What do your summer plans look like? Are you camping on the island? Having a Gulf Island getaway? Perhaps you’re venturing further afield. When summer arrives, and it seems to have arrived early this year, I find I get itchy feet. With the peninsula full of tourists eating ice cream and lazily strolling the waterfront, it becomes more and more difficult to get up and go to work each day. Now that the kids have finished school it’s even worse. Perhaps it’s a relic from school days that my body wants to switch into slow motion once the weather gets hot. I love long, lazy days in the garden or on the beach, but I especially love to pack up and go somewhere else.
I’m lucky because I have actually had a break already this summer with a quick trip to New York. In some ways it wasn’t a break as I came home exhausted! But it was certainly a break from the routine, a complete change of scene. I found the buzz and the bustle revitalised part of me even though my poor body needed a rest after five days of walking and not sleeping and indulging in all the things I try to avoid in my real life. That trip was made extra special because I met up with friends from home, visiting a place I’ve always wanted to go.
Usually my summer holidays are a very different pace. Last summer we road-tripped down to Central Oregon. Four bikes on the car, loaded to the roof with camping gear. We swam and biked and hiked and biked (a lot). It was one of my best ever holidays: the weather and the fantastic scenery but most of all the complete sense of being away from everything. When it got dark at night it felt like it was just us, removed from the rest of the world. The landscape so vast it could swallow you up.
I think there’s a similarity between those two types of trips; where you can lose yourself in your surroundings. One so busy you’d never stand out, and one so vast and empty there’s no need to brush up against anyone. I’ll be looking for a few more days like that this summer. Camping near Whistler and enjoying many of the same activities (I know there will be bikes involved). It’s an important family time as well as the good it does me personally. I don’t think you have to go far afield, but breaking the routine is important. Make sure you take some time out of your life this summer, even if it’s just for an ice cream by the ocean.
