Overanalyzing 2018’s Plans

I’ve never been so confused about travel-planning, so this is just me trying to work it out on my blog. Here are the competing factors that are impacting our 2018 plans:

Lack of vacation days. We moved a couple of years back, and in finding a new job I took a major hit on available paid time off. My previous employer was supportive and generous, and if you scroll back on my blog, you’ll see our trips ranged from 11-14 days in length. Not only do I have less time now, but the environment also seems, shall we say, “implicitly conservative” about vacations, i.e. my requesting a two-week trip (paid or unpaid) may be unprecedented.
The stressed-out husband. Meanwhile, my husband works long hours and the stress of his work takes a toll on his mental and physical well being. He got used to our two-week trips, and insists that we need to plan another one in 2018. He is unconcerned about the issues I raised in #1!
Family trip. Our family has booked another all-inclusive trip, and they want us to go. We had a blast the last time. But I have to refer back to #1, #2, and this other thought that spins around constantly in my head: Life is short and unpredictable, and the world is huge. And the cost is not ideal since we’d likely shorten our stay. In my experience, the value in all-inclusive trips is found when staying 5+ nights, and that’s not an option.
Where to go? So yeah, determining how long of a trip we can take impacts the decision of where we are going. With two weeks, we’re leaning towards road tripping through Oregon and Washington. Machu Picchu is near the top of my list, but I think we’re a little too late in the year to plan it. If one week, give or take a day, I’m wondering if we can squeeze in the appropriate time in Costa Rica.

So how do I solve my so-called First World Problems? Ideally I will wholly eliminate #1 (inspiration: this), but that’s unpredictable. The second, and probably best, option is to stop avoiding the subject, make the request for two weeks, and hope for the best. Perhaps just writing this down has given me the motivation to deal with it this week! With the effort required to plan a two-week trip, I guess I need to find out the answer sooner than later….