Travel Suggestions Needed!

Today the husband and I went for an early morning run.  My personal pledge is to never use any form of the verb “to hate” with any form of the verb “to run.”   However, I can tell you that running is an activity that, for me, varies from barely tolerable to outright loathsome, but that I nevertheless participate in for reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog post.

This is me at the end of a 5-mile race.  Not a pretty sight.

Anyway, I often require distraction on a run to keep my spirits up, and that was definitely the case this morning.  (We were doing Fartleks, a diabolical form of exercise in which periods of jogging are interspersed with frequent periods of sprinting.)  The husband, who coached high school running at his previous school, is a good sport and is always willing to accommodate me.  (That is, accommodate my need for distraction, not my slow pace.)  He knows very well that travel is the best topic to pursue if he wants to prevent me moaning and whining most of the way.  (Unfortunately, he’s also figured out that he can use it to distract me from noticing he’s led me down the long route until it’s too late.)

(If, like me, you’d rather read about running than actually do it, here’s a related post: Should This Thanksgiving Tradition Be Banned?)

The topic I chose today – fun to discuss and relevant – is where we should go for a long weekend this fall to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  We’d love to do something longer, but that’s pretty much impossible with our teaching schedules.  Instead, there is a built-in four-day weekend in mid-October that will work perfectly.

So we tossed around a few ideas: Miami, New Orleans, Charleston.  After several paces the husband added that he wouldn’t mind going to Houston because it’s an aerospace hub.  I immediately replied that I was nixing Houston.

Me: I’m nixing Houston. (huff, puff)

The husband: What?!

Me: I don’t want to see science-y stuff on our wedding anniversary trip. (puff, gasp)

The husband: You can’t nix destinations.

Me: I thought it was understood that we could nix each other’s extremely bad destination ideas. (wheeze, puff)

He didn’t like that and immediately increased the frequency and length of the sprinting portions as punishment.

Property of the science geek husband

By the time I staggered to our back door, I had settled on putting the question to my readers.  So this is where I need your suggestions.  First, though, a few rules:

1. It has to be a direct flight from our local airport.  With just four days, I’m not fussing with layovers and multiple legs.  Thus, I have a narrowed-down list of places from which you can choose that meet this criterion and that have passed the “first impression” test.
2. It has to be moderately warm.  By mid-October, we here in the Midwest are well on the downward spiral toward winter, so freezing on this trip would put something of a damper on it.

And now, the choices:

Charleston, South Carolina

Pros: We’ve wanted to go there since we listened to Charles Kuralt’s America on audiobook ages ago.

Cons: We’ve always wanted to take the Bobbie on a southeast road trip that would include Charleston, Savannah, and the Smokey Mountains, so we’re kind of saving it for that.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Pros: Again, it’s been on the “we should go there” list forever.  Kinda wish we’d done it before Katrina.  (Note: the “we should go there” list is not to be confused with the Dust-Farm-Pail List, which is a different kind of list altogether.)

Cons: Not sure what’s there besides Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.  We’re the “early to bed, early to rise” types – would The Big Easy be a good fit for us?

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Pros: What’s not to love about Albuquerque?

Cons: We were just in New Mexico this past summer, and we’ve been to Albuquerque before.

Miami, Florida

Pros: Beaches, warm weather, and a chance to eat Cuban food.  Also, serious incentive to drop 10 pounds.

Cons: It just might kill the husband to be there and not go diving.  Also, it’ll be hurricane season!  See also New Orleans cons.

Lake Tahoe, California

Pros: Natural beauty

Cons: Google Maps® tells me it’s an hour-long drive from the Reno airport.  Now we’re talking about the fuss of a car rental.  Also, it kinda makes it a two-leg trip, which we are trying to avoid.

San Francisco, California:

Pros: I haven’t been since I was 18 and the husband has never been.  It’s another place on that “we should go there” list.

Cons: Not sure what the weather’s like mid-October.  Also, would we be tempted to squeeze in wine country and end up overloading our short stay?  What’s worse, it’s very hilly.  The husband would almost certainly make me do hill sprints.

Nassau, The Bahamas:

Pros: Tropical paradise that appears to be the same distance away (and has the same weight-loss incentive) as Miami.  Also, the husband can check it off his peculiar “former British colonies that I’ve visited” list.

Cons: It’ll be hurricane season!  Also, isn’t it in the Bermuda Triangle?!?

So help me people!  Can you weigh in on any of these destinations with authority?  I welcome desperately need your input.

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Update: If you’d like to know the destination we ultimately chose, you can find it here.  And thanks to everyone for the input!! 🙂  If you still have thoughts and ideas to contribute to this conversation, please don’t hesitate.  If the husband plays his cards right, there will be more anniversary trips to plan in the future!