No Particular Place To Go...

Our family has a problem...

I'm guessing it's not a unique problem... I mean, we can't be the only 4 people living under the same roof that just can't come to an agreement as to where they'd like to go or what they'd like to do for a summer vacation, can we?

Let's see if I can paint a picture for you...

There's my husband... His ideal vacation would include 18 holes of golf, if not each day of vacation, at least every other day. I should mention that he's the only one out of the 4 of us who golfs. I would be remiss to say that's all he enjoys doing with his vacation time. He loves the beach and the chance to engage in outside activities with our daughter. Unlike myself, who much prefers air conditioned accomodations, air conditioned gift shops and did I mention air conditioners?

Then there's my son... He's happiest when he's sitting in front of his computer programming his little heart out. I probably don't need to tell you that he's the member of the family that requires the least amount of sunblock.

My daughter is a nature lover... Give her the mountains, give her the beach, give her a big meadow filled with bugs, toads, lizards or snakes and she's content to while away the hours, regardless of the heat and humidity... Just don't make her sit in a car or a plane too long to get there.

Finally, there's Me... I like to stay in a nice hotel, but I miss the comforts of home. I love to vacation with a group of friends or family, but eventually these people will get on my nerves. I love to travel to exotic locations, but I tend to end up disappointed because said location doesn't meet my expectations. Oh and did I mention that I hate being hot and miserable? So I'd really like for any place I visit to be of a temperate climate. There is however one constant about vacation that I always look forward to and that's

a) Going out to eat! AND

a) Not having to cook!

We've had several discussions in the past few weeks about what we might like to DO for our vacation this year and 2 possibilities have been debated. The first (and my personal favorite, I think?) is to take a trip out to California, like my son and I did last year... But this time with my husband and daughter in tow. My son is backing this proposal 100% as he enjoyed our visit with my sister and her family last year so much... Not to mention the time he got to spend working with my brother-in-law on the Foley Stage at Fox Studios. As for me, I LOVED the visit... It's that nearly unbearble 6 hrs. of sitting on my backside for the flight out there and then back again, I find so dismal... Not to mention the horrors of airport terminal time (I'd swear airports are encased in another dimension where clocks slow to a bitter crawl), therefore I'm not terribly keen on the idea of cross-country travel.

My husband? Well, he's not too thrilled with the idea of California for some of the same reasons I've pointed out as negatives but mostly because of the cost involved, which I forgot to add to my list. So at one point he made the suggestion of Florida. Florida? Well, my daughter is all for Florida because that's where Cousin Linda lives and she's got lizards and toads and lots of creepy crawly things nearly drowning themselves every single day all around the outside of her house. For my daughter this means a veritable plethora of joy filled activities, no matter the blazing heat and withering humidity... AND Cousin Linda even has a pool!

But, what does this mean for my son and I __________________________________? Exactly! It's not that I don't enjoy Linda... I really, really, do! What I don't enjoy, quite literally, is Florida in the summer. As for my son, he wonders what's in it for him? Well, we have talked about going to Orlando to visit Full Sail a media arts college that he's interested in looking into for future studies. I'm all for that but can't we do it in the winter? Like maybe around the time of year that it's 20 degrees here and a mild 70 degrees in Florida?

Anyway... You see what we're up against? We're a house divided... We can't come to any agreement. What we did determine though was best said by my daughter before we left our house to enjoy yet another dinner at sunset on the deck at our friends house on the Elk Neck River... "We don't need to worry about vacation because our life IS a Vacation!"

Well said, I can't agree more!

Sunset on the Elk Neck River