Sanibel Island Vacation Diary - January 13, 2007 - Day 1Saturday, January 13, 2007 After 14 years of working for the same company, my wife Susan lost her job. She wasn't fired. The job was simply phased out. She worked for a residential land developer and the subdivision they had been working on was completed. Her last day on the job was January 12. In the weeks leading up to her last day, Susan had been a bit down so I wanted to do something special to mark the end of her job and the beginning of the rest of her life. I had been searching for a fun, affordable trip. I considered going on a short cruise, but the timing for the departure dates didn't work out. I thought about going to Las Vegas, but it was too cold and I knew Susan would appreciate some warm weather this time of year. So I finally decided to go back to our favorite home away from home -- Sanibel Island, Florida. With the condo reservations made, I was ready to surprise Susan. I would tell her the morning after her last day at work, and we'd leave the following morning. On Saturday morning, I got out of bed and went down to the basement where I had boxed and stored snacks for the trip. Since this was a surprise trip, I had hidden them here a couple days before so Susan wouldn't find them. I brought the box up and put it in the middle of the kitchen floor where Susan would easily find it. Inside the box, I had placed a printout from weather.com showing the 10 day forecast, with the days we would be in Sanibel highlighted. I had also printed a copy of the site plan for Sanibel Moorings, with two units circled. They would let us look at each unit and decide which one we wanted to stay in. I also put in a postcard showing an aerial view of the island. Since Susan would need plenty of time to prepare for the trip the next day, I had planned to take the box up to her bedroom, wake her up and show it to her. But she was already awake and came down the stairs. I guess I had a funny look on my face because as soon as Susan saw me, she asked "What's wrong?" I told her to "look at the box," pointing to the snack box in the middle of the kitchen. Her instant response was "what is it?" "Look at it," I said. "Did we leave a box of food in the basement?" Susan immediately recognized the box's content as the same snacks we always take Sanibel, so she just assumed that we had left snacks in the basement since our last trip. "Look at it," I said again. She looked closely at the weather.com printout. It slowly sunk in. We were going to Sanibel! "You've got less than 24 hours to pack," I said. Susan was shocked and excited at the same time. We both immediately started getting ready.
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