On unrelaxing vacations

My family is full of do-ers. We are action-, goal-, motivation-oriented individuals...five of them in one family. We like to be productive and when we're not moving toward achievement of something we feel a little aimless and things get a little out of hand. This makes vacations a little bit counter-intuitive for us. By definition a vacation is "an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling." Well, we do okay with the "spent away from home or in traveling" part, but the "extended period of recreation" part is something with which we eternally struggle.

Most people, when they go on vacation, spend at least a part of that time doing non-productive, relaxing, and exclusively entertaining things--like sitting on a beach, or going to an amusement park. Things that are strictly intended for enjoyment. Well, sometimes we do that--our very favorite vacation place is Disney World--but most of the time we swing and miss.  By that I mean, most of the time there is very little to do with relaxation and enjoyment and more to do with education.  We go away for weeks at a time, but we go to places where we can learn something...usually history-related. We've gone to almost every historic city on the East Coast, but never once have we spent even so much as a day sitting on a beach.  We've been to Boston (the whole freedom trail), Baltimore (Aquarium), Washington D.C. (the entire Mall), Richmond Virginia (Civil War sites), New York City (Ellis Island), Philadelphia (Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, many others--my sister stated the words "aren't there any beaches nearby?"), Gettysburg (twice), Jamestown, Williamsburg, Charleston South Carolina, Toronto (Casa Loma and a few museums), the Thousand Islands (Bolt Castle), Niagara Falls...the list goes on.  

Anyways, we're an action oriented family and even vacations are consumed with learning opportunities and education.  This is great, in part because I've got a better grasp of Civil War History than most people in this world and because I even had the opportunity to travel at all.  But what I've realized in my life of educational vacationing is that sometimes, it's okay to be unproductive.  You don't always have to be learning, or doing, or producing.  Sometimes, it's okay, and even healthy, to do absolutely nothing, while sitting on a beach.

Not that I would know. 

What I do know, however, is the kind of wood on which the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution sat.

Keep on thinking,

Josie