How To Vacation During COVID – My Experience
We hear stories of people working really hard, isolating in their house/apartment and feeling like they really need a vacation. They miss going away and disconnecting from their day to day, for a period of time. My family felt these feelings too.
I’ve learned in the last few years that balance is very important in everything I do. Balancing “Production” (work) and “Production Capability” (ability to work) is critical to being effective. Part of “Production Capability” is to take care of myself and rest/recharge.
How can we do it safely?
When this summer came up as I was talking with my wife, we were both apprehensive about going on vacation. How would it work? How do we try to stay safe when there is a pandemic going on? How do we spend time with our friends? How do we do rest stops and keep precautions?
An Outdoor Vacation
Our friends were not deterred. They wanted to get away and would figure out how to do it. They visited a place in New Hampshire (about a 2 hour drive from where we live) that had 5 cabins, an open field with a couple of outdoor fireplaces, lake, boats, and a nice farmhouse that was converted to be a recreation hall, lounge, and cooking kitchen.
We love the outdoors and also appreciate comforts of home so this sounded like a good match. We feel grateful for having the ability to afford going away during this time, even for a short time, and booked 3 nights.
Preperation
My kids found it strangely comforting to be making a packing list with my 10 year old daughter having almost 4o items (She’s gotten good at visualizing and planning). It took us almost a day to pack our things, make food for the trip, and pack as many groceries as we could so we could be self sufficient. We wanted to avoid unnecessary outings in potential crowds. During this process, part of me was thinking how I did not miss the packing part of the trip and trying to think of the things we would need.
The Drive
We left in the afternoon, everyone making sure to take one last pit stop and went on our way. The drive was relatively uneventful. We noticed heavier traffic than we expected for a Monday afternoon during a pandemic but it was only a couple of times.
The Cabin
We stayed in this lovely small cabin. While it was not big it had a bathroom, kitchenette, and 2 beds able to sleep 4 comfortably. For us, that was plenty and we really liked the outdoor space where we spent most of our time. As I mentioned, there were other families in the 4 other cabins but there was plenty of space and everyone kept their pandemic social distance.
The Lake and Boats
We really enjoyed being able to take out boats for a paddle and swimming in the lake on the hot days we were there.
A Little Sailing
We even got to do a little sailing (I learned how to do this a few years ago at our local Boston Community Boating Club which is run by volunteers with a mission to make sailing accessible to everyone)
Camp Fire
In the evening we staked our spot at one of the fire pits and enjoyed an evening’s fire. The picture below is of one of the 2 fire areas with my daughters S’more stick ready for some fun. The simple act of making S’mores (marshmallow, chocolate, and graham crackers was joyful to my kids)
Sailing Into The Sunset
On our last day, we decided to go to the lake in the evening for one last time. We took out the kayaks and paddle boards and got very lucky to see an amazing sunset. Sunsets are one of those things that are so beautiful and remind me what a great planet we live on, and that we should take care of it.
Heading Home
We spent the next morning packing and loading up the car. Just before leaving I said to my wife “room check”. This has become a habit for me when staying at different hotels (pre covid) to make sure we did not leave anything behind. It seemed a distant memory the last time we did that and yet it was a familiar ritual that reminded me of a period of time that somehow seems long ago.
We drove back home that morning, stopping to get ice cream “take out” with people six feet apart and visiting the “Stone Henge” of New Hampshire. The Stone Henge was not that impressive but the Lama who recently had a hair cut and looked like a poodle was cute.
Recovery
We had that familiar feeling of being tired when we got home and yet needing to unpack the car, put things away, and trying to figure out the plan again as our daily routine changed this past week. Even though we were basically at home for the past many months, getting back into our own home and beds was a familiar welcome feeling. It reminds of a lesson that you sometimes don’t appreciate what you have until its gone (even for a little while)
It seems we needed the change of pace, location, and routine for a few days to relax and to come back appreciating the trip we just had and some of the things we left behind when we went. It was nice to be able to have these experiences during this difficult time.
Vacation During Covid is Doable
It seems that vacation is totally doable even during these difficult times. It’s a struggle for some folks to think about vacations for various reasons like money, work, pandemic, but I think if we set our minds to do it, it can be done relatively safely and affordably.
