There are some parts of vacation that always make it into the pictures.

The incredible view.

The national park sign.

The waterfall.

The beautiful road disappearing into the mountains.

The sunset that somehow looks even better in person.

And then there are the other parts.

The gas station bathroom.

The pile of dirty clothes.

The moment when everyone is starving and nobody can decide where to eat.

The hotel room that looked perfectly organized for approximately four minutes after you walked through the door.

The fact that you haven’t had a vegetable in three days.

Those parts don’t usually make the vacation album.

But they’re part of the trip too.

Because no matter how beautiful the destination is, you don’t stop being a regular human being just because you’re on vacation.

Vacation Looks Different in Pictures

I love travel pictures.

I take plenty of them.

They’re how I remember the places we’ve been and all those little moments I don’t want to forget.

But pictures have a funny way of cleaning up a vacation.

You can look through someone’s photos and see beautiful scenery, amazing meals and incredible places and think:

That trip looks perfect.

Maybe it was a great trip.

But I can almost guarantee it wasn’t perfect.

There were probably boring stretches of highway between those beautiful views.

There were probably bathroom stops.

Someone got tired.

Someone got hungry.

Something didn’t go according to plan.

Because that’s what happens when you take real people and move them hundreds or thousands of miles away from home.

Real life comes with you.

You Still Have to Do Regular Life Things

I don’t know why, but there are moments on vacation when the ordinary parts of life feel especially offensive.

I don’t want to do laundry.

I’m on vacation.

I don’t want to figure out what we’re eating again.

Didn’t we just eat yesterday?

I don’t want to stop for gas.

I don’t want to reorganize the luggage.

I don’t want to figure out where I put the charger I swear was right there.

But unfortunately, vacation doesn’t come with a pause button for normal human maintenance.

We still need clean clothes.

We still need food.

We still need sleep.

The dogs still need to go outside.

The vehicle still needs gas.

And somehow our belongings still manage to migrate across an entire hotel room even though we swore we were going to keep everything organized this time.

Sometimes You’re Tired in Beautiful Places

This might be one of the biggest differences between imagining a vacation and actually taking one.

In your imagination, you’re standing at a beautiful overlook completely overwhelmed by the scenery.

In reality?

Sometimes you’re standing at a beautiful overlook thinking:

Wow. This is incredible.

And also:

My feet hurt.

Both can be true.

You can be grateful to be somewhere and still be tired.

You can love a national park and be ready to go back to the hotel.

You can be having an incredible road trip and still be completely over sitting in the vehicle.

Being uncomfortable for a moment doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful.

It means you’ve been traveling all day.

The Weather Does Not Care That You’re on Vacation

The pictures usually come from the ten minutes when the sun came out.

They don’t necessarily show the wind.

Or the rain.

Or the temperature that was completely different from what you expected when you packed.

We’ve had travel days where the weather changed what we could do.

We’ve had plans that didn’t happen.

We’ve arrived places and realized that whatever version of the day we had imagined wasn’t going to be the version we were getting.

That’s travel.

The destination doesn’t know you’ve been planning this for months.

Sometimes you get the perfect day.

Sometimes you get clouds.

And sometimes you get a really good story.

You Still Have to Decide What’s for Dinner

Why is this so hard?

At home, figuring out dinner is annoying enough.

On vacation, somehow it becomes a nightly strategy meeting.

What sounds good?

What’s nearby?

What’s still open?

Do they have anything everyone will eat?

Can we take the dogs?

Are we eating there?

Are we taking it back to the hotel?

How long is the wait?

And after a long day, there comes a point where I no longer need a memorable dining experience.

I need food.

Preferably soon.

Nobody takes a picture of the 25-minute conversation that happened before dinner.

They take a picture of dinner.

Not Every Moment Feels Magical

There are moments on trips when we’re doing nothing particularly interesting.

We’re sitting in traffic.

We’re checking into a hotel.

We’re waiting in line.

We’re driving through an area that isn’t especially scenic.

We’re stopping for gas.

We’re trying to find something we misplaced.

We’re standing around waiting for the dogs to decide that yes, this particular patch of grass is acceptable.

Those moments don’t make the highlight reel.

But a trip isn’t only made up of highlights.

There are hours and hours between them.

And I think sometimes we set ourselves up for disappointment when we expect all of those hours to feel like vacation too.

