by Aimee Coulter

Created on: August 15, 2008

Relaxation is the Key to Vacation

No matter what activity or locale chosen, most people take vacations to relax. By definition, relax means doing something you enjoy, outside of normal routine that refreshes the body, mind and spirit. But the idea of relaxation not only varies among people, but also from year to year for any given person. Take me for instance. Once upon a time, I was a woman whose ideal vacation was a week at the ocean. I was adamant that nothing I did while there be more strenuous than lounging on the beach and consuming fine foods and beverages. Okay, there was this one time I went on a pirate cruise with my sister where we did the conga dance repeatedly and attempted to snorkel. So maybe we didn't "relax" while on the cruise, but I've never seen my sister more relaxed than when they carried her off of the boat!

Now, twenty years later, my ideal vacation would still be that week at the beach, but I consider myself fulfilled and "relaxed" if I don't have to do laundry, make dinner or do dishes for a week. The husband and kiddos want to go, see and do anything and everything available at each vacation destination we choose. If there is a museum, we visit it. If there is a trail, we hike it. If there is a landmark, we see it. You get the idea. This is why we know how to ride a Segue and make cheese from goat milk. I'm sure this will come in handy some day.

Since I've had children, I have become very broad-minded in my interpretation of what constitutes relaxing on vacation. Recently we travelled to New Mexico, where I willingly and joyfully climbed for 45 minutes up over lava rocks, in flip-flops, so that my oldest son could view the top of a dormant volcano. I then trekked 30 minutes, in the same flip-flops, through desert scrub and cacti down into an ice cave that was actually frozen because my youngest son didn't believe it was possible in New Mexico. Follow this up with a 45 mile detour to see the largest documented meteor crater to satisfy my daughter that her brothers weren't lying about giant rocks falling from the sky, and you wind up with one very relaxed mother. So relaxed that, by evening, I couldn't walk from the car to our lodging without assistance from my loving husband who was the brains behind this "see every large hole in the ground the western United States has to offer" vacation.

It is obvious from my own personal journeys, that relaxation is something that everyone strives for in a vacation. However, the method and mode of achieving that state of relaxation is different for everyone.

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