Staycation? That’s Not The Same As A Vacation

I know I’ve talked about staying home on vacation before, and I thought it was stupid then. Now, though, nothing has changed.

Seattle PI has an article about staying home for your vacation, or as they so cleverly(sarcasm) call it, a ‘staycation.’

What it says to do is to ‘tour your own town, see the museums you haven’t been to.’ What if you have been to them, I say?

It also says to’ go to new restaurants.’ I try to do that anyway.

‘Spend time with your kids.’ Other than the obvious fact that you should spend time with your kids regardless of whether or not you are on vacation, what if you don’t have kids?

‘Skip the chores.’ The article says to clean once at the beginning of the week so you don’t have to all week. Well, for those that know my wife, our house is always clean, she cleans it once a week anyway already. So… again, we already do that.

‘Go back to nature’ it says, ‘ride a bike and enjoy the good weather.’ Now, this is about the stupidest idea. This is Ohio, and the weather right now is not nice, so I can’t do this. Plus, this was written in a Seattle paper, and Seattle is not exactly known for it’s great tropical weather.

‘Go shopping’ This was originally an article about staying home to save money, now they tell you to go shopping, or more exactly “shop till you drop.” Yeah, that makes sense. I hate shopping anyway.

Lastly it tells us to read a book, or try out a new recipe seen on TV. Well, again, these are things we do anyway, and isn’t the point of vacation to get AWAY from the things we do all the time?

I’m sorry this post is so negative, but when I can’t go on vacation this year, and someone says (in my best Gomer Pyle impression) “Golly, take a Staycation this year and stay home for vacation” I get a little peaved.

Vacations are meant to be a vacation from the ordinary. Your town is ordinary to you, not to someone else, but it is to you. Your house is ordinary, thats why you need to leave it.

I think that the only reason these sites promote staying home is to keep money in their own town for economic reasons, not because they care about the well-being of the citizens.

Posted on March 17, 2008 - Filed Under Beach and Vacation Travel Tips and Help, Travel, Vacation Time

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