How I spent my summer vacation
One of the best parts of a vacation is the positive outlook that comes from pleasurable anticipation. Another benefit is the afterglow, which allows you to feel good about the world. A general guideline I have is to live in the present and not to long for the past or the future too much; But making short exceptions for things like vacations can bring some of the benefits of vacations into your daily life. Briefly thinking “Yeah, that was great!” or “I’m really going to enjoy this trip!” It can add to the lightness of your day, assuming you don’t rely on it as a requirement for your happiness. Walking around stressed out and telling yourself “I’ll be happy in 6 weeks when I’m at the beach” doesn’t really help you take the moment lightly, and can even create performance pressure on your vacation and disappointment afterwards. Instead, don’t pack or come back with emotional baggage; but see your vacation as an addition to the wonderful existence you are building. Here are some memories of my last trip.
I flew from Dayton to Baltimore on a newer airline. Nice all new jets. Its large overheads made it easy to store my one large carry-on. I’m still puzzled why it was so heavy. Probably my big socks… Reading Popular Science during the flight I reviewed my teenage fondness for that magazine. Oh, how I long now for the garage of the future.
In Baltimore I rented a fancy new sedan with a Wall Street Journal on the dash. Nice touch guys, but no more reading for me that day! I was on the beach in Ocean City at noon and I saw the storks diving; watching the children move towards the water and go back screaming with the waves.
I hadn’t been to the beach for a couple of years and I realized that something was different. Before, when walking along the waterline, you were careful to walk in front of a stooped little boy digging on the beach because the sand would most likely fly back between his legs when you least expected it. Now everyone has their own shovel; and not the little ones with plastic handles that come with your beach bucket. we are talking about wooden axes and D-grip handles. It is very important to dig a hole when you get to the beach.
One of the playgrounds on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk was called Funland. A sign read “No Smoking in Funland”. I kept imagining a parallel universe sign…”No fun in Smokingland”
The motel in Salisbury was a 1950s type place. It was actually its last week of operation. The owner was friendly, happy to retire, and shared a few stories from time to time. Next year there will be a mall there. The wide open spaces and entrance lights out front provided the kind of setting a nightingale prefers. One seems to be following me. I would be checking the accuracy of his repeated calls every morning as I packed the car for my day trips.
On Saturday I made a big rookie mistake. I put on some sunscreen as I got out of the car, then wandered off to find a decent cup of coffee. Looking at the menu board of Italian staples, I asked the Russian girl behind the counter which item she thought she had the best sounding name for. I loved it when she perked up and without hesitation slowly and dramatically lengthened the “pepperoni calzone” oh sounds. . So I kicked off my shoes and headed down to the beach thinking it would be nice to have lunch at the Ocean Club a few miles away. I later realized that I hadn’t put sunscreen on my feet.
My feet were fried, of course. In the sun most of the day, you might as well have put them in a microwave oven for 20 minutes. The slightest brush against them the next day caused a stabbing pain. I picked up a large bottle of aloe vera gel and kept pouring it out. They were so swollen that if I loosened the laces and left my shoes open they were still tight. Now here’s the interesting part…and really let me assure you that this didn’t ruin a single day of my vacation…as I stood up there was a burst of deep pain more severe than anything I’ve ever felt; The kind of thing that tells you to pass out, drop to your knees, scream, panic, anything to stop it. I’m thinking, “I know if I sit back I’ll feel better, but this is the second day of my vacation and I’m not going to sit in the motel all day.” Taking a step felt better on the raised foot. Putting weight back on it was as if I had just placed my foot under the wheel of a moving truck so my knees were half buckling with each step I took and the most amazing thing… all the pain was gone afterwards 3 or 4 steps! I guess walking helped pump the blood out of my swollen feet that were already bursting at the seams.
My choice for the next few days was clear; Keep moving or stay off my feet. I kept moving, walking miles every day. If I stopped walking for a second, the pain bombs would explode in my feet. So if you were standing in line for food or at a theme park, you would seem to be really enjoying the music, hopping from foot to foot. In a urinal it probably felt like I really had to go, settling for the mild pain associated with shifting my weight from one foot to the other while standing there. The right foot was a little worse than the left and on the third day I found that I could stand for half a minute on the left foot if I raised my right leg behind me. The biggest nonsense occurred when I found myself balancing on my left foot, right leg bowed behind me as I stood on the toilet. I figured it must look like a clownish Roman fountain. I was so focused on pushing the envelope of foot pain that it didn’t occur to me until I was able to sit up. What can I say? We guys are weird.
I took the Lewes/Cape May ferry north and visited Wildwood. There was a shooting range between the intermediate type games. The sign read “Wuck the Iraq.” Paintball guns were fired at live targets wearing Saddam and Osama masks. I was so amazed at its existence that I had to turn around and look again, stopping later to take a couple of pictures. I’m all for the war on terror, but that blatant racist attack was pretty amazing. Just a few steps down the boardwalk and the normalcy of hermit crabs and frozen custard would return. I was walking so much that I didn’t worry too much about the diet. Ice cream, fries, chocolate covered strawberries and calzOHnee pepperOHnee.
I enjoyed the scenery at Busch Gardens on a semi-rainy day, cooled my jets at Kings Dominion water park, and walked Virginia Beach one night. The main street is full of paid artists and some of them were quite good. Still unable to sit still without the kind of pain that would send me to the pavement, I circled around the area where a decent jazz trio was playing, taking in all the sights and sounds.
I spent the 4th of July in Ocean City. “The Navy Cruisers” A group of Navy musicians were playing on the beach and they sounded pretty good. I walked through the crowd and sat on the sand right in front of the stage. The Navy concert band followed; real music from real musicians. Hymns can really get to me; make tears flow. They did some “Guys and Dolls” and “Grease” stuff… but when the Cruisers singer came out and sang God Bless America, it was amazing. Such a loud voice…a crowd behind me on their beach blankets in the twilight waiting for the fireworks. A couple of kids to my right lay in their newly dug holes facing the gang with their mouths open in amazement. To my left, a Coast Guard boat rocked in the waves just offshore, keeping pleasure boats safe from fireworks and protecting the thousands on the beach from who knows what. It peaks at the end of the song loud and strong with this amazing orchestration conducted behind it, it screams whistles and applause rises at the apparent end of the song and then the phrase is repeated singing louder, clearer and louder “God Bless America.” with the band rising to the new key with the full range of bells, strings, cymbals resounding, all ringing, flying and filling thousands of souls on that beach with the depth of sound. It was beautiful.
The fireworks paled in comparison. Pulling away during the beginning, I found myself enjoying the way the bombs echoed down a side street. Leaning against a signpost during the finish, I still had a pretty good view. A vagrant-looking gentleman sat motionless on the ground nearby. Next to me, a relaxed teenager on his bike. The finale of the fireworks was a satisfying 5 minutes of constant multiple explosions. After a few seconds of silence after the last bombing, the homeless man looked at me and the boy on the bike, laughing like a maniac. Distant cheers rising from the beach mixed with the chorus of car alarms set off by bombs. Everybody loves a show. I smiled and walked a couple of miles back to my car enjoying sights like the man too drunk to walk and the amazing woman who walked almost as fast as me… I complimented her on how fast she was.
Now, if I had oversold the vacation in my anticipation, sunburn might have made me miserable. And he would still be whimpering instead of looking back in amusement. But I was able to move on and have one of my best vacations. It was mostly sand sun and waves leaving me fully recharged. I don’t have to do it again to be happy… but I probably will.