There are times when a one week vacation is exactly what the doctor ordered. These are times when we are especially tired, especially cold, especially bored, or especially interested in being anywhere but where we are. These times, these one week vacations, are needed to break up our routines, to shed some fresh, bright light on what things we should be doing differently. They can allow time for introspection, time for renewal. They can also allow time for us to realize that one week vacations are horrible, horrible things.
If we could go away for a week in the summer, to the sort of lake place that we all wish to go in the summer, that would be really nice. We can book this week, guaranteeing that the pier will be white, that the boat will be gassed, that the front lawn will be green and mowed into stripes, some light and others dark. We cannot, however, guarantee that the weather will be sunny and 80, which is what we want when we’re lakeside in July.
If we go away for a week in the winter, say, to a place like Marco Island where I was last week, this is a wonderful thing. We can cross that Jolly Bridge and see that island and realize that palm trees and finely coifed boulevards are just what we needed to splash a bit of color into our white and brown winter existence. We can guarantee that the condo view will be divine, that the Starbucks will serve hot coffee, that the cups will be white with green just like the cups we left behind in Lake Geneva. What we cannot guarantee, however, is that the weather will be 80 and sunny like we want it to be. Sometimes the weather is 56 and windy, and during those times we’d rather be in Lake Geneva because 23 and snowy is just like 56 and windy, in that neither day makes pool sitting much fun.
When I was a child and I spent two weeks every summer on an up north vacation with my family, my dad would spend much of the time worrying about the weather. Not the weather where we were, but the weather where our house was, where our two week tenants were. He was worried that they wouldn’t enjoy their time. He was worried that, given the large sum of money the rental generated, the people would be stuck in the rain and that they wouldn’t be happy. There was nothing we could do about this, of course, but we all worried anyway because we are nothing if not conscientious landlords.
This is the nature of the short term vacation. This is the placing of all of ones’ vacation eggs in the same tidy basket. This is living 51 weeks with the hope that your one week of vacation is somehow perfect. This is the illusion, and this is not an indictment on Marco Island in the winter or on Lake Geneva in the summer, but instead on the concept of a one week vacation. One week vacations are saddled with huge expectations and rarely do the deliver on the promise of 7 days of pure bliss. This is why we shouldn’t look forward to short term vacations, no matter how extravagant, and we should instead look for a lifestyle change that a vacation home can offer. Lots and lots of mini vacations are so much better than one triumphant week.
If we have a week to spend at Lake Geneva, this is great. What fun! We can rent a boat and hope the sun shines. We can go to dinner and again to breakfast, and then we can swim and boat and tire ourselves out from all the fun. Or, we could pace ourselves in the slow and steady and comfortable way of an easily accessible vacation home. We can drive up on Friday and drive back on Sunday, and we can do that 52 weekends a year if we wish. If we do that for 40 weekends, we just found 80 days of vacation, assuming we also take neither a Monday or a Friday. If we spend a week on a beach somewhere we have 7 days, and those 7 days may well be windy. And cold. And not at all like we imagined.