Is It a Trip or a Vacation?
Maybe it's a residency!
A friend once helpfully explained to me the difference between a trip and a vacation. Both can involve plane rides and exotic locales but only the latter exclusively includes a book, a pool or beach & zero obligations.
Turns out that Steve & I mostly take trips… with the requisite commitment to filling every minute with museums, forts, churches, and other IMPORTANT sites. Ahem. However, when we started to plan this gap year, we initially thought we’d do more vacations, or residencies… a third category that means staying in one place for long enough (~2-6wks) to develop familiarity, routines, and favorite grocery stores. We discovered “residencies” during the Covid years while taking workations & sabbaticals in places like Santa Fe & San Luis Obispo, CA.
Well, going the way of many a best-laid plan, this year has definitely been about TRIPS. No regrets; but we have woven in some moments of vacation -- including starting the year on the coast of Oaxaca with the rhythms of the ocean as our only alarm clock. That lasted about a week however, and we’ve mostly been tripping ever since ;)
The good news is that we had the foresight to build in a summer break. A mid-year recess from our year-long vacation. (Yes, it’s okay to hate us. We understand & share the impulse. Lol.)
But first, since getting home from Italy in mid-May, we bounced around the East Coast visiting family, celebrating our anniversary, and in my case, going to a milestone college reunion & girls’ getaway too. These trips featured Philadelphia, DC, Maryland, Memphis, Nutbush, Little Rock & Northampton, MA.
And then it was time to REST.
For us, that means Maine. We are just over 3wks into our month-long stay, and save for first-time-in-Maine gallivanting with my Mom & sister, we’ve spent most of our visit watching or playing in the beautiful Penobscot Bay. From our front porch, we have a premium subscription to “nature tv” of rolling fog, dolphins, seals, eagles, cormorants, loons, and what I’ve now learned are called bait balls of flying fish trying to escape their predators. We alternate between reading on the porch or taking a chair down to the rocky beach below instead. My favorite thing to do, really, is watch the many sailboats that saunter by, crisp sails flirting with dappled sunlight.
And there’s our Maine community. This being the last of the New England states that I checked off my travel list, we started coming up when good friends bought a summer home here in 2018. In the very first hour of our very first visit, we ran into them while picking up groceries at the local coop. They showed us around that week, including the county fair, cute bookstores, seafood haunts & fave water spots. We were immediately hooked and have returned every summer since. In fact, our very first “residency” was here during Covid summer 2020, when different friends lent us their house for a month. It was a month that saved our sanity because at least once a week there would be an outdoor gathering of drinks, grilled meats, sunset-over-water & conversations that only partly revolved around doom. Remember, this was before vaccines and in the middle of the frenzied 2020 election season. If it was all going to end (a seemingly strong possibility at the time), Maine was not a bad place to be.
Well, we are all still here (a blessing) and our circle of Maine friends continues to grow & deepen. This year, our friend Myron baked us a pie with blueberries from his own garden. We look forward to neighborly chats at the Saturday farmer’s market. There are long walks, boat rides, concert dates, family visits & dinner parties. We even have a lobster guy now -- Nathan!
Until we start our trips again in a few weeks, Maine is a beautiful and loving place to REST. In residence.
As always… If you want to see more photos or read brief missives on different areas we visited and things we experienced, please check out my instagram posts at your leisure.
Love this and love youse 💜👏🏽