|
A community of people who love to write
The easiest domain name (Note the .ORG) - Absolutely Free! |
Home | Submit Articles | Login |
| ALL Categories | HEALTH | EDUCATION | FINANCE | TECH | WOMEN | ENTERTAINMENT | TRAVEL | |||
Needing a Vacation from our Vacations: A Peculiar Western PhenomenonBY: Maren | Category: Travel | Post Date: 2010-01-18
Have you ever gone on a vacation and said on about Day 8 of a 10-day holiday, -Okay, I am starting to relax now, I am ready to have fun!- This is exactly what happened to all of us on our last vacation together in Maui. My husband and I traveled there with our one-year-old son and my parents. For my husband and I, it was our first trip to the beautiful island, however my parents had been there three times before. While the trip was sure to be enjoyable, the itinerary did present some apparent challenges; the biggest of which was how on earth were we supposed to fit in all of the exciting activities that we wanted to do in just 10 days? To compound the lack-of-time problem, we got suckered (as so many of us tourists do) into sitting through one of the infamous ‘time-share' pitches for a measly $200 off of our rental car fee. While sitting through the two and a half hour presentation, I was torn between two opposing voices in my head… -geez that does sound a good deal- and -Oh my goodness, we only have 9-and-a-half days left of our vacation, so, let the fun begin!- (For the record, we didn't buy a timeshare… this time anyway.) Thus leads me to my first point… we, as Westerners, have it all wrong when it comes to vacationing. Most of us take one week off every few months and fly somewhere warm (or heaven forbid try to drive there, been there, done that) and then race around like mad while we try to ‘get as much fun in as possible'. We have all heard about and probably experienced, the need to ‘take a holiday to recover from our holiday'. Given that I am quite aware of this situation, you would think that I would be slightly better than average when it comes to planning a relaxing vacation. Alas, I am not. Case in point, one of the activities that we decided to do on Maui was drive the road to Hana. If you have been to Maui, you will have undoubtedly heard about this absolutely magnificent stretch of ‘highway' down Maui's southeast coastline. The ‘highway' (and I use this term in quotations because it is actually more of a harrowing, winding road through the rain forest with some two-hundred single-lane bridges) is a popular activity for many visitors on Maui. Of course, it is also used by the locals which are much more adept at driving the road than us tourists. Anyway, my husband, parents and I decided to drive the road to Hana one day as some friends offered to take my son for the day. We set off, eager for a relaxing day filled with waterfalls, flowers, sun, sand, and surf. Of particular interest to me was also trying to take some decent photographs. The journey was slightly different than I had anticipated. Rather than the relaxing, leisurely drive I was expecting, my dad took us on something more comparable to ‘Mr. Toad's Wild Ride'. He apparently wasn't yet in holiday mode (even though we were on Day 6 of our Holiday) and proceeded to take on the day as if we were at home on a Saturday and trying to get 25 errands done before the sun goes down. In classic Roy-style, I saw most of the sights out of the back window of the van as we roared by. Not to worry though, I got to hear all about them on the ‘Road to Hana' CD playing in the van. My mom and I were able to find the humor in the situation (my husband, not so much… he was carsick for most of the day) and began to ‘roast' my dad for his tour-guiding skills. We even persuaded him to stop a few times so that I could actually take a few pictures. Most of the stops were in pull-outs on the side of the road with me running from the vehicle, leaving the sliding door ajar and hearing my mom yelling, -Go, Go, Go!-. On the plus side, it did force me to make quick decisions as a photographer, I am pretty sure that I could now shoot the bobsled event at the 2010 Winter Games! I offer this story as a small example of what I know so many of us have trouble with on vacation… actually slowing down our frantic pace to take it all in. By no means am I professing to have this skill mastered either, but I am becoming more aware of it and hoping to do something about it. Another plus? We were in Hawai'i, and even at break-neck speed, the island is absolutely beautiful. Perfect weather, perfect sand, sunsets every night (almost) and unforgettable mai tais! I would absolutely recommend Maui (and even the road to Hana) for your next vacation, but try to learn from our experience and try to relax okay? After all, you're on vacation! Article Source: http://www.writearticles.org About Author / Additional Info: Additional Articles: * China Visa Types * Writing For Inspiration and Purpose * Colon cleansing- A Good way to reduce constipation and weight * Your Steady and quite mind can conquer the world * Finding Something Truly Unique on the Internet Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. Comments on this article: (0 comments so far) * Additional comments are now closed for this article *
Article Views: 704 
Copyright © 2010 writearticles.org - Do not copy articles from this website. Important Disclaimer: All articles on this website are for general information only and is not a professional or experts advice. We do not own any responsibility for correctness or authenticity of the information presented in this article, or any loss or injury resulting from it. We do not endorse these articles, we are neither affiliated with the authors of these articles nor responsible for their content. Please see our disclaimer section for complete terms. |
| Home | Disclaimer | Xhtml |