This morning while I was doing my thirty minutes on the treadmill at the Lyons Recreational Center around the corner from my condo, I read an interesting article in this month's Atlantic Magazine entitled "I Hate Vacations" in which the travel writer Paul Theroux is interviewed by Andrew McCarthy whose name may be familiar to you as he is both a travel writer and actor.
In this interesting piece Theroux muses poetic about the difference between travel and vacation. He says, among other things when thinking about vacations that "People sit and relax...sit down and have a message, have a spa..." Gee, Paul, sometimes I want to relax and a vacation is a swell way do that.
His comments about travel include statements that resonate with me. "Why would I want to be away?", he states, "Well, one reason is curiosity about places I haven't been...or to see how places have changed..." Sounds good to me, Paul.
There are times I like to relax. Back in 2005, I had taken a new job with the DOE and was finding the schedule a bit challenging. We, Bob and I, booked a cruise out of NYC in February. We had already been on this same cruise a few years earlier. "Why are we doing this again?' he asked. "Because I need to get away and relax", was my reply. We did not stress about shore excursions, we lolli-gaged at the pool when we got to Florida and the Bahamas I went ashore once in Nassau to buy some linens I had previously seen. We slept late and enjoyed the sail back to New York.
In February of 2012 my friends Gene and Rita invited me to join them at their timeshare in Cancun. At first I was leery, but decided to go anyway. I am eternally grateful to them for their hospitality. We had a restful time walking the beach, dipping in the pool, going deep sea fishing with the dolphins, enjoying the local markets and dining well.
Last month I went to Nantucket for a few days with my sister, her kids, grandkids and my cousin. We had a wonderful time eating seafood and visiting the beach. We also read trash novels to our heart's content.
Vacations are restful and wonderful. Travel can be wonderful, but travel is different.
This past April I traveled by myself to England to do some genealogy work on my Mother's family. I transversed England from London east to Nottingham and then west to Coventry, Cookham, Winchester, Bath and Southampton visiting genealogical libraries, museums, churches, cathedrals and assorted friends along the way It was travel at its best, using the British rail system was challenging and rewarding at the same time. At the end of this travel trip, I got to vacation on the way home meeting travel pals Paul and Diane for a trans-Atlantic crossing that was wonderfully relaxing.
So depending on my state of mind, I like to both vacation and travel...sometimes they merge and sometimes they don't.
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