Vacations are difficult for me. They just never live up to their expectations. And if they do, the time flies too quickly. To be honest, in recent post-children years, vacations have often seemed more difficult than regular life. A hotel room is the worst- you can't even stay up late and watch television because the kids are sleeping!
The word "vacation" is related to the word "vacate." Essentially that is what we do when we go on vacation. We vacate. We at least vacate our home, our lawn, our to-do list, and the pile of laundry. We try to vacate our jobs at the same time. And therein lies the difficulty. What, exactly, do we vacate? I have sometimes tried to vacate everything- thereby leaving my wife to do the planning, shopping, packing, etc., leaving her exhausted before even leaving the house! I have especially tried to vacate parenting- an activity that is very stressful for me. But this doesn't work. Not, at least, for a family vacation.
So this last week as we spent a family vacation in St. Louis, I tried to be specific, limiting, and realistic regarding what exactly I wanted to vacate. Work, emails, to-do lists, and big decisions, and pretty much anything resembling a project. I did not, however, try to vacate my family or children. I cooked a lot of food, swam a lot in the pool, and tried to enjoy every kid-friendly activity we encountered. I still didn't get to ride up and into the Arch. I didn't get to eat at my favorite St. Louis restaurant. Erica and I played a few board games. I read my book a little but didn't finish it.
In the end, I really just lowered my expectations for what exactly I wanted to vacate. Was it the ultimate vacation? No, but it was good, restful and vacating.
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