Published: July 26, 2008 10:39 pm      

A vacation in my mind

The word “vacation” can mean different things to different people.

While for some it means loading the kids in the car and the endless miles of “are we there yet” and “he’s touching me!” while for others it is a thousand-mile flight to a far away tropical island.

And for another segment, to which I most likely can relate, a vacation is just a time to get away from the norm — to escape the everyday and live life a little differently.

Whether I am going on a 50-mile trek to visit family, on a trip to Dallas for a conference or on a bona-fide vacation to Washington, D.C. or Hawaii, in my mind it is all the same — I am on vacation.

Everyone needs that time to get away, to be somewhere that is somewhat out of reach, where there are no phone calls every five minutes or e-mail to check (unless you just want to).

And even when I can’t physically get away, I love to go back to those places in my mind, jogging those memories through pictures or by rummaging through my box of souvenirs.

There I find the old plane ticket stubs to California, Washington D.C. and Florida, several tickets for Branson shows and a random trip or two to the movies.

There’s also the putt-putt golf card that shows how my dad beat the pants off the rest of us, because he had been practicing in his off time.

Photos, in particular, bring back memories for me. They are my favorite souvenirs to gather on any trip I take.

On a family trip to D.C., I had my sister stand in front of the Washington Monument, which was a distance away. She doesn’t appreciate the humor in my making her look like the monument is coming up out of her head.

Another fun photo was taken when I visited Branson and went to the Oak Ridge Boys concert — the family got our picture made in front of the group’s cut-outs outside. And my sister and I enjoyed getting our picture taken in the bathroom at the Shoji Tabuchi Show (if you’ve ever been there, that doesn’t seem so weird).

Another favorite photo was from Tennessee, when the family visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and one of my sisters had the bright idea to hike to a waterfall that was a 5-mile round trip, at least.

When we made it to the waterfall, I had my sister take a picture of me flexing my muscles in front of it. For me, that hike really was a great feat.

I also enjoyed taking the photo of my sister walking a kind of high, very narrow footbridge there (especially because she is afraid of heights), and the photo of my other sister scrunched down in a hollowed out tree was fun, too.

Not really an official vacation, I made several trips to see my parents in Sweetwater and took loads of photos of the wind turbines there (which I shared with you recently) and of my parents’ then-new Shih Tsu, Lily.

Then there are all the photos of conferences and events I got to attend, the Christmas and birthday parties and graduations — all those events that celebrate the moments (or what I call the “little vacations”) of life that we can escape to.

What fun it has been to take this little vacation with you. I encourage you to take one of your own sometime soon.

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Mary Rainwater may be reached via e-mail at mrainwater@palestineherald.com