Vacation at Home

Have you changed your vacation plans because of high gas prices? Are you reluctant to fly because of the emissions? If so, fear not! You can vacation at home!

After a few expensive trips with little kids, we realized that we were flying across the country to do, in many cases, things that we could do at home. For example, we took two kids to Seattle. We walked around the city, went to the zoo on the bus, went to the farmer's market, visited the tower, drank lots of coffee, went to the farmer's market again, went to the park, Children's museum, went for a hike... you get the picture.

Now, I LOVED Seattle. Particularly considering that we went in August, and August in Austin is hell. But little kids don't really appreciate the wonder that is Seattle and maybe we could have saved ourselves a lot of money and some frustration by vacationing closer to home. A lot of it has to do with attitude. When you're on vacation, you're out to have fun and try the cool local stuff. You don't worry about paying bills and cleaning the house. You get to spend time together as a family, relatively free from other distractions. And if you want an ice cream, you get one.

For example, today we spent the day "vacationing" in Austin:
After breakfast at home, the kids and I rode bikes over to play mini-golf. This was an exciting first for my kids. Afterwards, we met C and the little one at the fountain park to run around in the fountain. We had a little snack while we were there, then headed over to the Children's museum. After the museum, we went out to lunch and even bought ice cream for dessert. We raced our bikes home and then collapsed. We'd spent the whole day out. The evening was dedicated to relaxing.

This would actually be a pretty good vacation day. We normally only eat one meal out when we go somewhere, because I don't have the patience or the money to take 3 kids out for all three meals, never mind the endless snacks.

You could be your own tour guide, and make a vacation plan for 2 or 3 days. Heck, you could even hire a housekeeper for a day... it's still less expensive than going to a hotel :)

When I'm on vacation, I like to mix it up. Do a little something cultural, a little something outdoorsy, and something indulgent. For example, each day you could do one thing from each of the following categories:

Cultural

• go to latest exhibition at the museum
• gallery hopping
• symphony
  
• live music of some other kind
• go dancing
• do some art/craft thing -- paint pottery, for example
• Sierra Club meeting
• movie
  

Outdoorsy

• go for a hike
• go for a bike ride
• fly on a zip line
• swim in a local swimming hole or springs
• go sailing or take a sailing lesson
• kayaking, or go out with friend on his/her boat :)
• camping (if it's not 100 degrees)
• rock climbing
  

Indulgent

• get a massage
• lay around and read a novel
• get an ice cream
• go somewhere amazing for dessert
• take a private dance lesson and finally learn to dip
• go to the farmer's market and don't worry about the price of berries

There's lots of other activities that are fun too, especially if you have kids:

• feed the ducks
• zoo
• bake cookies
• go to the store and trawl for free samples of food (WF is great for this)
• climb a tree
• putt-putt golf
• bowling
• summer musical
• visit a friend with a new puppy or kittens
• tube the river
• run under the sprinkler/borrow the neighbor's slip n slide (if you're not in a drought)
• garden
  

Of course, planning a vacation at home doesn't require a lot of study. But sometimes you do need to plan it. I happen to have a lot of vacation time (thanks, grad school!) but I find that if I don't make a plan, I tend to fritter it away.

Some vacation plans can't really be replaced, but if finances are tight, or you're really burnt out and need a weekend vacation, a well-planned vacation at home can be just the trick.

Do you have any other tips? Please share! (Can you tell I canceled a big vacation this summer?)