Last month I took a family vacation to a very quiet beach. When we first planned our vacation here, I thought it would be great to just get away from everything and everyone and simply relax. But as the time drew nearer to us departing, I began to worry that there was nothing around where we were going to help entertain us. There would be no little downtown area to wander around and explore, not even a cheesy souvenir shop or a little ice cream parlors to check out. Nothing. There was one little general store that had ice cream and a few trinkets and one restaurant. That was it.
I grew fearful that we would all be very bored very quickly, especially if the weather did not cooperate and we would be stuck inside the house.
My fears quickly dissipated after our first day there. The weather was overcast and cool but instead of going stir crazy, our family found a way to enjoy our time alone. We took a quiet, leisurely stroll down the beach, spent LOTS of time reading and basically, just relaxed. This first day, one of my daughters kept asking, “so, what are we going to do today?” or “Now what?”. By the second day, the questions had stopped when she realized that we weren’t going to do anything.
Luckily the next few days had sunny, warm weather. It really was perfect beach weather on a very quiet beach. We all spent the day playing in the sand, soaking up the sun and looking for sand dollars. As a parent, it was so nice to see my kids playing so well together- laughing, squealing, just having plain old fun without a television, iphone or any other electronic device. I even caught them reading on the beach!
So my initial fear that this was going to be a boring beach vacation for the kids has turned out to be a fabulous bonding time for the family. A great way for all of us to live without a schedule, without electronics…. a time to reset and recharge.