Ready for Vacation

When working, I usually had a clear idea of when a vacation might be due.  In fact, I often did not schedule one, let alone plan one until my daily performance had already begun to suffer.  I've done many different things.  Days at the regional beaches when my children were little.  Days at major cities, sometimes by car, sometimes by plane, sometimes linked to my professional travel.  A resort or two.  Three cruises.  Some National Parks.  Israel tour.  Drives through states in my home region.  Visiting relatives.  Linking to weddings of friends and children of friends.  I've been to a lot of places over the years.

In retirement, the need to find new scenery remains, but the internal prod that tells me this has become overdue is no longer there.  I was on a once in a lifetime guided tour of Paris within the last year.  My activity schedule has a spring break for which I afford myself a short trip.  And in the winter I often head off by myself for a few hours drive to a place with a major attraction as centerpiece but also some time enjoying hotel amenities and local brewpubs or wineries.  One of those spring break escapes not very far off, this one without a centerpiece attraction.

But I'm really starting to anticipate a desire for something more elaborate.  Not quite the splurge of that Paris tour, but a week to a new place or new experience.  My wife knows that I am ready to plan something about four months hence and asked for her preferences.

I'm open to largely anything that takes place someplace else.  The internet should serve as a resource for filtering options, but it just seems too vast, too unselected.  I started accessing state tourism office sites.  Every state has one.  And there are national parks.  And resorts.  And cruises.  While I do not want to travel overseas, America has neighbors to the north and to the south.  Really a blank canvas in a way.

And there are activities as well as places.  Fishing, golf, camping. Or a sports camp or a writing gathering or a cooking school Never actually went on a vacation with an activity in mind, other than a tour of wine country in a few places, with wine the destination in one.  Maybe a few days at a cooking school.

And people.  Maybe fish in the most racist municipality in all of George Wallace country.  Been to Amish country and Hasidic towns many times, all on day trips.  Not visited Hutterites.  Really not visited rural people or ranchers.  Passed through many places where people vote much differently than me, but never engaged them.  

Vacation not only lures with places, but what I might like to experience.  Surf the state and provincial tourism options a bit more.