The thing I miss most about my pre-kid life isn't the sleep. Or clean clothes.

Or even the chance to blog a complete sentence before Dennis derails me with a question like, "Why is gravity invisible?"

(Answer: Leave me alone, Mama's blogging about you. Ask your father.)

It's travel. I miss traveling. So much.

Researching an exotic place somewhere in the world and going there, choosing an edgy youth hostel from a Let's Go guide (except that dump in Budapest above the nightclub, that place should get a Don't Go), passport visas, Prague.

Prague was cool.

These days a trip down the Pike to the Museum of Science is far enough. Two kids under 5 on a plane to Europe isn't happening. We can't afford it, and my nerves can't take it.

So instead of planning some great trek to Cambodia and Thailand this year, I pay daycare bills and take Facebook quizzes for the occasional thrill.

This is a long way of getting to this month's Books We Like choice: The (recently-updated) 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America by women's travel expert Marybeth Bond.

The book landed on the Boston.com Moms bookshelf when the idea of planning a spa weekend in Sedona or shopping getaway in NYC was not simply ridiculous, but truly delusional.

But the beaten-into-submission traveler in us thumbed through it anyway and thought maybe in a few years...when the kids are bigger, the economy healthier...would it be possible?

The backpack, the waterproof passport holder, the iodine pills for cleaning the water.

They are still in the basement waiting. Someday.

What are some of your favorite (armchair) travel books? Leave a comment, or email me at enoonan@globe.com