Nothing Went According to Plan—And We Still Ate Well
I went into this trip fully intending to document everything. I was going to unpack my pantry boxes, take pictures, and show exactly how it all works.
That is not what happened.
We arrived at the resort and ended up in a different unit than expected, so I never really unpacked. What I did unpack had to be repacked because two days in, they moved us. At that point, I gave up on the idea of a perfectly organized setup and just focused on feeding everyone.
There were eight of us, five days, and multiple food allergies and preferences in the mix. At one point, I joked in a quick TikTok that when you are feeding that many people under those conditions, you just bring everything. It was not far from the truth. I had two pantry boxes and an extra cardboard box because I ran out of room.
And still, nothing went according to plan.
I had intended to put together nice trays with meat, cheese, fruit, and vegetables. I even brought everything to make them. What I forgot were the actual trays. They were sitting on top of my refrigerator at home.
So instead, I bought a few foil pans and left everything in the deli bags. The cheese went in with the meat, the fruit got cut up and put into individual baggies, and the vegetables were chopped and set out with a simple dip I made with yogurt, mayonnaise, and a few seasonings.
It was not pretty, but it worked.
Some people ate the vegetables. The kids mostly ate chips and snack food. That part was not ideal, but it was real life. What mattered was that the food we needed was there, and the people who needed it had access to it.
Lunch ended up being sandwiches most days, which worked well because our resort was centrally located to all of our activities. We did not need to pack lunches and take them out, which turned out to be a good thing because I forgot my own lunchbox.
Even the plans to get outside and hike did not really come together. We tried one morning, but between the overgrown trails, spring allergies, and wanting to see the aquarium that afternoon, it did not last long. We ended up sitting on boulders sticking out of the water instead, which was actually one of my favorite moments of the trip.
In the middle of all of that, the system still worked.
Before we left, I used my workbook to plan what we would eat and what we needed to bring. I knew my sister would want to contribute, so I gave her a short list of things I knew she already had. She brought eggs, chicken, and some sausage from their farm. It filled in the gaps perfectly without creating extra work for anyone.
My brother-in-law cooked breakfast every morning, and that is where I really saw the difference.
He came into the kitchen one morning and said, “I don’t suppose you brought any spray oil?”
I had it.
A little later, “We do not have any butter.”
I had that too.
Then it was seasoning. They did not have salt, pepper, or anything to really flavor the food. The resort had the standard little shakers, but not the kind we use at home. I had already packed my seasonings based on what we planned to cook, so we had everything we needed.
At one point my sister said, “You are a lifesaver.”
The truth is, I was not doing anything complicated. I had just planned ahead.
Even when our plan to grill chicken fell through because the only grills available were charcoal and we did not want to deal with it, we adjusted. We baked it instead and used the seasonings I brought. It still turned out well.
Would we have had food without all of that? Of course. There was a store less than a mile away.
But it would have been more expensive, more stressful, and honestly, not nearly as good.
That is the difference.
The goal is not to create a perfect system where everything looks beautiful and goes exactly as planned. The goal is to remove enough of the guesswork that when things change—and they will—you are still okay.
We had everything we needed. There was never a moment where I thought, “We forgot something important and now we have to scramble.” Some food came home with me because we did not use it all, but that is far better than not having enough.
This is exactly why I created the Travel System Workbook.
Not for perfect trips, but for real ones.
If you have ever stood in your kitchen before a trip trying to figure out what to bring and what you are going to eat, this gives you a place to start. It helps you take what already works in your home and make it work when you leave.
If you want a structured way to plan your food for travel, you can download my Travel System Workbook.