Staycations
I’m a fan of staycations. I like enjoying the comforts of my home while benefiting from the down time from work. I can choose to catch up on sleep, enjoy a good recreational read while sitting poolside, or visit the zoos and museums that I don’t have the chance to visit while putting in 50 hours a week at the office.
I’m fortunate to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Within reasonable driving distances, I can find myself on a beach or in the mountains, enjoying whatever weather or scenery might strike my fancy on a given day of vacation. I can explore a world-class city or enjoy the serenity of nature preserves. There is no shortage of fabulous food to eat, music to listen to, or culture to absorb.
As part of my last two week staycation I decided to go explore the (relatively) local brick and mortar stitching stores, visiting a different one each day. This resulted in many day trips for all of us to enjoy. I am blessed with a husband who supports my stitching habit and doesn’t mind going along when I want to go visit a needlework store, so we piled the dogs into the car, armed with the Garmin to steer us towards our various destinations.
We saw beautiful scenery on the drive to the stores. We walked the dogs at various parks we discovered along the way. We tried new restaurants. And of course, there was the bliss of being in a needlework store, enjoying the threads hanging on the wall, organized according to the hues of the color wheel. Gorgeous hand-painted canvases sparked my creative juices as I imagined what stitches and fibers I might use to embellish the canvases. I chatted with the proprietor and customers about the projects they were currently stitching. Often times, my husband would take the dogs for a walk while I would sit and stitch at the table in the store.
And like any vacation, you can’t leave without finding a memento to bring home! I delighted in selecting a project that would remind me of our wonderful day trip while I was stitching away on it. No wonder I have so many works in progress!
Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy traveling and visiting new cities and seeing other parts of the country and beyond. It’s just that there is so much to see and experience right here at home, and staycations can be an affordable and enjoyable alternative. Give one a try!
You are so right about the fact that living where you do, you have access to whatever scenery or activities you want to engage in! I've always loved that about California and it's one of the reasons I miss it so! It's simply a lovely state for a staycation, and yours sounds so wonderful! Wish I was taking one with you! Love you!
ReplyDeleteI love Staycations too. Living in the Bay Area in the 90s, there was plenty of stuff to do and see when I took time off. Take the ferry from Marin into SF, hiking on Mt. Tam, antiquing in Sebastopol, drives out to Pt. Reyes or Bodega.....
ReplyDeleteI really need to do something similar around my neck of the woods. There really is so much to see. We sometimes forget this just by being in such close proximity to it all the time.
ReplyDeleteI am a staycation fan also although we travel far from home as often as possible. The last time we went out, we dressed in Hawaiian Shirts, put cameras around our necks and wandered up and down Hollywood Blvd. It was great fun.
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