Staycation Serves Purpose, Doesn’t Replace Vacation

I don’t know about you but the first week back from vacation always takes me a couple of days to get back in the swing of things. This year was no exception despite the fact that this summer’s vacation was one of those new fangled “staycations.”  It seemed like a good idea at the time my wife and I decided to do it and at the end we both agreed it as “okay,” but not ideal for us. Here’s recap of our experience:

The positive’s far outweigh the negatives and is certainly better than the alternative as we were able to do all the local things we’ve been saying we wanted to do for the last few years.

On separate days bookending the week we…

a) attended a show at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, NY;
b) took a boat trip to tour Bannerman’s Island, in the Hudson River south of Cold Spring, NY;

c) toured President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Top Cottage, in Hyde Park, NY; and
d) visited Kykuit, The Rockefeller Estate in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

All lived up to their expectations and were a way for us to fill voids in our recent study of American political and business history.

The middle of our week was focused on a day of playing tennis, and golf in and around lounging around screened in vacation room porch reading books specifically selected for our week.

All-in-all it was a relaxing week but there was a constant reminder around that we weren’t really on vacation because we were, well, home. We were sleeping in our own bed, watching TV on our own TV in our own living room.

So, I’d recommend going away for vacation if you can. Being totally away from normal surroundings I think allows for greater release, relaxation and regeneration.

The reason for our staycation was the fact that staying close to home for now was the right thing to do because in fall we are planning a long weekend trip over the Labor Day Holiday in New York City for annual US Open Tennis Championships event, a weeklong trip to Seattle, Washington in later September and our three week vacation to Australia in January.

But, had we not engaged in this staycation we’d still be lamenting the fact that we still haven’t experienced the Historic Hudson Valley sites we knocked off our bucket list.

So, it was nice to get a break, as always, and now its time to get focused creating some powerful programs for my clients so we can all finish 2009 strong over the final 1/3 of the year starting September 1st. Ready to join me?