Summer is ending.  I can’t believe it.  Just today I realized that the summer flowers were all either dead or dying; they will need to be dug up and replaced with hardy mums and flowering cabbages over the weekend.  I love the fall…it is pretty, the air is crisp and it is the perfect time for baking lovely, spicy things.  Unfortunately, the downside of the fall is that it precedes the winter.  If you live in the northeast (or the north anywhere, for that matter) the thought of facing yet another winter may very well make you want to hibernate.  Having survived last year’s wintry hell, this year I have decided to be 100% proactive.  As far as I am concerned although everything may seem dark, cold and dead in the winter, our hope should not be destroyed as well.  In order to give myself something to look forward to I have already booked a trip to a southern destination!  Last year I fled to New Orleans in the early spring and I cannot tell you what it did to buoy my spirits.  I highly recommend planning a little getaway for yourself.  Here are a few planning tips:

1. Do your research.  Unless you really LOVE the snow, you will want to look for someplace nice and sunny to escape to.  Be sure to check on the typical weather conditions at the time that you want to travel PRIOR to booking your trip.  There is NOTHING worse than planning a trip to the islands only to arrive and find that it is too cool and/or rainy to enjoy the beach!
2. The big fear in planning a winter trip is always the inability to fly out due to a winter storm.  Typically the odds of your flight being cancelled due to a blizzard decrease when you book your trip in a peripheral winter month…think November, December or March.
3. Book your flight and your hotel together.  Many of the airlines offer unbeatable package deals when you book your flight and hotel together (you can usually add a rental car too)!
4. Travel with a buddy to split hotel costs!
5. Traveling alone?  You may want to consider looking into some off-season or mid-week destination spa deals.

The bottom line is that by giving yourself something to look forward to, the winter may seem just a bit more tolerable…if nothing else, a trip should help to brighten your spirits!