Hey y'all,
Welcome back to Things I Believe — my running list of the little truths I keep coming back to. Last time it was buy the boots. This one's a close cousin, and it's about how we plan our getaways.
Here it is:
Plan the trip around something completely frivolous.
A concert. A winery. A vintage market with rickety tables and one really good funnel cake. A restaurant you saw on somebody's story and haven't stopped thinking about since. Build the whole weekend around that one silly, wonderful thing — and let everything else fall into place behind it.
Not Every Trip Needs Seven Landmarks
Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that a trip has to earn itself. That it needs cultural significance and a museum and a historic downtown and a list of Things You're Supposed To See so you can come home and say it was worth it.
And sometimes that's a great trip! I love a good landmark. But I've also come home from the packed, ambitious, checklist itineraries more tired than when I left. Rushing from one Important Thing to the next, sweating through my good outfit, half-listening to a tour because we had a dinner reservation to make.
The trips I actually remember? They usually had one anchor and a whole lot of nothing around it.
“That Sounds Fun” Is a Complete Sentence
Here's the permission slip: you do not need a reason bigger than that sounds fun.
You saw a band you love is playing in Fort Worth — that's the trip. There's a little winery tucked into the Hill Country you keep meaning to get to — that's the trip. A vintage market pops up one Saturday in Fredericksburg — pack a bag, that's the trip.
You don't have to justify it with productivity or personal growth or a bucket-list checkbox. “That sounds fun” is a perfectly respectable itinerary. It might be the best one there is.
Build It Around the Anchor, Then Leave Room
Here's how it actually works, and why it works so well.
You pick your one frivolous thing. The concert, the tasting room, the restaurant. That becomes the beating heart of the weekend — the thing on the calendar, the reason you booked the room.
And then you leave the rest open. No hour-by-hour plan. No pressure to fill every gap. Just the anchor and a little breathing room around it.
That's where the good stuff sneaks in. The slow morning coffee on a porch you didn't plan on loving. The back-road detour because somebody spotted a sign. The two-hour lunch that turns into wine because nobody had anywhere to be. Those unplanned in-between hours are almost always where the trip actually happens — but you only get them if you don't schedule them to death.
One thing on the calendar. Everything else optional. That's the whole recipe.
Why This One Matters to Me
I think a lot of us — women who plan the trips, book the houses, herd the group chat — carry this quiet belief that fun has to be deserved. That we can only rest once everything's been optimized and nothing's been wasted.
But a weekend built around a winery you were dying to try isn't wasted. A road trip for a concert isn't frivolous in the way that word gets thrown around like an insult. It's you, choosing joy on purpose. Saying this delights me, and that's enough.
Some of the best memories I have with my people came from trips that, on paper, had no point at all. Just a reason to be together, somewhere pretty, doing one thing we were genuinely excited about. That's not a lesser trip. That might be the whole point of trips.
So, Your Turn
I want to know: what would you build a weekend around?
The concert. The tasting room. The market. The restaurant you can't stop thinking about. Tell me the one frivolous thing that would make you throw a bag in the car — drop it in the comments, I read every single one.
And if this gave you an idea (or a little permission), save it and share it. Send it to the girl you'd call first to plan it with. Tell all your girls. Then actually text her. Go build the weekend.
Sip. Savor. Repeat.
— Debbie
P.S. — This is Part 2 of Things I Believe. Catch up on the rest and find more Girl Talk at texaspourgirl.com.
Up Next in Things I Believe: Part 3 — build a life with things you'd miss. The little rituals, the familiar faces, the ordinary stuff you'd notice gone in a heartbeat. Coming soon.