Right now it’s sunny in Portland. Sunny. Right now. In October. In Portland. I love my city and to be honest, the rain doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers some people, but still, a little sun is nice now and then. Living in Portland does something to you; it makes you need certain things. I’m not just talking about the need to order organic beer or compost the contents of your vacuum bin, I’m talking about the need get out of the grey… to fly south for the winter.

Last winter a few of my friends and I did just that. Okay, so it wasn’t for the entire winter, it was just one weekend. Still, one long weekend in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, was enough time for us to recharge, reconnect and maybe, just maybe, get enough sun to shift our vitamin D levels from dangerously low to just low.

Getaways are great and here are my five favorite things from that trip…

1. Exploring new places

Going somewhere new is always fun; we walked along the beach, did a little damage at some local shops and come nightfall, we painted the town red.

2. Reminiscing about old times.

All of the above mentioned things are great, but honestly, my favorite moments were just when we were sitting around talking. We’re all old friends and we have a lot of things worth reminiscing about. Any weekend spent laughing that much is a good one.

3. Realizing how far we’ve come.

Even though we spent a lot of time talking about the good ol’ days, it was also kind of cool to realize how far we’ve come from days of fraternity keggers and questionable spring break escapades. We talked about careers, talked about our husbands and half of us even had to make goodnight phone calls to little ones back at home. Our 20s were fun, but being 30 isn’t too bad either.

4. But acting like we’re still young.

Seriously though, we had some fun.

5. Knowing that they’ll be many more to come.

The votes are in and for 2014 we’re heading to the live music capital of the country, Austin, Texas. I’m blessed with the most amazing friends and we plan on making girls trips an annual tradition. Some years I’ll be able to go and some years I might not and the same goes for any of my friends. Either way, we’ll all always know we’re welcome, and that, more than drinking margaritas in the sun or busting out decade old dance moves in a club, is what friendship is all about.

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And for the one thing that wasn’t so great…

Life gets too busy and not everyone could make it.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I’m hoping to get outside and enjoy the cold, but sunny, weather. Also, I’m sort of in charge of the planning the Austin trip and I really need to get around to sending out an email to schedule a planning meeting. Yes, I said meeting. You can take the girls out of the sorority but you can’t take the sorority out of the girls. What do you want to bet that one of them suggests that we make T-shirts.