| The American vacation doesn't exist anymore. | | | | annual vacations. |
| Used to be our parents would take a couple of | | | | I would walk to other cottages where people had |
| weeks without cellphones and computers and | | | | set up their temporary home. And that's what it |
| would just call in. Amazing. I remember my father | | | | became. After the first week you forgot all about |
| driving in from our cottage along the outerbanks | | | | your old life and became that family living on a |
| of North Carolina to a general store where a man | | | | sand dune next to the ocean. The transformation |
| would let him use the payphone and he would | | | | took about a week and we would all slow down |
| make one call...one call. And then we would drive | | | | to the heat and the rhythm of the ocean surf. |
| back to the cottage without cable or phone and | | | | We tuned our clock to leisure, going to the beach |
| he would not call in the rest of the vacation which | | | | and reading, swimming, and then the inevitable |
| was usually three weeks long! | | | | seafood meal. Our life became that vacation. |
| Now...now we cant go one day without being | | | | When it was over I remember being in shock |
| connected. To make matters worse most of us | | | | that we still had a house in Baltimore or Virginia, |
| don't even go for the one day. Statistically more | | | | depending on where we were living at the time. |
| than half of American workers fail to take all their | | | | And the adjustment back to normal life took |
| vacation days. Thirty percent say they use less | | | | about a week and we all went through serious |
| than half their allotted time. And 20% take only a | | | | withdrawal at the loss our leisure clock. But the |
| few days instead of a week or two. Basically the | | | | point is we did leave our lives for a while which is |
| classic one week two week three week | | | | the definition of a vacation. It shows you what is |
| American vacation does not exist anymore. What | | | | important, what you have been missing, and |
| a shame. | | | | hopefully informs the rest of your life. And finally, |
| I remember those summer vacations. They | | | | a vacation is just a great time. |
| denoted a year ending, a cycle, another year | | | | It is our loss that we can no longer unplug from |
| beginning. They were sort of the capstone after | | | | our wired existence. I too have fallen victim to |
| Christmas, Easter, all the holidays really and then | | | | the shortened vacation, squeezing in a week with |
| this incredible holiday of two weeks, three weeks, | | | | BlackBerry on. Maybe some day I will return to |
| and by the end yes an incredible five week | | | | those cottages on the beaches of the outer |
| vacation. And we went out the same beach year | | | | banks. Maybe that man is still there in the general |
| after year. Kitty Hawk North Carolina was still | | | | store and I'll ask to use his phone. Just for the hell |
| somewhat of a discovery then and the other | | | | of it. |
| families in the cottages all were there for their | | | | |
