My family has been sheltering in place for months. Four trips that I had planned, canceled. I thought of using some of my vacation days, for a staycation. But I felt that is was wasteful to just take off time to stay at home and watch Netflix all day. I just desperately needed to get out of my home office, close the laptop, and not think about all the emails piling up. 

We are in a pandemic, I get it. But, I still need a vacation.

With the stay at home order in place, I knew the only option was a staycation. But how could I take a break within the same four walls that I had been occupying every minute, every hour, for the past few months? How could I be excited to stay in the same place I had been stuck in.

I came up with a staycation idea to trump every other vacation plan I have ever had. Read on, for the first part in a six-part series on My Epic Staycation.

My parents took us on family vacations pretty often. It is something I kept as a tradition with my own family. A yearly vacation, with my kids, somewhere. As my kids got older (my oldest is married), we have tried to keep the tradition going. 

Until this year. 

This unprecedented time warp of a year. 

Are you feeling this way too?

We are ‘stay safe and stay healthy’ mode. No unnecessary shopping trips, No travel. No visits with friends and family. I am sure everyone has seen the video of that little girl in turmoil as she exclaims “even McDonalds my favorite restaurant is closed!”. She feels my heart. 

I was sad, extremely sad, until I thought of a brilliant idea. 

Enter the “Staycation Around the World Tour”. 

Ok, ok, so I did not actually come up with the idea, Epcot did with their World Showcase. But I am bringing it home guys, I am bringing it home!

Five days of virtual visits to five different countries. Full of food, drinks, virtual tours, music, and movies. I wanted to plan a packed itinerary (as I normally do).

Planning

My family huddled and we picked countries. Making sure all of our senses were covered – I created a google doc with the countries and subheadings for Eat, Drink, Listen, and Watch. 

We scoured the internet to find the most appealing (we have 2 vegetarians and 2 meat-eaters) food recipes we could find. We picked meals (breakfast, snacks, desserts, dinners) that we knew we could make and had ingredients that were readily available. I added links to recipes, cut and pasted the ingredient lists, and even added a few pictures. 

We quickly filled the document with breakfasts, snacks, dinner, desserts, and cocktail recipes. To make it easier, we decided once a day, one of the meals would be ordered from a country-specific restaurant. It was my vacation too, after all.

Two days before our staycation, we made a grocery, bakery, and alcohol run for anything else we needed. 

Then our staycation arrived. We were more than ready. We were excited for our senses to be delighted and pretended we were whisked away to each country minus the suitcases and airport lines.

Staycation Series

I have broken this staycation into multiple posts since there so much I want to share. Each day was filled with recipes for a few courses of the day, some cocktail recipes and of course activities and ways we entertained ourselves. 

 I hope that you are all inspired to also do a staycation food tour. My family and I are foodies at heart and we truly loved and enjoyed the staycation.