What I Learned on My Summer Vacation

Doesn’t that sound like the title of an essay you would have written in grade school?

Actually, I had two vacations this Summer… and that is such an odd thing for me because for the past 12 years, my whole life has been a vacation.

As you probably already know, we sold our home, fully furnished and turn key ready, in the Summer of 2002, and moved onto our sailboat…. for 10 years we cruised and explored the inner coastal waters of B.C.

Then, in the Spring of 2012 we decided it was time to move ashore… so we took possession of an urban apartment, furnished it, and became land lubbers again.  I accepted a part time job with Weight Watchers and we have slowly but surely embraced urban life and routine.

So this year, when we drove to Portland OR, and again a couple of weeks later when we flew to Denver, CO from Bellingham, WA, we really did go on vacation!

I like to think I know myself pretty well, and how I am going to feel and react to various things… but occasionally I surprise myself.  That happened a couple of times while were were away.  Here are some examples:

I am quite happy eating the same foods every day.

This was a real eye opener for me because I think I crave variety in my diet.  While we were in Colorado, we stayed at the home of long-time friends. They don’t cook, and we ate every meal except one at restaurants.  I wanted to stay on track with healthy, clean foods and not fall too far off my own food ‘wagon’ so I mostly ate salads of some kind, with grilled chicken on them.  I ate a LOT of them, and was quite fine with it all.

I don’t snack when I am not at home.

I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner and that was pretty much it. We were busy most of the time and I didn’t get hungry or even think about snacking.  I need to incorporate this now that I am back at home. I tend to get snack attacks mid-afternoon, and sometimes they end up being more meal sized than snacks.

I don’t like to go to bed in the dark.

In our apartment there are spots of light coming in the living room and the dining room, even though the curtains are drawn at night, so if I get up during the night, it is not completely dark.  When were away, I learned to leave the bathroom light on and close the door most of the way so that I could see and get oriented when I woke up during the night.

I don’t like to listen to international news before I go to bed.

Things I saw on the tv news bothered me and kept me awake a couple of times. Not good.

I like to get lots of exercise.

I love to walk and explore new places. I never seem to get tired. On our trip to Colorado there was not enough opportunity for exercise every day and I missed it… who knew?

I don’t take enough pictures.

For some reason, I carry the camera these days. It used to be The Captain’s job to photograph our vacations and adventures and we always had too many pics!

I love being near the water.

For the past 12  years we have lived on, or near, the ocean. Before that, we lived near a river. I think I have just taken it for granted. When we were in Colorado, there wasn’t any water nearby and after several days I realized I really missed it a lot. I was so happy to get back to the seashore.

I spend way too much time on social media.

I didn’t check my email for 8 days while were were in Portland, and only once in the 10 days we were in Washington and Colorado.  I didn’t miss doing it, and I didn’t miss anything important either. 

I have been re-bitten by the travel bug.

Sometimes I think it is just too much trouble to do the planning and all the work that a trip entails… taking care of home details, making arrangements for paying bills, taking care of mail, re-arranging schedules, etc… but when it is all said and done, and we are off exploring some wonderful new place, I know it is all worthwhile and I can’t wait to go again… next Spring… a cruise to Hawaii… something to look forward to if it gets rainy and gloomy here over the Winter.

This post was inspired by Christine Yu's... 14 Things I Learned on Summer Vacation.  Check it out, too.

Do you ever learn new things about yourself when you travel?