wildlife expedition so we were.
Speaker 2:We wanted to go to lamar valley. We wanted to get there before sunrise. We were like an hour away so we woke up around three ish in the morning so we could go pretty early right, go see, like we wanted to see, if we could see wolves or grizzly bears or anything else that's out there yeah, pretty early.
Speaker 1:Uh, pretty early start. I'm not used to starting until like early six. Six is an early start for me. Okay, so we're starting ass crack dawn before that, before anybody's awake. And the night before, I believe, we had a conversation that we would get breakfast around nine. Okay, I think you said we'd be back. Oh, we'll be back by nine. We'll get a nice sit down breakfast. Yeah, whatever. Oh great. Okay, I think you said we'd be back. Oh, we'll be back by nine. We'll get a nice sit down breakfast. Yeah, whatever. Oh great, perfect. Wake up, do what we need to do, go get breakfast, perfect. Well, nine o'clock came and gone. You can take over from now.
Speaker 2:So we were still out there. It was a very beautiful, enjoyable morning.
Speaker 1:Beautiful.
Speaker 2:But then we had the hour-long car ride back. So we're driving and he's like starting to get irritated. We did find I think it was called like the Roosevelt Lodge, but it was already in between breakfast and lunch.
Speaker 1:And I was getting hungry by this point because I was promised that we would be back by 9 to eat breakfast so. I'm hungry. I had expectations.
Speaker 2:They were not met. Okay, ryan doesn't normally eat breakfast, so it's like for me.
Speaker 1:When you wake up at 3 am, your body starts to get hungry.
Speaker 2:Ryan, what's the problem? You don't eat until like 1 anyways any other day. That is a lie 1?.
Speaker 1:Don't know I eat at like 10.30. Okay, whatever.
Speaker 2:So we go there. He's obviously pissed off, but it's closed.
Speaker 1:I'm what.
Speaker 2:Pissed off.
Speaker 1:I obviously pissed off, but it's closed.
Speaker 2:Oh, you, I'm what pissed off. I'm obviously pissed off. So you, you did notice. Well, obviously, because I wanted. I was like can we go take a picture of this deer? And you're like no, so then we get in the car and it was a deer, are you kidding?
Speaker 1:it was at the lodge yes a real one are you joking? I don't remember that. Yes, I was.
Speaker 2:let's stop and pull over and take a picture of the deer he had. Like he was a buck, he had big.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought you meant while we were walking in the lodge.
Speaker 2:No, Okay, no, so we get back in the car and keep on driving. And finally we did find a pull-off that we could go to and I go pull over and as we're getting out of the car, I'm like, are you mad at me?
Speaker 1:The one thing you don't want to ask.
Speaker 2:And you said don't even talk to me. Don't even talk to me, I'm hungry, that's all I said.
Speaker 1:Oh, I said I'm hungry.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if you're hungry, what do you need? Food, food, and once you get food, no, but you were so mad.
Speaker 2:I feel. No, but you were, you were so mad, I don't. I feel like that's not what you said, because, but you were like, don't you dare talk to me, I don't even want to talk to you. So then, obviously, I get out of the car, we walk to the food I'm like crying behind my sunglasses and we get food and we start eating. Oh, what do you know? Somebody starts talking to me uh-huh.
Speaker 1:So if somebody talks to you no, what do you do?
Speaker 2:no, you were so rude in the car so I'm like sitting there crying and I'm like, well, I'm not gonna talk to you. So he's oh yeah, do you like your hot dog? Oh, did you like the animals? And I'm like you. You told me not to talk to you and then the yet. Then you get mad at me because I said you told me not to talk to you and then the yet. Then you get mad at me because I said you told me not to talk to you and you say have a great trip, we won't talk the rest of the trip. And so we spent an hour driving back to our hotel. I'm crying. I wanted to do all these nice pull-offs because it was so we hadn't seen the mountains, because we were driving when it was dark, and he's like I'm not pulling over, so I'm just sobbing on the way back. You never apologized. All you did was, after we took a nap, was try and cuddle with me, and that was your stupid way of apologizing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you told me not to talk to you, so why would I then go talk to you? After one, you were mean to me. Two you told me not to talk to you, so why are you striking?
