One’s approach to taking a vacation is different when you and your spouse hail from different continents.
Starting in 2004, at least 90% of our “vacations” have been international flights to visit family and friends. And of course, between the long flight and time spent trying to see everybody, those trips usually aren’t all that relaxing,
The other 10% of our vacations have been occasional jaunts, usually after an especially intense period of work or activity. Like the 3-4 nights in Ashland after the Oratorio one year.
The longest purely vacation time we’ve ever spent was 5 nights in Rimini (Italy) in 2005 — no commitments, no obligations, no people we had to see. Of course, it was super crowded but still relaxing.
Since we weren’t able to go to Europe again this year, we’ve known we needed to schedule in a real break of some sort, but week after week was passing by without us making any decisions. Until we realized that if we didn’t book something immediately the holiday season would be upon us and we would miss our window of opportunity!
So, I’m happy to report that after much searching, we found what looks like a lovely and surprisingly affordable spot in Santa Barbara, where we’ll spend 5 nights next month. And now that it’s booked we can’t wait to go!