Planning a Staycation

LOOKING BACK at her previous summer vacation a woman says it was a luxurious ‘holiday without luggage, hotels, airplanes or foreign currency’. That’s because Melanie Wells, her husband, and 4-year-old daughter decided to ‘staycation’ – vacation in their own community of Brooklyn, NY. “We basked in the comforts of home and, just outside, a city we typically don’t have much time to explore,” she says. Initially, as her vacation date loomed, she recalls her thoughts about a trip were anything but relaxing: “Get moving? I just wanted to stop moving,” says this working mom. So she and her husband decided to stay put in order to “relax, recharge and reconnect.”



 In these days of credit crunch for many families vacations have become prohibited luxuries, few people know, however, that vacations can be just as pleasant and invigorating at home. According to a recent study by the travel Web site, Trip Advisor, about 50 percent of American travellers are changing their summer travel plans and sticking closer to home. Here are some suggestions for staying and playing at home.





Down time important





 Understand that down time is vitally important. Incredibly, a survey done by the Families and Work Institute found that up to one-third of employees who get paid vacation time don’t use it all. Many said they would get too behind on the job if they took time off while others cited not being able to afford to take a trip. Don’t be among that number. Just because finances are tight or other circumstances prevent you from travelling, take your time off. Down time is vitally important for mental, emotional and spiritual health. This reality is recognized in the Bible which frequently stresses and promotes the importance of personal renewal. “Put off your old self… to be made new in the attitude of your minds,” was the advice of Saint Paul. (Ephesians 4:23) Jesus is a role model for the importance of down time. The Gospels often report that he would withdraw for times of personal renewal. One example is in Mark where, after an intense period of public ministry, Mark writes, “Very early in the morning, while it was sill dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35). So, don’t feel guilty about changing your life pace from labour to leisure for a few days. Take your vacation time! 





Prepare your home





 When Joye Marino knew she wouldn’t be able to take a vacation because of two recent knee replacement surgeries, the Baltimore resident decided to spend her vacation week at home. To prepare for this week, she hired crews to clean her house, doing everything from washing windows and polishing furniture to scrubbing floors and tending the garden. “I’m a hairdresser so I stand up all day,” Marino said. “I knew that if I didn’t take care of everything at home, I would find more projects to get into and go back to work just as tired as when I left.” With her house and yard in order, Marino spent a delightful, relaxing week making a stained glass window and four Christmas presents. She also lounged in her garden. When she wasn’t having dinner out at a favourite restaurant, she cooked gourmet meals for herself splurging on lobster tails, crab cakes and shrimp.





Disconnect from normal routines





 A stay at home vacation won’t work if you don’t disconnect from normal routines. With today’s technology, it’s tempting to check your voice mail, get on the internet to look at web mail, or take business calls. Avoid all of those temptations. In order to renew while on a home vacation, make the time off a real break from the norm. Leonardo da Vinci, advised people to step away from daily routines in order to re-create, and so that work could be viewed from a renewed perspective. He said, “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”





Vacation in your home 





 Some effective way of doing this include:



* Using some of the money you’re not spending on gas or airfare to buy new beddings and towels for the rooms you will be using.



* Hanging some room-darkening shades so that you can sleep in.



* Ordering a flower arrangement and placing it in a conspicuous place.



* Stocking the refrigerator with food and drinks you enjoy, but don’t normally indulge in.



* Gathering several restaurant menus. Put them in a visible place where you can look them over deciding what you’d like to order in or which restaurant to dine at.





