If you’ve spent any time with me in the last year, you’ve probably heard me talk about the virtues of vacation vs. travel. About a year ago, I was reading a travel magazine and the editor wrote an article about his family vacation. Now you’re probably thinking that the editor of a premier travel magazine could vacation just about anywhere in the world – a castle on the coast of Portugal turned into a agri-resort where you can make your own artisinal cheese or a surf camp in Nicaragua where you detox with tropical smoothies and tone your core with sunrise beach yoga. If I was the editor in chief at Travel & Leisure, you better believe I’d be calling in some favors. But the article was about how every summer he spends a week with his family at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, USA. And well, if you’ve been there you know it’s not fancy or resort-y at all. It’s an east coast beach town a little past its prime with cold Atlantic water, a boardwalk and its fair share of seagulls. So as I head to the annual Sullivan family beach week in Narragansett, Rhode Island, I’m thinking about vacation and travel and the sand that’s still in my car from last year’s beach week.
1 – Vacation is not travel. This was the premise of the travel editor’s article, and I fully concur. There is a difference between going to a place that is comfortable vs. exploring a new place and discovering new things. Both are important parts of travel, but vacation shouldn’t be work and should only require a minimum amount of exertion. It’s not about finding the best bagel place with the biggest selection of gourmet spreads, it’s about eating Captain Crunch right out of the box after the dozen Dunkin’ Donuts has been picked clean. (Or almost clean, someone always leaves one little wedge because they don’t want to take the last one.) It’s about having the best time with the least amount of exertion. That’s why I love going to Narragansett because I never, ever feel like I need to do anything besides walk to the beach and eat Del’s Frozen Lemonade. I don’t know, and I have no interest in knowing where a single restaurant or historical sight or boutique or bar or gas station is. I kind of know my way to the grocery store. I can walk to the beach and to the liquor store. It’s simple. It’s routine. It’s beach, cocktails, dinner, cocktails, bed, repeat. You don’t do anything else because you don’t need to do anything else and there’s no pressure to do anything else. And THAT is vacation.
2 – The beach house is legendary. My kids are at the age when they remember. Nothing makes my heart swell more than the “Remember when’s?” Part of being a family is creating a cache of stories that become your collective memory. Remember when that seagull took the chicken finger right out of cousin Meagan’s hand? Remember when Papa Barry took on an alternate personality named Digger Dan to entertain the toddlers at the beach? Remember when Kevin rented a surf board from a 16-year-old kid – what was his name, Doogie, Ringo, Moondog? Remember when Kaly discovered the perfect cure for the beach house flu (aka hangover) was a good dunk in the freezing cold ocean? I still stand by this as the all time best hangover cure. Very few escape a case of the beach house flu. So yes, as cheesy as it sounds, we’re making memories man. And the stories are told over and over, and beach week has become an integral part of our family’s story.
3 – We’ll see them at the beach. You’ve heard this lament before – even in the most connected of times people are more disconnected than ever, blah, blah, blah. But things become cliché because they’re true. Families are more spread out. People are busy. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to maintain relationships with all the people you care about in your life. If you’re keeping track of your husband’s cousins’ kids’ birthdays than you are much more organized than I am. No matter how many Facebook posts I see about a new baby or job or home, it’s not the same as sitting for an hour and hearing it first hand. And when the guilt creeps in about not sending a card or calling for a birthday, we can always say, we’ll see them at the beach where we’ll hear all the details, right after we kick their butt in Bananagrams.
This Saturday, I’m headed to the beach where we’ll go through approximately seven spray bottles of sunscreen (a family of four should use one per day), four pounds of twizzlers, and off-the-record quantities of Narragansett and Dark & Stormy’s. This is vacation baby. But not for the blog. There will still be posts while I’m herding hermit crabs so don’t go too far.
CAn I come?!?!? This sounds wonderful! Just what the Dr. ordered. I am jealous! Have a blast!
Thanks Kel – let’s hit the mall when I get back. I’ll need to do some back to school shopping. Need to make sure I, I mean my kids, look cute at the bus stop.