Monday, June 13, 2016

A vacation can be anything you need it to be



I used to think vacation meant something where you saved up a bunch of money, got on a plane and went on an at least week long trip. For a lot of years, that's what it was in my mind. However, after years of financial hardship without the means to go on a "traditional" vacation, I had to learn to change what vacation meant to me.

Growing up my family was never well off, but got by. Somehow my parents scraped together money for trips to places like Disney World numerous times and New York City. It was exciting. It was an adventure. It was VACATION.  Even well into college, vacation was still a grand design. A road trip to New Orleans with my friends; a trip to Disney World with friends and my boyfriend; a week at the beach with my now fiance's family.

And then reality set in.

I graduated. Work was hard to come by. Student Loans needed to be paid. Bills were a reality and with no more student loan money, vacations weren't an option. It even took a number of years of no trips (besides out honeymoon) before we were able to reach a place where we were even thinking about spending the money a vacation would cost. For the first time as a real adult, married and with only our own money, the thought of spending that much of what little we had on a big trip somewhere was disheartening. So, the new version of vacation started.

Small weekend trips to some of the great places here in Texas we could easily drive. San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin. We discovered airbnb and never looked back.



Vacation didn't have to means tons of money and flight. It could mean just getting away for a few days and exploring a different city. Living in Central Texas, we have easy car access to so many places we've yet to explore. I'm looking forward to expanding our vacations and really learning to love the state I've spent my whole life in and yet seen so little of. 



2 comments:

  1. Mini Vacations is what I call those, where you just get away from the routine for a weekend. Probably more restful then the long kind. I did learn, since I live in a state split between Central & Eastern time zones (with most nearby states in the same condition), that it's NOT restful on a mini-vacation to cross the Eastern time zone, where we lose an hour. If I want to do that, I need to stay a week to get used to the time change. But you're in Texas where that's not a problem .

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  2. Oh I am a HUGE fan of staycations and rental homes for the family! It has been a game changer for sure. Vacations are a lot less fun when you have to scrape together a few grand for flights and hotels!

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