It's been unseasonably warm here in NJ for the past week or so. Temperatures should be in the high 40's/low 50's, and it's been 60 + since Thanksgiving. Not that I'm complaining. I greatly dislike the cold - so much so that I boycott visiting my in-laws, who live in Montreal, from November until May. When Greg and I were still dating, we took a week off in January and went to Montreal and Quebec City for the Winter Carnival. I have never been more cold in my life! And, ever since that trip, I blatantly refuse to travel north of Woodbury Commons in the winter. I was born to live in the tropics. Or at least somewhere that doesn't get temperatures below 50 F. Think San Diego. That place has the perfect climate!
Based on this knowledge of myself, I am trying to plan (with Greg) a New Year's trip to somewhere not too far away (a few hours by plane at most) as our Christmas present to each other. Greg came up with a great idea to go to Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville's always been on my "places to see" list. It's a mecca for music lovers, and lots of extremely talented people got their start in the tiny metropolis and made it to the big time (The Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, Martina McBride, Charlie Daniels, you get the idea). It's also home to the "Music City Bowl" for college football. If we go to Nashville to celebrate the new year, we are going to make sure we get tickets for the bowl game and make time to listen to tons of live music. It should be an awesome time! My only concern is that it will be cold-ish in Tennessee at the end of December/beginning of January. The average lows are in the high 20's/low 30's, and the highs are only in the mid-40's. Although this won't be as cold as the negative temps we experienced in Quebec City a few years ago, it's also not Caribbean-like "sit-on-the-beach" weather we'll be paying to stay in. For roughly the same amount of money in airfare, we can probably get to Southern Florida or even one of the Caribbean islands for our trip. But we've been to both places, and, though beautiful, the beaches all kind of start to look the same after a while. It'd be great to have a truly warm weather vacation in December, but I think I'll have to just pack some warm layers and be ready to cheer on whatever team makes it to the Music City Bowl.
Hopefully we'll make a decision soon! I started looking at hotels in Nashville to get an idea of how much money we'll be spending to sleep, and realized that many of the hotels downtown have absolutely no vacancy for New Year's weekend. And I will not sleep in a Super 8 or a Red Roof Inn -- all part of my growing up and requiring certain creature comforts - especially when I'm travelling. I need to be comfortable enough sleeping in a place that I can't hear what the people in the next room are doing or watching on television, and I also need a place that doesn't have mildew in the shower. Small things, yes, but surprisingly not uncommon among the lower price hotels. Hooray for being old!!!
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