Southern Vacation

Recently, Jesse and I took a road trip through the South (or rather, Appalachia and parts of the upper south); we visited my parents (and their dog and chickens) in West Virginia, drove through Virginia, visited Knoxville and Nashville in Tennessee, crossed Kentucky, drove back up to my parents' house through Western West Virginia's mountainous highways, and visited more family in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

I've been procrastinating on blogging about this because I'm not sure what to say. I could list the places we visited and things we did there, or I could try to describe the people we met, but none of that would really convey how I feel about it. It will have to suffice, then, to say that this was a strong contender for my favorite of all the vacations/trips I've ever taken.

Vacation and Electro-Sabbath

I just got back from a week with some college friends on a yacht one friend's parents had rented in the Virgin Islands for her college graduation -- which is pretty much as awesome as it sounds. I caught up with old friends, swam with a turtle, learned some sailing, drank piña coladas, and many more adventures.

Another remarkable thing about this trip was that I had no laptop, no cell phone, no blogs, no webcomics, no email, no TV, for a week straight -- a distinctive experience for someone who's accustomed to spending hours tied to a screen every day. When we were first planning this trip, I was worried about being forced to be not working and out of contact with clients for so long, but you know what? It was fantastic. I even uncharacteristically declined the opportunity to check my email when it was available at some places we pulled into port -- and since I'd warned my clients about my vacation plans and worked a little extra the week before, nothing urgent had piled up when I got home.

In some ways, this email-less week was similar to the "Electro-Sabbath" that Jesse and I instituted a few weeks ago: on Wednesday nights after 9pm, we don't check email, use the internet, or watch TV or movies. The idea is to clear our heads from the addictive and attention-fraying 20-open-tabs lifestyle of the everyday and free up time to dedicate to non-electronic activities we want to pursue (reading, painting, chatting, going for walks). It's relaxing to do this once a week, but an entire week without the electronic tether is unbelievably refreshing -- obviously something I can't do often in my profession, but something to keep in mind for the occasional vacation.