Speaker 1:up a conversation with me because I had food and I was fine well, you didn't say don't talk to me until I think we have food, no, and like you were so mean about it.
Speaker 2:So I'd like to know, please comment, whose side are you on? Would you be petty as well and say well, if you're not going to talk to me, I'm not going to talk to you. Even after you've had food, you told me not to talk to you. I want to know whose side you're on.
Speaker 1:So you just called yourself petty.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, oh.
Speaker 1:Look at you.
Speaker 2:But why would I talk to you if you were mean to me and you just told me not to talk to you?
Speaker 1:Because I'm striking up a conversation with you, so you know you want to be a good person and talk back. You could have easily apologized. I'm like, hey, sorry, I did apologize I said I'm sorry that you didn't understand how I was feeling the hell up. So those are some things that I'm sure that's the real shit yeah, I'm sure any couple goes to things but that's the shit you don't see on Instagram.
Speaker 2:No, it's not On social media, you see.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God, I'm so happy to be with my guy.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, it's the perfect trip, because what?
Speaker 2:did we post later that day Like a picture of us like cuddling, looking at the mountain views.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's so cute.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile, just five hours before I'm sobbing on an hour-long car ride right, but you know what? That's, that's what we do.
Speaker 1:That's what couples do that builds character, and now we look back and laugh on it. In earlier years that little blow up probably would have lasted a week probably, but you know what?
Speaker 2:we've gotten it down to six hours well, I think that's funny, because do you know why it only lasts six hours I cuddle with you and you no, because I have to get over it when you don't freaking apologize to me. That's the issue. So the reason these fights aren't taking long because I'm forced to get over it. Any women out there? Does he just not apologize? Am I the?
Speaker 1:only one. I told you I apologized. You did not. I said I'm. You didn't understand how I felt.
Speaker 2:No, you need to learn how to do an actual apology. Any therapist would like to come on and coach him on the correct way to apologize to your wife. We would be happy to have you on Anything else. That's about all. Somehow I can think of surviving the trip with you. That's it. Yeah, are there other things?
Speaker 1:I don't know. If that's it, then we're doing great.
Speaker 2:I think for the most part we like the same things. We like taking things slow, taking in nature, spending the time taking photos.
Speaker 1:I think if we didn't have the same interests not interests but the same expectations, I guess of a trip, then it would not be good, like when we go on French trips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's so much harder.
Speaker 1:Because some people just want to go, go, go, go go. We are not like that. We like to take it slow, sit at a place for 30 minutes taking pictures where they want to. All right, let's get to the next spot. Or it's like if there's wildlife viewing, I'm waking up at the ass crack of dawn.
Speaker 2:For that, yeah, me too, because I'm the one taking pictures and I have to.
Speaker 1:So you're forced to, because that's our itinerary and you didn't help plan anything I will say I feel like it's a lot easier waking up that early on vacation. Weirdly, oh for sure, because I mean, I don't know, it's something special well, and you for us?
Speaker 2:we, we always build in a good nap after so always depending on who we're traveling.
Speaker 1:If it's just us, always a nap, right. If we're on a solo trip, always a nap. Now can you do that with kids?
Speaker 2:I don't think so suckers so you want to talk about because Yellowstone and most of our trips we do alone, solo child free. But these last two cruises we've done have been with our friends who do have kids and it is definitely a striking difference between traveling with and without children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the cruise that we just got back from was our friend's cruise, so it was us and two other couples. Both of those couples have two kids, boys. They are older. I think the youngest one is, I want to say, 10. Oldest one, 16. 15. 15, 15 years old. So they range from 10 to 15. Four, four kids, four boys. And it was funny. I would say funny is the word I would use to describe it it's funny because I don't think um.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't consider our one group of friends traditional parents no like, not what you see not at all but, like if I was a, I'd probably want to be like them, right, because they are more what would you say? What word? Carefree, a little looser, yeah, I mean, they're strict, but they have more freedom, which is how I would want to be, anyways, traveling with these uh families and the kids. What, uh, what did you notice?
