How to vacation like a real adult

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My college best friend and I went on our first vacation, post-graduation. This trip was completely different from anything we had planned during our time in college. We didn't have the same financial means or real-world experience to book and plan the perfect vacation.

Here's what we learned:

First things first, recruit the moms.

Having never truly planned or budgeted a vacation before, we were completely clueless~ We both tried our best to find a hotel close to the beach and within our price range, but this was truly a job for a mom. 

My rockstar mom got us on the beach and in the perfect location close to restaurants and nightlife. Mom pro tip: stay in two different locations. On Friday, we booked a smaller hotel further away from our destination. When we switched hotels for the rest of our stay, we were straight on the beach with more money in our pockets.

Secondly, say yes to every adventure.

That's how we wound up getting matching anchor hennas, meeting new friends to go to dinner with at the beach and killing Christina Aguilera karaoke. 

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We catch up every two weeks on the phone, but it was important for us to maximize our time because we never get to see each other! By the end of the vacation, we were super tired from staying up all night and waking up super early, but now we have fun memories and crazy stories to tell.

Third and final, make traveling part of the trip. 

In all, we spent 6+ hours driving to and from our final destination. We used it as an excuse to jam to throwbacks (I'm talking Jesse McCartney and The Cheetah Girls), catch up and stop at different food and coffee shops along the way. 

I think this vacation re-energized both of us as we headed back to work on Monday.