❤️Love, MidoriLei

Stuff I share with my besties

The SOS getaway

There’s usually a stop to a local thrift store to try on clothes

If you have a best friend who lives nearby like I do, this is an idea for making sure to get away every so often. We get together with our kids and with our families, but there’s nothing like a getaway with just the two of us or us and a couple more girl friends roadtripping to nearby small towns to do our favorite common hobby- puttering. Puttering through quaint towns, we’ve realized, is best done sans hubby and kids who are never quite as enthusiastic with the hobby of puttering. You feel rushed by hubby, you see. You worry your kids will touch delicate ceramics and break them or run through the store, suddenly wanting to play tag indoors. Puttering is best done with other ladies who also enjoy a leisurely putter. 🤣

The details of an SOS

Portland is a great place to putter! We love South Division street which is where it all started.

SOS stands for Help! Get me out of here! I need a break away from all my responsibilities! The rules and details can vary, but for us, it happens 4 times a year, once every season. We have an SOS every winter, spring, summer and fall. We try to roadtrip to nearby towns.We have gone to cute towns like San Antonio, Portland, Gig Harbor, and Poulsbo. It can be one night, two nights, or just a day trip. The point is to have some alone time with lady friends, or your bestie, so you come home feeling refreshed in a way that you can only feel refreshed hanging out with your girl friends.

What to do during an SOS

These are some great activities for an SOS, but of course, tailor it to the needs and wants of your girl friends-

Eat food your husbands don’t usually pick- ours are typically Indian and Mediterranean
My closest friends are all foodies so we like to eat on our SOS trips – this place is southern food at Southern Kitchen in Tacoma, which we love!
High tea is as girly as you can possibly get!
Try something you guys have never had before. This is called a
khachapuri, a Georgian cheese-filled bread, topped with a baked egg and butter.
Peruse some bakeries.
Find a cool new ice cream spot- this is Indigo Cow’s Hakkaido milk waffle milk Shiratama Kuromitsu Kinako MBR 
Find the fanciest local grocery and look for an ice cream flavor you’ve never had before (love this flavor!) and indulge in a girl meal (bread, cheese, beef jerky, salami, chocolates etc) late at night watching Bridgerton, drinking wine until 2am.
Find an amazing brunch spot! This is Ida Claire’s in San Antonio where they make their butter in house!
Get dressed up and hit a bar for some fun drinks and apps.

There’s so much more you can do- check out art galleries, thrift stores, plant shops, get gelato, go to every cute gift store in town etc. The point is to get away for at least a day and not cook, not clean, and if you stay overnight, stay up as late as you want talking and catching up, sleep in as late as you want, not make your bed, and truly get a day off from your responsibilities as mother and wife.

It’s the best! Do you do something like this? Would you try something like this? I’d love to know!

P.s we highly recommend spending some time on your road trip on Spotify or Pandora listening to a station that plays songs from your teenage years! We loved 90’s pop on and Pandora.

‘; echo ‘ {"prefetch":[{"source":"document","where":{"and":[{"href_matches":"/*"},{"not":{"href_matches":["/wp-*.php","/wp-admin/*","/wp-content/uploads/*","/wp-content/*","/wp-content/plugins/*","/wp-content/themes/the-minimal-blogger/*","/wp-content/themes/minimalistix/*","/*\\?(.+)"]}},{"not":{"selector_matches":"a[rel~=\"nofollow\"]"}},{"not":{"selector_matches":".no-prefetch, .no-prefetch a"}}]},"eagerness":"conservative"}]}