Vacation is not for sleeping

[image error]When Krista asked me to write a guest blog post on vacations I thought, 'yes! I get to write about Kenya again!'

Then I realized—after several false starts—I no longer wanted to write about Kenya. Outside of fiction, that is. Though I've only been once, it now feels like home…a setting for my future fiction. I thought I would instead write about Cozumel, the place I visited with my wife, son and mother-in-law two months after my life changing trip to Kenya.

After being spoiled on my solo trip to Africa, I wanted some family time; to reconnect with my fourteen year-old son, Jacob. I had returned from my African journey changed in many ways. But everybody else was still the same. I felt euphoric, but odd. Disconnected from Western civilization!

 

Enter a week of fun with Jacob! But while touring Kenya I had become, unbeknownst to me, the Vacation Nazi (a title that was later bestowed upon me).

There are many things to see and do on Cozumel! The race was on…how many of them could we crush in one week. I planned the itinerary; daytrips for the family and others just for Jacob and me. Exciting things like cave exploring, 4-wheel jungle tours, scuba diving…death defying stuff!

I thought Jacob was as euphoric as I was about all my wondrous vacation plans. We were doing things he had never even dreamed of doing.

Day four, six a.m. alarm sounds. Jacob, almost crying, looks at me pleadingly. "If I were going to school today, I'd still be sleeping for another two hours!"

The moral? When going on vacation, plan to actually rest. It's not a vacation if you're busier than you would be if you were at home. Find a chair. Sit. Enjoy some calm and silence. Vacate!

Kevin's first Young Adult novel, SUMMER ON FIRE, will be available July, 2011 from Museitup Publishing.