First, here's the story:
This last weekend, my buddy Carl and I went to Oceanside, California for a friend's wedding. We drove out Friday and arrived mid-afternoon. We checked into the hotel, went to the beach for a short walk, then found a local fish house for dinner. The food was "so-so" and the service was even worse. Oh well, chalk it up to another one we cross off our list. The next morning, our luck turned around at a local hash house called Mary's Family Kitchen; a delightfully fun joint with friendly waitresses, great breakfast and a collection of quirky customers (and that includes us)! Another trip to the beach where I attempted to boogie-board for an hour and then on to a lovely wedding on the base at Camp Pendleton. Then, on Sunday, the dull drive home!

Carlsbad surf and the sand

Cross this off

This one's a keeper

Lovers Laughing & Dancing

So, what's the point? As I said, there's science behind the headline. In an article on fast.co.exist.com (click for entire article), Jay Cassano writes

"One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation," says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. "We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them."

So rather than buying the latest iPhone or a new BMW, Gilovich suggests you'll get more happiness spending money on experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoor activities, learning a new skill, or traveling (my emphasis here).

One study conducted by Gilovich even showed that if people have an experience they say negatively impacted their happiness, once they have the chance to talk about it, their assessment of that experience goes up.

That last piece is evidenced by the fact that Carl and I continued to talk about the "shared experience" of the poor restaurant we had. 

"We consume experiences directly with other people," says Gilovich. "And after they're gone, they're part of the stories that we tell to one another."

Storytellers know this, that telling stories is a way to allow other people to experience the things we did, even when they weren't there!

So, all-in-all, science tells us that spending money on storytelling trips to Europe and jaunts to California will make us happy. Especially if we get a break from the heat in 75 degree ocean breezes!