Speaker 2:so I I've listed like experiences with children versus, you know, traveling child free. So with children it's just like they obviously have their own wants and needs that they want to do understandable and so on a cruise.
Speaker 2:It does help and, like we said, they they give their kids a little bit more freedom so they do get to go off and kind of do things that they want to do by themselves. But then also sometimes the parents would leave and be like, okay, we're gonna go do this with the kids on the cruise and you know we're all in the pool like drinking, and then they have to leave and go watch their kids do do the flow rider do the flow rider, and so it's like, oh, oh, like they have to go take their kids.
Speaker 1:I have to leave the or they have to like chaperone them to do that because they're not old enough to do certain things by themselves right.
Speaker 2:So it's like you know planning a trip, and then it's not just about what you want, it's about what the kids want, or what the kids can realistically do Like you're not hiking to a mountaintop with a three-year-old.
Speaker 1:Well, I did see, when we were at Yellowstone, a couple people with the little kids on their backpacks. Oh, what about that dog? We did see.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, See, I would do that with my dogs. Oh, what about that dog we did see? Oh my god it was. See, I would do that with my dogs. There was a little frenchie who was at grand prismatic and they had him in a baby carrier, on the dad's back, and he was he was back, just smiling, he was having the best time.
Speaker 2:See, I would totally do that with my dogs, but I think obviously there's a lot more planning that goes into it with kids, because, okay, we need snacks. What are they gonna eat what? What are they going to drink? They don't want to go to some bougie dining thing, I will say the kids did really good when we went to those fancy restaurants but they are older they are older, yeah, but makes it easier it does, and they do eat more sophisticated.
Speaker 2:But god, if these were kids who only wanted chicken nuggets, I don't know how that would have. That would have worked out. Um, I, yeah, that's one of the things I put, like trying to eat dinner all together, I think work things around them right?
Speaker 2:um well, another thing is just like the fighting oh my god with a sibling sibling fighting, with it being four boys of different ages, I was like, oh my god, like kids, it was a lot kids putting each other in like a headlock, and then the other one crying, and then the older one was like I don't want to deal with these kids and I'm like, oh my god, this is a lot for me to handle. Like that's a lot of emotions, a lot of having converse, pulling the kids to the side you need to get along with your brother blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, oh my god, that life is just it was exhausting just watching like we walked up on them and the parents were gone and I'm like yeah, I mean. I'm not. Yeah, I'm like I'm not great with kids.
Speaker 2:So the parents had left and we had just gotten back from eating and I'm like, hey, kids. And then I'm like the one is in the corner crying and I'm like, well, I don't even, what do I do? I'm not gonna parent them, what am I? What am I supposed to do? I don't know what happened I just gotta let them cry it out so like they're not, the siblings aren't talking, and I'm just like okay, you guys, you guys have fun now so it's, and then the parents came back and dealt with it yeah, and then it's just taking time to deal with it.
Speaker 2:Oh my God.
Speaker 1:What a buzzkill.
Speaker 2:Ruined our trip and they're listening. Your kids ruined our trip. Man, I'm just kidding. What is that voice? I don't know. I would say the added cost to bring kids. The added cost to definitely bring kids, because for us, when we price out a vacation like, let's say, we want to go on like one of those new royal, royal caribbean ships next year next star of the seas we love royal caribbean, by the way.
Speaker 2:So for us we're only trying to get one room for two people and we're like trying to talk them into let's do this, and they're like that's like ten thousand dollars. For us we have to get a whole nother room for two kids and we're like, oh, come on you could put all four in one, oh, but then you got to stay with your kids the one couple did that I'm like no, absolutely not bless them.
Speaker 1:Yes also, I don't know if you have this on your list um nooners, like if you, if you're sharing a room with a kid. I don't know if you have this on your list nooners, like if you're sharing a room with a kid. I don't know if this is on your list. No, it's not Okay, like what if you're, you know, feeling a little frisky and want to get a little alone time?