Avoid sloth mode 





 Just because you’re home for vacation, doesn’t mean you don’t do anything at all. Like a vacation away, you need to make some plans for how the days will be used. Decide up front what you want to have at the end of your staycation. Recently, Jennifer Yates took a fourteen day vacation at home. She describes how she used that time, “I went to an amusement park; splashed around at a wave pool; read a book; worked out at the gym without waiting for a treadmill; did some shopping – take a deep breath here – slept late; tried out some new recipes courtesy of the Food Network; and turned an unused bedroom into an office (including taking four trips to Ikea). Most importantly, I was able to shuttle my daughter to a half-day dance camp, which she wouldn’t have normally been able to attend if both my husband and I were at work. And I was upstairs scrap booking in my new office when she discovered her first loose tooth – thanks to the big green apple she helped me pick out at the farmers’ market earlier that day.” Yates adds, “after spending a relaxing two-week vacation at home with my family – with no packing, no airport delays, and no backseat changes of ‘Are we there yet?’ – I was refreshed; it was just the vacation I needed.”





Visit your hometown





 When Scottsdale, Arizona, resident Jeanne Hill and her husband could not make a trip due to health issues, they decided to ‘visit’ the Scottsdale area. Here’s how their week itinerary evolved. On Monday they drove Pheonix’s Desert Botanical Garden, less than 20 minutes from their house. “I’d often taken the kids there when they were young,” Hill says. “But when we arrived I realized the garden had grown tremendously. There were desert discovery trails, a wildflower trail and a garden designed to attract local butterflies.” On Tuesday, they visited the Phoenix Art Museum which had a Monet display. The next day, Wednesday, they spent the morning at a small city park, 15 minutes from home. Though the park was near a busy intersection, it was nearly empty. At the tranquil lake inside the park, they observed a heron and a snowy egret. Her husband, Louis, reminded her that, in the past, they had travelled thousands of miles to see wildlife, “and here it is in our backyard.” Over the following days they went to an arboretum in the mountains where the air was refreshingly cooler, and took a leisurely drive along a mountain trail.





Make it fun for children 





 When planning a staycation be certain you consider activities for your children as well. In fact, a vacation at home can and ought to include the same kinds of activities which a family would enjoy during an out-of-town trip. One father, a single parent of two boys aged 11 and 13, describes their stay-at-home vacation: “When finances would not permit us the luxury of a week’s vacation away from our city, we made plans to do something daily. One day, the boys and I visited a children’s museum in our city, something we’ve always talked about doing, but never managed to do. Another day we spent on the beach at a nearby lake. Later in the week, we rented bikes and followed a bike path which wound through our city. En route, we stopped and bought lunch. We planned at least one activity for each day of vacation. I knew it was successful when my older son said, ‘Dad, that was a great week. When can we do it again?’”





Make time for spiritual renewal





 Along with being a tourist and visiting interesting places, intentionally build in time for spiritual renewal. One woman, highly stressed from her busy professional life, says, “I made myself take a week off and I stayed home. My condominium complex has a beautiful swimming pool which I seldom had time to use, but that week I went there for several hours each day. As I sat by the pool, I found myself repeating the 23 Psalm over and over. The words of that Psalm – The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want… he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul…” were effective in bringing a badly needed sense of peace and tranquillity into my life. Other ways of cultivating spiritual refreshment include spending a few minutes in morning and evening prayer; doing a walking meditation as you stroll through a park by simply reciting over and over these three words: wonderful, beautiful, peaceful; reading and finishing an inspirational book; writing deep and heartfelt prayers of praise in a journal.





       ≈





 Finally, don’t be afraid to splurge a little bit. You’ve saved a great deal of money on air fare, car rental, hotels, so you’re entitled to splurge while vacationing at home. One woman tells about her first staycation experience. “I’d recently been divorced and just wasn’t comfortable going away for vacation alone. So I took my ten days of vacation time, but stayed close to home. I explored art galleries, visited a museum, took in live performances and went to see several movies. Because I’d saved money by not travelling away, I felt comfortable splurging in some other areas. I got a massage, twice! Several times, I ate out at restaurants more expensive than I would normally choose. And, I did some shopping in high end stores that normally would be off limits for my budget. It was possibly the most relaxing, pleasant vacation I’d had in years.”