A Staycation with Style

With the exception of this Thursday and next, I’m on a two-week break—finally using up my remaining vacation days before the new fiscal year begins on June 1. Unless travel money miraculously drops into my bank account, this will be a staycation. And honestly, I’m okay with that.

My only real plans for the next couple of weeks are simple ones: I’ll be keeping up with my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday workout sessions with my trainer, and I’ve got dinner plans with a good friend on Friday night. That dinner, in particular, is something I’ve really been looking forward to.

We're going to the only place around here that serves a wine I truly enjoy: Henri Perrusset Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay, from Burgundy, France. Now, I don’t drink often—maybe the occasional margarita, a vodka cranberry, or a hard cider—but this chardonnay is something special. It’s a bit of an exception for me, since I usually prefer sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio, typically French or Italian, with a particular fondness for wines from the Loire Valley.

I’m sure the wine aficionados reading this might cringe at my taste, but I gravitate toward crisp, dry white wines. I’ve never really learned the proper terminology to describe wine, but every time I look up the ones I like, they all seem to fall under that “dry and crisp” category.

The restaurant’s food is good, though maybe not exceptional. I usually order the lobster and shrimp scampi—it’s solid, even if lobster isn't my favorite seafood. (Let’s be honest, sometimes it feels like restaurants throw lobster into a dish just so they can hike up the price.) What really makes the meal, though, is dessert. Their flourless chocolate cake is rich, dense, and downright decadent. And the cheesecake? Also worth the calories.

I'm also surprisingly looking forward to my workouts. That’s not a sentence I ever expected to write, but here we are. My trainer has found the right balance—he doesn’t push me too hard, knowing I haven’t seriously worked out in years, but he still challenges me just enough. It’s early days, but we’re making real progress. It feels good.

And while food and wine are lovely perks, what I’m most excited about is the simple pleasure of getting dressed up and heading out. I don’t often get the chance to really put together an outfit and enjoy an evening out, so Friday night will be a treat. Good wine, decent food, indulgent dessert, and—most importantly—a great friend whose company I know I’ll thoroughly enjoy.

Staycation or not, it’s shaping up to be a good couple of weeks.