Speaker 2:That's impossible. The kids have to be out of the room. I think they were almost caught at one point because the kids came back. That's just something I don't want to deal with, although I will say for us we go on these trips and do we have sex every day? Absolutely not. We're lucky for like once or twice a trip, because we're out doing stuff all day and I'm not there for a lovemaking session. I know I'm there to experience what we're there to experience, but you know, if you're in the mood, that does make it very difficult you gotta time it right, but I think being a parent like you have to do that anyway, even at home.
Speaker 1:I think, I think I hear yeah, you gotta kind of.
Speaker 2:I'm sure I will say another thing. It's just the hazards that come along with taking a kid on trips with you yeah. Like, for example, the cruise. You know, god forbid, what if the kid falls overboard or something.
Speaker 1:That had just happened over on a.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that Disney cruise. The child fell I don't know what really happened and then the dad jumped in. So that's something you have to worry about on a cruise getting lost. So not this past year or not this last cruise, but a year ago we went to Coco Cay and one of our friends their kid, thought they were somewhere else, so he hopped on a tram and went to the other side of the island and we weren't with them because we were at the adults only section so we had no idea any of this was going on.
Speaker 2:I was too busy at the swim up bar but I guess they had like an hour long search to try and find this kid and he was just lost on the island, yeah, just riding the tram back and forth they couldn't find him. They finally found him. I can't imagine how terrifying that is as a parent. No, so there's just all these hazards. And then, thinking about yellow, you think your anxiety is bad.
Speaker 1:No, I would not make it.
Speaker 2:I would not make it. Or like thinking about Yellowstone, yellowstone, they've got all of these thermal features, geysers wild animals. Yeah, wild animals. And if you you have to stay on the boardwalks in the paved areas, god forbid. What if your kid stepped off and felt like somebody no-transcript them and they go off? Or those bison are nasty out there. So if, like, a kid gets too close, it's just so many hazards that I would not want to be responsible for. No.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was a teenager, I think I went to SeaWorld with my cousins. Okay, so I was older, they were a little younger, but SeaWorld has that obstacle course where the kids can climb through.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess one of my cousins had gone through there but never came out. I mean he had eventually did he's still alive, um but he went in and, like his mom, my aunt was like where is he, yeah, and I was like I don't know, I mean, I was probably 16 were you probably 16 so you were the responsible party?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, here's another thing here's another thing I lost her shit, oh where was he? I think he was still in thing. I think he went in but then came back out like the entrance way, because I think it was supposed to go in one way and then go through and come out the other way. But but I don't think he did that. I think he went in and then turned around and came back out through the entrance.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. See, that's just stuff I don't want to deal with. Yeah, my anxiety would be at an all-time high. Is my anxiety taking over me? Yeah, I don't know why. That reminded me of a field trip when I was younger. And my childhood best friend got on the wrong bus and people were freaking out. But my mom was a chaperone and had my childhood best friend right next to her, but people were freaking out. It's just like things like that, like just accounting for all the kids, like where are they at all times?
Speaker 1:I mean, I remember when I was a kid I was supposed to get on a bus to go to, like, after school here no I walked home. This is a when I was a kid. I was supposed to get on a bus to go to like after school care. No, I walked home.
Speaker 2:This is a kindergarten.
Speaker 1:I was in kindergarten. I tried to get my friend. I was like hey, let's just walk home.
Speaker 2:See, kids have a mind of their own and you just don't know. Yeah, that's not, that's something. I love traveling, and I can only put up with you.
Speaker 1:I mean, you got one child to watch.
Speaker 2:And all of your shenanigans, I will say I do love traveling with our dogs, so that's something that I'm trying to do more of, and I mean that's still. Anxiety yeah that's still something to worry about.
Speaker 1:We went to oh my God, are they having fun?
Speaker 2:I do think about that. I'm like, like, are my dogs having fun? A few years ago we went to Helen Georgia right after Christmas and this is so stupid. But like, I want my dogs to have experiences and I'm sure that's the same way parents feel about their actual children but we went and it was snowing and I was like half in tears because I was like, oh my god, my dogs are seeing snow for the first time and I'm like they loved it.
