It is cold outside now but warm breezes and the faint scent of sun screen on everything are only four months away. Time for summer vacations!
Have you ever wondered about the origin of a vacation?
Did farmers – the majority of people through much of recent human history – who had to milk the cows daily and couldn’t leave livestock unattended for more than a few hours – take a two week cruise? Did they take time off? Absolutely! They called it Sunday (other terms across religions but a similar concept in many of them). And they had holidays.
A holiday is a special holy day that didn’t fall on a Sunday. We have since worked in various national holidays as well but it is the same idea.
And many resorts and retreats started with a religious focus – not an opportunity to imbibe, spend and be idle. Admittedly, I am over extending this a bit but the main point is that there are different ways to take a break.
More recently there is pressure – and I mean that in the worst way – to to visit some exotic local, take photos and post them to Facebook. Look how much fun we are having!
Disney Springs – Wikicommons Theme Park Tourist
A trip to Disney for four costs about $4000 and I know of a family who spent over $10,000 in a single week.
You know what is a lot less stressful? Stay home that week. Make a lovely dinner. Do some work around the house you normally would have outsourced and you can easily handle. Go to a movie. Splurge for popcorn and drinks. After all, you are saving about $500 a day.
This turns a week off into a low stress even rather than a mad dash to somewhere and back again.
We have done this before and in sourced $1000 dollars of basic kitchen repair work *and* spent lots of quality time with family. And my kid learned how to paint a kitchen (Don’t worry – I just had him try it for a few minutes – it was low pressure) and was pretty pleased about it. There was still plenty of pool time, time with extended family, games, day trips and eating out.
We experience the same warm breezes and relaxation and at the end of the week we are well rested and financially better off. Now *that* is what I call relaxing.
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