My daughter, our exchange student daughter and I were going to Taos, NM to ski. We planned to join a group of four others at their condo a block from the lifts. We had plans for a long drive up the next morning and arriving by evening. Then it occurred to me there was no reason to wait for the next morning. I asked the girls if they could cancel their plans for the evening and go right away. Then I called a friend about 5 hours away and asked if we could stay the night with her. Everyone thought it would work, so we left within the hour.
We had an enjoyable visit with my friend very late that night, and spent a few glorious hours in Santa Fe on the drive up. The girls fell in love with Santa Fe, and we found ourselves in galleries and museums, shaping glass at a hands-on studio in town, and generally being enchanted by the “extra” few hours we had to play on the way to our final destination.
The skiing was pretty terrific, yet we will always remember it a double-your-fun kind of vacation simply because we realized it was time to just go.