In a couple of weeks, I'll be on a plane to San Francisco with my girlfriends, and I'm as excited as a high school senior in June.

Woo-hoo! Party! We are so outta here!

It's not just the prospects of marathon wine tasting and shopping that make me giddy about this vacation.

(But I've already made a mental list of stores I want to hit, and stand ready to recite a choice line from "Sideways" about not drinking Merlot.)

This trip will be all about us, and us only; we're leaving the boyfriends and husbands at home.

Yeah, that's right. This getaway is just for us girls. The ladies. Chicks only, man.

You get the picture. As important as my guy is to me, there's just something about hanging out with the girlfriends that feeds the soul. And it isn't often that we get to do the girlie bonding.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised that we're pulling this trip off.

It's been years since we've gone on an excursion like this. In addition to beau-separation issues, adult life and all its responsibilities just has a way of elbowing out such outings and field trips.

Skipping town for a break is no longer just a matter of scraping together enough cash and finding someone to cover your shift. Now we have mortgages, marriage and motherhood. Life's a little more complicated.

Take this trip. When we started talking about jetting off together, we were all pretty psyched.

But it didn't take long before one of our married buddies happily discovered she was pregnant. She wisely pulled out of the girl tour, a no-brainer given that she's scheduled to go into labor around the time we'll be boarding the plane. (Yes, this trip took the same amount of time to organize as it does to create a human being.)

Then another girlfriend dropped out because she needed to save money for a trip with her husband and toddler. Others bailed to spend precious vacation time and dollars with their families and significant others.

He-e-e-y, wait a minute. Where's everybody going?

Of course, bonding with the family trumps a jaunt with the girls. And the joy of having your first child? Well, how can you top that?

But with our lives changing so fast nowadays, I wondered how many chances we have left to do stuff like this together. Can we still get away with these getaways in our near future? Or will our next trip together be a seniors cruise in the Caribbean?

That there are still five of us party girls shelling out the dough and burning well-earned vacation days to journey to the Bay Area is a pretty big accomplishment given the times we live in. That's also what makes this trip special and why I'm grateful that I get to travel with my girlfriends at all.

Besides, who knows? Maybe we really can muster up the time, energy and money to do this again.

In the meantime, fasten your seat belts, Ladies. We're going to make this one count.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.