Speaker 2:They do not give a crap that it's snowing, but I took a video and I was you know, it's a good memory for me and we stayed on a creek and they were playing in the creek and we had a big backyard and they were just running around like crazy in the big backyard and that's what I love, the big backyard, and that's what I love. So I think we're definitely trying to plan more with our dogging kids in the future and just seeing them have those memories and us having memories with them. So I get it, because to me that's those are my children that I want to make memories with. So I definitely get. Obviously, people want to travel and have those memories with their actual children differences.
Speaker 1:We don't have to worry about ours fighting or putting one in a headlock and the other one crying, and then we have to scold them and talk Get along with you. Yeah, get. Along.
Speaker 2:What would you say the perks are of traveling child-free? Do you have a list? I actually have some things that I.
Speaker 1:What was the question I zoned out?
Speaker 2:Oh my, we're filming.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I was thinking about the dogs and how cute they are. They are so cute.
Speaker 2:Do you have any pluses of traveling child free Child? Free. Do you have any pluses of traveling child free?
Speaker 1:Pluses of traveling child free.
Speaker 2:What are the perks to you? I have some very specific things. Yes, saving money um peace.
Speaker 1:Yes, what do you got?
Speaker 2:I have that. We get our own beds, and not every couple does this?
Speaker 2:but I like to get a quick like two queen beds in a room and we sleep separately and you can I mean I guess you could do that if you got two rooms with the kid but if you're sharing a big room you're sleeping with your husband or you're sleeping with a kid, but I love just having our own beds. On vacation, I would say in general, it's just easier. Like I have down flying like flying is so much easier. You're not having to put the kid in front of an ipad or hearing them cry or I need to go to the bathroom every five seconds.
Speaker 1:So I think worrying about where they are in the airport.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, yeah, the airport is so scary, just keeping them occupied for, like if we were doing a long flight, because it takes like six hours to get to seattle, and even for me I'm like, oh my. God this is a long flight, like just trying to keep a kid occupied. That long you don't have to deal with a tired kid, so like cranky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just have to deal with you.
Speaker 2:I have to deal with you, so we can be out as long as we want, do what we want. You know, sometimes we do have really long days. Oh yeah or like that, that long morning where we were out from 3 am to like 11 am. You couldn't do that with a kid. They'd be whining and wanting to go back to sleep, and so it's nice to really just have it on our own terms. I think we talked about this before less costly and then not having to worry about the hazards. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So those are some of my big things for traveling child-free.
Speaker 1:I will agree with all of those Just thinking about our next trip and how great it's going to be without a child. Where are we going next?
Speaker 2:So I would love to plan a few more weekend trips for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1:Well, we've got to follow. Keep up with our 7-7-7.
Speaker 2:7-7-7-7.
Speaker 1:We've been doing good on the weekly outings. Um, but seven days, seven weeks, seven months, right yes so we need to do one. What seven weeks from now?
Speaker 2:yeah, because it's like a day trip or a weekend trip. So I would love to do something with the dogs at this point. So I I really want to plan a few of those, but also, I don't know, next year I really want to talk my parents into going back to banff and going to glacier yeah so I think that's my goal for next year, for our big trip is glacier national park and banff national park and then star of the seas we have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 2:If you can convince your friends and I know you're listening if you could convince your husband to go on Star of the Seas, I might go with you.
Speaker 1:Oh, there it is.
Speaker 2:Calling you out right now there it is, if you can convince him I might change my 2027 cruise and go on Star of the Seas with you. That's all I got to say.
Speaker 1:All right, you heard it here first.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, Well, we hope that, whether you're traveling with kids or traveling without kids, that you have a good trip. Let me know are you the planner in the relationship? Is your spouse the planner?
Speaker 1:Do they just drive like me, or did they just drive you crazy like me?
Speaker 2:How often do you fight?
Speaker 1:I want to know do you fight? I want to know do?
Speaker 2:you have fights that are very similar to what we have. I can't be the only one who is still really upset by my lack of apology that I perceived.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry you felt that way. Stop it. Well, that's all for now, until we drink again. Bye.