Travel Discussions

This is ALWAYS true after my vacations. We never relax on vacations... it's always lots of rushing around, l-o-n-g drives and much physical activity. I arrive home exhausted, then have to do something with the 1,000 pictures I took.

A classic example was my vacation in May this year. We flew to San Diego and visited several locations around the city, all involving long walks. Then we visited the flower fields in Carlsbad, CA (more walking) and the Wild Animal Park (more walking). After that, we drove to Las Vegas, where I worked at an enormous convention for four days (lots and lots of walking). Then we drove back into California and visited Joshua Tree National Park (lots of rock climbing and hiking), the Salton Sea (hiking on sand dunes) and Palm Springs (more hiking). Back to San Diego for the cross-country flight home.

One good thing is that we are so active that we can eat anything we want. Another is that we get some amazing pictures and we each have our own cameras.

I've been telling people I need a vacation from my vacations for years!

--Bob

Actually no, I usually don't feel this way.  Maybe b/c I don't get a stack of mail :-D  And I just throw my vacation laundry in with the rest of my laundry so no big deal.  One way to make it easier, which is probably why I don't feel that way, is to make your vacation end before you have to go back to work.  I almost always schedule it so that I have 1 day or more of just being home before work.  My next vacation is Aug 27-31, everyone said I should go Aug 27-Sept 1 since we have the 1st off for Labor Day, but I said Nope!  Sept 1 is my relax day :)

Always....while on vacation we are always on the go.  When we get back it's all about picking up the cat and dog, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, sorting through a ton of e-mails, sorting through regular mail, and then trying to catch up on some sleep.  Even if we go camping for a weekend it seems to be like this. 

Katrena said…
A stack of mail. A stack of laundry. Tired kids. Tired husband. The "to do" list grew while you were gone. Do any of you ever feel like you need a vacation after arriving home from your vacation? Feel free to share stories of needing a vacation after your vacation or even ideas to help with the transition back home.

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We are actually on vacation (and business for hubby) right now. It won't be a long one so I'm not obsessing about the mail but after a cross country trip or after our cruise - eating too much; staying up too late - yes I needed a vacation. I've finally decided that the laundry can take a week to do rather than that night and if I don't unpack until the next day that's just fine. Of course it's take me a long time to get to this point!

Ugh.

 Last summer, I was 7 months pregnant, our son was about 20 months old, we had just signed the papers for a new house, and we headed on an 8-hour drive to Denver to visit my husband's family. We were staying with his grandparents in a non-childproof home, but it was only for 3 days, right?

Wrong. My husband has a genetic throat condition that caused him to get some food caught in his esophagus. Seven hours in the hospital and one surgery later, I was left for 2-3 days babysitting my son and my grandmother-in-law who just wanted to hold my son. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. She was VERY passive aggressive, and the grandfather-in-law had severe alzheimer's. I have never been so stressed and frustrated in my life.

Needless to say, when we got back we had to pack to move to our first house. Oh and my husband had to get a repeat surgery to ensure that he didn't have any scarring. It was awful.

I think it took me about a week to just calm down and move on. Hormones were not my friend at the time!

Spent two weeks on vacation only to return to a burst water line ($1000.00 bill), loads of mail, laundry etc.  Changed our way of traveling to facilities with washers/dryers.  Hired a person to visit our home, walk the property and check the mail.  All bills are on-line via our bank - I prepay all bills or schedule a payment for a future date.  Turned the water bill over to the Public Service commission the day the water company refused to work with us.  I WON!!

Whenever we go on "vacation" to my in-laws, I spend my vacation time in the garden, and entertaining my 12 yr old SIL, walking the dog, vacuuming, grocery shopping, cooking meals... on and on.

I am glad to be home. Although I must say, we unpack VERY slowly!

We usually do the touristy things at the beginning of the vacation and then pursue the more relaxing activities like sipping wine by the pool side near the end of the vacation. This makes for a more relaxing vacation.

It sounds like I'm not alone on the needing a rest after the "R&R." Some of you guys have some really rough stories. It sounds like for many people that visiting the in-laws must top the stress list. I feel for ya.

I usually have so many pictures and so many article and review ideas after I get home that I could easily spend days behind the computer after a vacation.

RRT ~ it's always wise, as we learned to turn your water off at the meter before leaving town.  I've heard of too many homes flooded out when ppl go away.  We got that whatchamacallit ~ hubs says "the water meter cutoff valve tool".

What a tool ;)  it's handy, and we bought it at Home Depot.  Most hardware stores have them I'm sure.

That said, I usually take a couple of days to wind down afterwards, to get all that stuff ya'll mentioned done.  And like Pitcherday said, we unpack slowly as well.

This scenario is bound to happen to me in November.  My vaca is booked and I choose the flight that gets home at midnight knowing I have work the next day.  But since I'm normally up until midnight anyway I didn't think it would be a big deal.  However, now I find out they just decided to do all day supplier demos the day I return.  

So today I checked my flights, the schedule changed and now I won't be coming in til 1 AM instead of midnight!  I'll be going into all day meetings, jet lagged, and on something like 5 hours sleep... and all I'll want to do is play with my photos :-D  Haha.  

Well on the other hand, in these all day meetings we get free breakfast and lunch and cookies, plus I won't have to work on any of my other projects, so in the end, it might be a good thing!

Either way, Friday at 5 PM that week will be heaven, I'm sure.