I’m on “vacation” this week, which is to say that I’m not at work. I’m still doing some work here and there, but not much, and my days have been filled with laughing children, grilled burgers, bike rides, and cocktails. It’s been a beautiful week, but it’s not really vacation.
It’s better.
A lot of people seem to separate their lives into work, weekends, and vacation. And when vacations come, it’s time to spend $6,000 on flights and a hotel just to lay around all day doing nothing and drinking froufrou drinks. Obviously I’m exaggerating a bit, but when you think about it, vacation are kind of a weird thing. People really do spend $6k pretty easily on a week away. Add in kids and the aggravation and headaches of the roundtrip traveling will be exhausting enough for people to say they need a vacation from their vacation!
Maybe I’m weird, but I don’t really enjoy laying around all day either. I enjoy work, working out, cooking, and daily routines.. especially if they’re the right daily routines. So for me, a week off of work is just a chance to spend a bit more time with the family, settle in to a more relaxed and slower daily routine, and work on some personal projects. Maureen and I have continued working on my ground floor office (she’s making curtains and I’ve built my own desk), we’ve enjoyed morning bike rides around the neighborhood with our kids, and we’ve done some crabbing off the dock.
A lot of people thing of having a second house as if it’s a vacation house, but if you think of it like that you’ll be disappointed. We still have obligations, a yard to maintain, bills to pay, and laundry to do. Instead of putting our normal lives completely aside for something different, we instead get to focus on making our normal lives better.
And that is both more valuable and more peaceful than a vacation.