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8/6-8/12: Home Sweet (Vacation) Home
Have you ever considered a "stay at home" vacation? Perhaps it's lack of time, perhaps it's lack of money, or perhaps you work too hard to enjoy your home town, but the home-sweet-vacation-home idea is catching on. How would you make a vacation at home rewarding? Besides sleeping late and painting the house, how would you relax and enjoy a holiday that doesn't take you anywhere?
Here's what Tripod members had to say:
Jaynee: I frequently take vacations like that. I take three day weekends when my fiancee comes into town (he's from NY to my DC). I take mental health days occasionally when things in life get rough. Wednesdays are the best day for those types of "holidays". In an age when "Dilbert" is the main comic strip read by the working class, it's easy to see that companies don't understand what people need: the intrinsic feeling of CONTENTEDNESS. And most people are NOT content with their jobs. Taking a day off, or a long weekend, to spend time at home helps relieve the stress of life.kf0yn: Ugh, I can't think of a better way to go stir-crazy. I've done it before, and gotten stuff done, but it doesn't feel like a vacation. Far better to explore all those spots near home that you never visit, but have always meant to.
sandy43005: Born and raised in St. Louis I know the many things you can do here on a vacation. We frequently take vacations right here at home, going to our world famous St. Louis Zoo, Grant's Farm, the fabulous St. Louis Arch, the Casino Boats on the riverfront, Busch's Brewery, Missouri Botanical Gardens, just to name a few, not to mention the great shopping here. It is fun to get out and about in St. Louis.....try it!
RobLamb: I've actually done a variation on this theme that worked. My wife, our daughter, and I house-sat for my cousin, who lives in a great high-rise condo with the best view in St. Louis. I even worked through the week and felt like I had been on vacation. I would say, if you have to stay in town, stay at someone else's place. If you can't do that, certainly hire in a maid and send the laundry out. Sleep in another room and order exotic foods from local restaurants. Wait (even better), re-arrange all of the furniture and speak only in that language that you took two years of in high-school. Picnic in the backyard. Don't touch the television. Go get some books at a bookstore you've never been to across town. Wake up early and grab an out-of-town paper from a local news-stand and read their news. Okay, if you have to touch the TV and you have the Travel Channel, allow yourself to watch The Lonely Planet and A Taste for Travel with Burt Wolf. Think Romance with that significant other. Get some candles. I have come home from many vacations less relaxed than I was when I left. I think that the home-vacation is an idea with merit and can even be more beneficial to your mental well-being than a get-a-way if you set out with the goal of using the time to do something out-of-the-ordinary.
jmd: One of the best vacations I ever took was during the year I lived in Boston's North End. Every morning, I got up at 9-ish, walked to Caffe Roma and had 2-3 cups of cappucino. Carlo, the coffee maestro, would only take payment for one cup, and I could read the paper cover to cover. I spent the better part of one afternoon getting ready for a date, and it was worth the effort. Friends came to visit, I went to a couple of movies and to the outdoor markets. It didn't cost a lot, but it really felt like a vacation.
foxkev: years ago i took a vacataion at home, san francisco and did some adventurous things pretending that i was a runaway. got close to a few situations that i had to pull away from, but it was pretty exciting. it made me appreciate returning to the safe, corporate daily life.
AlMiller: Where I live, staying at home isn't so bad because I live at Lake Tahoe. But since I like to travel, I do not spend my whole vacation at home unless I have to.
During my vacation times, I usually do spend a few days off here so I can enjoy doing the things I moved up here for, without having to work.FoxMan: I would gather all my friends and convince them to pool all their money and throw a HUGE party!!
Twinfinity: I find it most effective to quit my job just before the vacation. Nothing ruins a great vacation like the hintergedanken that I've got to go back to work in n days. My honeymoon at Epcot lost its sheen at the very end because of this; staying at home is just that much closer to the office. So: Repent! Quit your job! Slack off! If you can float for a while, the time off is nirvanic.
ericmr: My wife and I have done this several times, our business is in the home, so what we do is plan a time that we can take a few days to a week off and arrange a room at a motel or we rent a campsite just outside of where we live and go there and don't worry about the business, we sometimes travel to places that are within an hour or two drive, so we can make it back to where we are staying, and just look around and spend time at these places for lunch and some shopping and dinner. We find it a very relaxing way to have a vacation yet be close enough that if anything goes wrong, we can be back at our home in a matter of minutes.
EJWilliams: Just finishing up a Vacation at home. I have gotten a lot of the projects done that I have not been able to get done....and in addition to that...I have gotten to see several movies, during matinees..and got to get in some reading that otherwise would not get done. I have been able to visit museums and even get things done online...seems the WEB is much easier to access and faster when many people are at work. I have also just been out and about...seeing people and things that I normally do not get to see and do because I work during the day!
mnolan: Vancouver, B.C. is a great place to have a stay-at-home vacation. A couple years ago we took a week off work at the end of June while the annual Jazz Festival was on. Each day we biked to the free events and had a picnic. Evenings we went to dinner and concerts at the various venues. It was fabulous!
nandachase: After a lesiurely nap of twenty to forty hours, I would awake refreshed and ready to lunge toward the tv, and I could spend a nifty morning flipping between transexual nazi eskimos and men who eat live trout and the women who love them. I would be fufilled. My life would have purpose. I would be stuffing my face with cheese. I could be living larger then Riki Lake. Ahhhhh....the beauty of simplicity...
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