Sometimes they just feel like Tuesday.

Except you’re in Utah.

Things Go Wrong on Good Vacations

We’ve had things go wrong on trips.

Plans have changed.

Places haven’t lived up to expectations.

We’ve been tired.

We’ve forgotten things.

We’ve had vehicle problems.

We’ve stayed places we wouldn’t choose again.

And none of that automatically makes the entire trip bad.

I think that’s something I’ve gotten better at understanding.

A bad hour doesn’t have to become a bad day.

A disappointing stop doesn’t have to become a disappointing vacation.

And something going wrong doesn’t erase everything that went right.

Sometimes it simply becomes the part of the story everyone laughs about later.

Maybe not immediately.

But later.

You Can Love Traveling and Still Want to Go Home

Toward the end of a long trip, something strange starts happening.

I can still be having a wonderful time.

I can still be excited about what we’re seeing.

And I can also start thinking about my own bed.

My own shower.

My own couch.

My normal routine.

The convenience of knowing exactly where everything is.

After spending weeks excited to be away from home, suddenly home starts sounding pretty luxurious.

I don’t think that takes anything away from the trip.

Actually, I think it’s one of the things I like about traveling.

Leaving makes me appreciate things I normally don’t think twice about.

And coming home feels good in a completely different way.

The Pictures Aren’t Fake—They’re Just Not the Whole Story

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing the beautiful parts.

Those are the things I want pictures of too.

When I look back at a trip years from now, I probably don’t need photographic evidence of every gas station we stopped at.

I’m perfectly happy remembering the mountain instead.

But I also don’t want to convince myself that a great vacation is supposed to look like the highlight reel every minute I’m living it.

It isn’t.

There are beautiful moments.

There are ordinary moments.

There are frustrating moments.

There are moments when you’re tired, hungry or ready to call it a day.

And then sometimes, right in the middle of all that regular life, you turn a corner and see something incredible.

That’s the part you photograph.

Maybe That’s the Real Version of Travel

I don’t need my vacations to be glamorous.

Honestly, most of ours aren’t.

We’re driving around with two dogs, luggage, snacks and probably something rolling around somewhere in the vehicle that nobody can identify.

We’re staying in practical places.

We’re eating ordinary meals.

We’re doing normal-life things in places that aren’t normal to us.

And every once in a while, we’re standing somewhere absolutely incredible.

I think that’s why I love travel as much as I do.

The ordinary parts don’t disappear.

They just happen between mountains.

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Keep Reading

What Actually Makes Travel More Comfortable?
The things that make a trip feel luxurious aren’t always expensive. I’ve learned that comfort has much more to do with how a trip actually feels than how impressive it looks.

The Luxury of Having Nowhere to Be
One of my favorite travel luxuries is waking up and realizing there isn’t anywhere else we’re supposed to be.

The Best Travel Memories Usually Aren’t Planned
Some of the moments that stay with me the longest weren’t attractions or carefully planned stops. They were the things that happened along the way.

The National Park I Still Feel Like I Haven’t Seen
Sometimes a trip doesn’t turn out to be the version you pictured before you left—and that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth taking.

What Traveling With Dogs Has Changed About the Way We Travel
Traveling with dogs adds plenty of ordinary responsibilities to vacation, but they’ve also changed the way we experience the journey.

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☕ Comfort Corner

Real life comes on vacation with me, so I appreciate the little things that make those very ordinary parts of travel easier.

My Owala Water Bottle
It isn’t glamorous, but neither is being thirsty halfway through a long driving day. Mine stays close by when we travel.

My Merrell Shoes
Beautiful scenery is a lot easier to appreciate when I’m not thinking about how badly my feet hurt.

My Travel Backpack
Travel comes with a lot of stuff. I like having the things I reach for throughout the day together instead of digging through our luggage every time I need something.

My Fire Tablet
Not every vacation evening needs an activity. Sometimes I’m perfectly happy getting comfortable at the hotel and reading for a while.

Find all of my travel favorites in one place.

You can browse my Travel Comfort & Style Amazon Storefront to see more of the things I actually use when I travel.

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Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. That means if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I personally use and genuinely believe make travel more comfortable. If it hasn’t earned a place in my travels, you won’t find it here.

Travel isn’t about having the perfect gear. It’s about finding the little things that help you enjoy the journey a little more. These are mine.