Thursday, May 21, 2009

Theme Thursday - Vacation

What are your vacations like? I was posed this question a few years ago. Most of my vacations as an adult have always been planned well in advance. Since most of them revolved around golf, it was a lot of research of locations, hotels, flights, restaurants, everything. Similar to the workplace, vacations were structured and scheduled. What happens if you find something or someplace you didn't know about? A good question, but one for which I had an answer. I would schedule a free day to do whatever I wanted, try a recommendation from the locals, or do nothing. Yes, even my spontaneous time was planned.

Lately though, vacations have evolved into something different. Most have been trips home to see just mom and just brother, so they are very loose and unplanned. I'd rather spend time with them doing whatever they want to do than make a bunch of plans and have every second scheduled. Vacations not involving the family generally revolve an event or events like hockey or ball games or concerts. Although those have some structure to them, the rest of the time not involving the event isn't planned anymore. Even though I lived in New England for nearly 10 years, I spent two whole days in March walking around Boston seeing and doing things I never found the time for when it was so close.

I guess over the years I've gotten more adventurous with my free time. Not adventurous like cliff diving or hang gliding, but more adventurous in being less planned and more off the cuff. In the past year I've even taken off for a weekend on less than a week's notice. In my past I would never have been that spontaneous. I'm not really sure why things have changed, they just have. What my vacations will look like ten years from now I have no idea, but they probably won't be like they are today. It should be an interesting ride... or walk... or flight... or train... or who knows.

16 comments:

Kris McCracken said...

I went on a holiday once. But that was a long time ago now...

Leah said...

I think that is such a cool way to vacation, Bob. Loose and spontaneous. That's how we've always done it, even when we travelled abroad. We drove my MIL crazy--when she asked what we did in Paris, where we went, etc., we said, "Oh, just walked around, checked out the bookstores and looked at stuff, had some snacks..." she likes to pre-plan, and cram as much in as possible, so when she heard that she practically popped a gasket.

But then, I tend to dislike too much planning in general...

The Clever Pup said...

We traveled in 1992 without making any plans except buying a Eurail pass. Fast forward 10 years and the with the help of the Internet every step of subsequent trip was planned to the minute. I'll have to learn to be spontaneous again.

The Silver Fox said...

"Yes, even my spontaneous time was planned."

That's a very scary sentence, somehow...

Great post!

Brian Miller said...

loose and free...i think that is part of the definition of vacations.

Ronda Laveen said...

I always wanted to just jump on an airplane going anywhere with just my credit card and see what happens. Haven't done it yet, though.

Mr. Shife said...

Yep most of our vacations nowadays involve taking trips to see relatives. It is OK but I do long for the days when we just went somewhere spontaneous. But that is over now that the little man is here. And yes I am taking Baby Shifley to his first Cardinals game when we go back to Missouri. We will be wearing our matching Pujols jerseys and watching the Redbirds hopefully beat the Giants.

Ree said...

Vacation? What is that? ;-)

Anonymous said...

With children, you need to plan every last minute...and you need to take a bunch of crap that you think you'll need but you really won't but if you need it and don't have it, your whole trip will be ruined.

That's our vacations. Sounds like fun, huh?

Megan said...

I haven't had a vacation in so long, I don't know what it would be like!

Suzanne said...

RC and Megan kill me. Hi you guys!

I haven't had a vacation in years. Have no idea what it's like. Yes, I do have memories.

Anonymous said...

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Karen ^..^ said...

I always knew you were a "fly by the seat of your pants" kinda guy, Bob.

Good for you. If life is too structured and regimented, it starts to feel like work.

Have fun!

Suzanne said...

Dude. It's Monday.

Merely Me said...

My favorite vacations are when we plan to do nothing. No kidding. Arrive at destination then just plop and read or walk. That's it. Nothing fancy...no need to entertain me as I entertain myself. If you tell me "You have to see...", it will probably not get seen...let me find my own adventure. Let me hang with the locals and not the tourists. A block in and a block over is usually where all the fun can be found!
Fun post.

Cece said...

The best thing about vacation is getting back home. The worse thing about vacation is going back to work when it is over. UGH! I wish I was on vacation. Anywhere but here(I'm at work) would be great.