Are you still taking vacation?

Recent surveys say Americans are still hot to trot out of town -- just a little cooler than in years past.

This from a recent Miami Herald story:

 A new Associated Press-Gfk survey found 42 percent of Americans plan a leisure trip this summer. That's down from 49 precent in an Associated Press poll conducted in 2005, a booming year for the economy.

If the gap seems small, other findings in the survey also show a weak economy isn't smothering vacation plans. Of those planning to take a trip, nearly 70 percent said it would be outside their home state. Only 23 percent planned to stay close to home to save money -- while 19 percent expected to leave the country on a trip.

Me, I'm on the get-out-of-Dodge list. Even when I was unemployed and dirt broke one year, I found a way to get out of town. Sure, I had to go with my personalized version of Couchsurfing, but I did it. And my head was better for it...even if my diet was limited to peanut butter for a month to offset the cost.

Still, The Husband and I debated whether we should go on vacation this year, given the world's general uncertainty. Then we thought about our lives. A friend of his just dropped dead suddenly of a heart attack; another is in the hospital with a brain tumor. Last year, The Husband himself was felled by an appendectomy and six months later, by a faulty heart valve.

He's fine now, thank goodness. But this all reminds us that life is a fine balancing act. If I live forever, I may wish I'd hung on to my cash. If I die tomorrow, I hope I will have created memories enough to last through the lifetimes of those I love.

Trips bind. The London visit with my mother, the Mexican spa foray with my friend Phyllis, Jordan with my friend Kate, Easter Island with Sue and Mary Ann, Florence with our ailing friend. For me, at least, the memories are worth more than any single overpriced dinner or even that black leather designer dress.

Guess I'll return that red jacket and go to Europe instead.

Share you thoughts.....

 

Comments

[Claudia Auger]

Good decision, Jane. But you might have been able to go on vacation -- and keep that red jacket -- if you opted to come to Bali instead.

Check out the great deals to Bali on Cathay Pacific:

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=132701326280&h=eleSs&u=88vwT&ref=mf

[Jane Wooldridge]

Hey. I wanna come!