Better Than Nothing Vacations?

I’m told it can be a pretty annoying quality but I don’t usually get too overly excited about things. I tend to view life more in a cautiously optimistic way, one where I’m more often pleasantly surprised than disappointed. I’m not a total downer that expects the worst but I’ll admit that there are times when things go as I would like and I find myself kind of surprised.

It’s that mindset that led to a downgrade of our vacation plans for this year. Last summer my daughter and three of her best friends were supposed to go to a week long Girl Scout sleepaway camp, something that she was more excited about than I was but had come to terms with. Like everything else in 2020 it was eventually cancelled and with things not being totally where we had hoped they would be at this point there was some worry that might happen again.

We settled on a day camp, her and one of the other girls bussed off at a ridiculously early time in the morning and picked up every afternoon. It wasn’t exactly the week of independence that they had hoped for or the week to myself that had started to sound pretty good.

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I hadn’t told her but I was also kind of hoping for a return to Disney World. It’s been over four years since my last visit there, probably one of the longest stretches that I’ve had. Orlando is a quick and cheap three hour flight from me and with multiple friends in the state and three NFL stadiums within driving distance it’s not unusual for a visit to the most magical place on Earth to be perhaps not the focal point of a vacation but included.

Instead we ended up at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, chosen not only because the season passes we have for our more local park are valid there but because several months ago when I was trying to figure out where we might go this was one of three states that I could travel to without having to self quarantine before returning to work. Those restrictions have since been lifted but it doesn’t seem that we are going to be able to get off this particular real life roller coaster as easily as we might have hoped a few months ago. It was a long drive and a shorter stay than we would have liked but at least it was something.

If any of that sounds unappreciative, it’s not. Both kids were more than happy to return to their own beds every night in their air conditioned, wi-fi enabled homes and we were happy to have an entire week where they didn’t need to be forcibly unplugged, entertained or fed nonstop snacks. At Six Flags we got to go on a ton of cool rides with really minimal wait times and the ease of acquiring beers and ice cream at that park is pretty much unrivaled. There was plenty about this past year that sucked but we are healthy and happy.

They were “better than nothing” vacations but that is still a hell of a lot better than where we were last year. I’ve requested the time off for when I hope to be in Florida next April but that continues to be a state that doesn’t seem to agree with the measures that might help us to get there. The Delta variant seems to affect children more than the previous version of the virus. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Regardless of where we end up that week, if anyplace at all, we’ll make the best of it and enjoy each other’s company. She’s growing up fast and I know that the clock is ticking on these adventures together. Some of my favorite times from this past week didn’t come on roller coasters or the trampoline park or on any mini golf course. They came at dinner, a Chili’s right around the corner from our hotel that we went to almost every night because she likes the fancy drinks that she can get there. We were just over 200 miles from home, sitting someplace that we could have traveled sixteen miles to go to and if that’s what we have to do again next time then I guess I’ll just have another margarita.