staycation

How to go on vacation without even trying.

Its so easy---and so hard. 

My summers are an exercise in controlled mayhem.  Once again, our rental situation proved anything but smooth.  We did manage to stay at our current location (ya all really should come visit--its probably the last year we rent something sooooooo big) it was touch and go.  My son is sailing out east which wound up meaning 3 trips east for the wife this year.  We did managed to offload my daughter for two weeks of camping in Yellowstone, but that resulted in 4 days of driving 600 miles--add in a trip to St. Louis to see my parents and I find myself asking  "where did my summer go?"

Add in that I am a cheap bastard living in one of the more expensive places in the world with no current income and staycation has my name written all over it.  That and the fact that we live in Aspen which seems to be the kind of place we would goto on vacation if we didn't live here.

1.  Get rid of the kids
2.  limit amount of time you will 'work'---be that answering emails or signing kids up for fall sports
3.  do something different (sleep in, afternoon delight) and most important for us do different outdoors things.  For me going up smuggler or the ute trail is kinda like running in central park, or 'hiking' Runyon canyon in LA.  While out of towners might enjoy the Ute, its pretty much my off lead dog run.  So we have to be a bit more thoughtful and pick hikes, bikes and raft trips that we  want to do but somehow don't manage in our day to day life.  We knocked out electric pass, mid-valley (basically a left turn at lost man and come down to Warren lakes) and a couple of different bike rides. 

None of this took much planning or effort but did require a little mindfulness (yea that dang yoga coaching speak).

The next time your kids are out of town plan something different, and you just might find yourself on vacation.