Vacations are for relaxing and recharging, but what happens when things don’t go as planned? As with business, sometimes you plan for X and Y happens. So it was with my vacation.

My cousin, Laura, was in from DC. We planned to join my sister and her husband for fishing and sightseeing on the Jersey shore.

Our adventure began to go astray when the oatmeal took too long to cook and we nearly missed our bus. (Others might say I just didn’t allow enough time to get out of the house in the morning but that is so negative!)

That first day, we took in the 45th Annual Seashore Open House Tour, which is a fundraiser for the Long Beach community. Seven homeowners opened their homes to show off their decorating skills. I’m delighted to say that one home had achieved a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for homes.

The next day the weather wasn’t good for fishing so we shopped instead, then relaxed and headed back to NYC.

I hosted a cousins’ reunion at my place on Friday. We caught up over bagels and lox.

On Saturday, we planned to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. McQueen is a fashion designer known for emotion and romance in his designs. The wait was more than four hours when we arrived at 10am.

We nixed the exhibit in favor of a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, something Laura had never done. We added in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens where Laura fell in love with a Chinese fir. She plans to plant one in her backyard.

The moral of the story? You can’t be wedded to Plan A. Sometimes, you need to come up with Plan B (or even Plan C), one that includes the unexpected events and opportunities you run into along the way.  It doesn’t matter which road you take. Any road can lead to success (or a Chinese fir) if you’re flexible and willing to try new options.

What lessons have you learned from your vacations?