The Disney Syndrome

Well, it has been around 10 months since I went to Disneyland last, but it feels like 10 years. Now that some time has past, I thought I would try to make sense of my... hrmm... preocupation with it.

I have decided that it is largely attitude. I have been playing around with Windows Movie Maker, and made a video of our first Disney trip. We took a lot of video that first time, and it is interesting in those videos how many times we mention that we need to go on vacation more. Prior to that we hadn't really done a family vacation. There were trips as well as the odd adventure here and there, but there weren't really any planned out vacations where we could go and spend time as a family and yet relax.

Disneyland gave us a vacation in the unique way that only Disney can, and I think that that is irreplaceable in many ways, but I have finally found that I can go on other vacations. Of course, if I had the option it would be Disney every time, but I think that I have come to the point where I can go on "vacation" without the Mouse. We are currently planning a 3-day trip within an hour of our house, and I am really looking forward to it. Here are the keys to a great family vacation (for me--no guarantees for anyone else):

1. Location--It can't be at home. Home is where the heart is, but it is also where the computer is, the phone is, the TV is, the boys' friends are, etc, etc, etc. We have to leave all that behind.
2. Activities--I still haven't figured out how to enjoy going somewhere, say the beach, and just sit there. I need a plan, an activity, an itinerary !! (Yeah for itineraries!) Not to mention the boys need to be active or else they are unbearable and the vacation is a failure.
3. Life's details taken care of. Growing up, all of our vacations involved camping. I like camping ok, and it can be a lot of fun sometimes, but more and more as a parent camping is a lot of work, and that extra overhead pushes camping out of the vacation category for me. It can have its own category, but until the boys are older and can help more, it is out. As you can imagine this gets expensive, but I don't know that it can be helped at this point. I prefer that someone else makes my meals and my bed, and I prefer not to have to clean up the messy room when we are done. We just pack up the stuff and leave. That is nice.

Well, those are my thoughts on vacations. I need to post some pictures again, but that wil be for another time.