I am on Vacation!

I saw a friend of mine the other day and I was asked if I had a day off. I told him I just started a two week vacation.

"Are you going anyplace?” he asked.

"Nope,” I replied.

“Why not?”

“I did not want to.”

“Well, that’s stupid.”

Hmmm. I got to think about that. I did not think that taking a vacation and not doing anything was stupid so I sat and thought about it for a while. While thinking about whether taking two weeks vacation was stupid or not, I soon decided there are different types of vacations.

The first type is the “Family Vacation” (of course). This is the first type of vacation you experience as a kid. This is where the entire family heads off to some grand vacation location to spend way too much money, stay way too busy and come back tired and exhausted after a schedule that involved too much activity without enough time to relax. For kids this is not a problem. First, most kids have too much energy to start with and second, this vacation usually happens in the middle of the school summer vacation period so the kids have a few days, if not weeks, to relax after the vacation is over and before school starts. Adults, on the other hand, are not ready to go back to work the next day. They still need a vacation from managing the trip and putting up with the kids the entire time. I have done a few of these vacations and I decided a long time ago, “Never again”. Since the kids have grown up and moved on, “Never again” is a good possibility.

The second type of vacation is the “Honeymoon vacation”. This usually involves young and/or newly married couples, sometimes just couples, who go off and enjoy themselves in a different setting. Sometimes these may be a cruise, a visit to a vacation location, or just a cabin in the mountains. These types of vacations usually stop after kids arrive. I have been on a few of these.

But after you pass a certain age, you normally want the third type of vacation. This is the “Sit Around and Relax” vacation and that is what I am doing right now. I have nothing planned for most of the vacation and no schedule to keep. Oh, I do have a couple of planned events but they would be planned regardless if I was on vacation or not, so I do not count those events.

I have done the “Sit Around and Relax” vacation a couple of times in the past and boy they do the body good. One in particular happened about 6 years ago. I visited my in-laws and my father-in-law and I spent most of the vacation sitting on the porch. My kids were more involved with their cousins, aunts and uncles who gratefully kept them busy most of the entire vacation and kept me free to "sit around and relax".

As the sun moved across the sky each day and changed shade we had, we moved to another porch to continue to enjoy the daily shade. With a big house and three porches, we always found some cool shade to relax in. And during those times we had some good heart to heart talks on many subjects. I will always remember those conversations especially since my father-in-law passed away recently.

But now back to this vacation. I am planning to sit around and do nothing for most of the two weeks. I get up when I want to, eat when I want to, do what I want to and go to bed when I want to. The other day I sat on the front porch for a couple of hours watching the cars go by and the kids in the park.

So, why am I writing a blog on vacation? What better time. I enjoy writing and vacations are for doing things that you enjoy. Since it has been raining for the last couple of days I used this opportunity to do a few thing I like indoors instead of outdoors. As long as I am enjoying myself, does it matter what I do?

I hate to end with a cliché but I will. Life is too short not to enjoy it. Take the time and enjoy life, especially your vacation. Do what you like and do what you want. At all costs, enjoy yourself. I am enjoying mine.