When you think about it, what is the true intent of a vacation? Spending quality, leisure time with family, away from work, with no daily regimen of chores? If so, then the currently in-vogue “staycations” do more than provide inexpensive getaways. They are the good that comes from a tough economic time because they are also slowing families down, bringing them closer together. Staycations’ original intent—to save money—has spawned a whole new genre of pleasant vacations.
My family’s been taking staycations for the past fifteen years. Every summer we rent the same small cottage a short walk from the beach. It’s a little white bungalow, with windows opened to the breeze, a little sand on the floors, conch shells and hurricane lanterns decorating the shelves. Flower boxes overflow with geraniums and petunias, and the screened front porch is perfect for puzzles and beach reading.
Our little cottage is forty-five minutes from home, and when we arrive, we plant ourselves and become pure beach bums beside the peace of Long Island Sound, beneath the warmth of the sun. We stay. We travel no further, drive little, and fall under summer’s sweet spell of sea breezes, bare feet, the rhythm of the waves, the company of gulls. This spell we’d prefer not to break for our brief time there each year.
So, we have our own version of a staycation. Our vacation has stayed the same for fifteen years. It’s provided a pocket of peace upon which we depend. We return to a time warp each summer, to a cottage that never changes, with a lagoon behind the back yard, a swan family close by, the boardwalk running the length of the beach, the ding-dong ice-cream truck close by, the colorful beach umbrellas lining the shore.
Our time warp takes us back further than fifteen years, though. This 1940s-era cottage, with its big stone fireplace and latched porch windows and narrow galley kitchen, hasn’t moved far out of its original decade. This cottage has stayed the same for years, allowing us a bit of history, of holding time still, immersing us in idyllic leisure.
But more than physical attributes remain the same. Vacation is ultimately a frame of mind, and the cottage walls, strewn with seascapes and baskets and port windows, are constant home to serenity, nature, and beauty, waiting for my family each summer.
Hopefully this ambiance will rise from many families’ new staycations: a cherished peacefulness that gives free time to rest and recharge and connect with family, while connecting with that which is greater than ourselves, at the sea, the lake, the mountains, or in our own perfect backyards.
Joanne DeMaio is a Connecticut writer with freelance credits that include The Hartford Courant and local publications. Her memoir essays have appeared in literary journals while her fiction explores the concept of identity woven into family and friendships. Joanne maintains Whole Latte Life, a blog about living a choice life, at www.joannedemaio.blogspot.com.
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