My Dream Vacation by Grace Greene

It’s almost officially summer, although after Memorial Day weekend arrives and now, with July 4^th on the horizon, it might as well be full-blown vacation-time summer. A couple of months ago I started making vacation plans. I flipped through glossy booklets featuring cruises and checked the offerings on websites.  I reviewed deck plans, accommodations, route maps, ports of call, and prices. Keeping in mind that ultimately we might decide to vacation in-country, I ordered trip planning brochures for Yellowstone Park and the surrounding states. I read through the ‘things to do in [Name of State]’ and considered the options of airports, airfare, excursions and hotels. I surfed online investigating beach rentals in the Outer Banks. How many bedrooms did it have? How many baths? Oceanfront – that’s a must. 

I looked. I dreamed. I considered. I almost committed to an amazing cruise around the British Isles, but in the end – nothing. I walked away. The glossy pages of the tourist brochures are already dusty and my inbox continues to fill with emails from the newsletter and information offers that I signed up for. The vacation investigation project wasn’t procrastination. I am a veteran procrastinator so I know all about that. What prevented me from making the leap of committing, of making reservations and writing a check, etc. was uncertainty about the future.

There are different types of dreams. There are pie-in-the-sky dreams. There are also dreams with a reasonable possibility of achievement. And there are dreams that serve a purpose (i.e. to get away from reality for a little while, or dreams that are like a virtual B&B that you mentally run away to for a few hours). My vacation dreams are definitely of the do-able variety but I lack the certainty of what life in the near future will be. My mom needs extra attention right now. I’m struggling to balance the day job with my writing job and family needs. Sometimes you can put real-life on hold and just go, but it’s not that way for me right now. 

 

 

Do I regret spending time planning a trip I’m not taking? Do I wish I had the time back that I spent doing research? No, most definitely not.

 

There’s a part of my brain that thrives in my imagination, and it’s enjoying that lovely cruise – at least the prospect of it. The memories created in chewing over of the facts, of envisioning the ship and the sights – are like a trip unto itself. Not as much fun as the real thing, but still something, and, in the end, I have to ask myself: what would be my greatest regret? That I didn’t take the trip? Or that I wasn’t here when my mom needed me? No question there.

 

So, for now, instead of taking a dream vacation, I’ll continue dreaming. But don’t be surprised if one of my characters in an upcoming book takes a lovely cruise around the British Isles or spends a couple of weeks in an oceanfront house in the Outer Banks – after all, the research and planning is already done and, for a virtual dream of a trip, the packing is a breeze.