The Death of the American Vacation – and One Girl’s Quest to Resurrect It (Sort Of)

Once upon a time, not too long ago, I would scoff at the business people I’d see in airports, hunched over and furiously typing on their laptops, placing hurried calls to bosses and co-workers and clients. I’d do this quietly, spying on these people from the pages of the fashion magazine I was reading to kill time until it was time to board. For me, planes and airports have always meant one thing – vacations. Sure, I was familiar with the concept of business trips, but I sure didn’t understand them. In my world, there was no point in hopping on a plane and going through all of that ridiculous security if you weren’t a) visiting friends, b) going somewhere warm, or c) visiting friends and going someplace warm simultaneously. Case closed, end of story.

If I didn’t understand this, you know I was going to have a hard time understanding the next complexity, which is people who take vacations – and bring their work with them. “Can you imagine?” I said as I motioned to my mother in Mexico a few years ago, where a man in Hawaiian-print shorts had set up shop under a palm tree with a blue-tinged fruity drink, a Palm Pilot, and a laptop. “I mean, what is this guy thinking? This is a vacation. Sheesh.”

Fast forward about four years later. It is 2008. I have a full-time job, a part-time job, writing gigs, freelance PR and marketing accounts, and my parents, being wonderful and purely selfless, have done an awful thing – they are taking me along with them to their timeshare in the beautiful, tropical Dominican Republic. For a week.

The kicker? I cannot (“I repeat, “CANNOT,” says my mother) bring my beloved MacBook. There will be no e-mailing, no writing, no reading. I can’t do much of anything besides swim, snorkel, gorge myself on food and fruity drinks served with umbrellas, and lay out in the sun with trashy novels. I am pleased, sure – but also scared to death. My usual way of life – constantly working under deadlines, mapping my days on an oversized daily planner – is going to fall by the wayside for seven long days.

Being a semi-professional gal (I say semi-professional because the combination of “Melissa” and “professional” in a sentence kind of makes me giggle); I now know exactly what the guy was thinking under that palm tree in Mexico. He was thinking that he needed to work on his laptop. He needed to deal with all of his work stuff, because if he didn’t, it was all going to be there, waiting for him, when he got back. We’ve all heard about the “Death of the American Vacation” – compared to other countries, not only do Americans get less time off, but we also use less of the less time off that we receive. It’s a stress thing, for sure – according to a recent Travelocity.com survey, one in three people say that not checking e-mail or voice mails while on vacation is even more stressful than returning home to a huge pile of work.

Living and working in Door County puts a stress on that already-difficult-to-plan vacation even more. I’ve lived and worked here all of my adult life, and, like others, I have held steadfast to the one cardinal rule that everyone understands and no one ever breaks under any circumstances. You will never take a vacation between Memorial Day weekend and Fall Festival weekend. Never. My mom likes to joke that she was told this repeatedly while still in the womb. Just for fun, I recently made a list of things that I want to do before I die. Number one at the top of the list, the thing I want to do even before learning how to play electric guitar and traveling to Africa and Nepal, is “Go on a vacation during the summer.” Why? Because even though Door County is beautiful during the summer, the thought of getting away to somewhere else has always been alluring.

Because of our supremely busy summers, we are fooled into thinking that our winters are quiet. We constantly get asked by visitors about what we do in the winter, and sometimes it’s difficult to come up with a wonderful story that makes winter seem as equally glamorous as our other seasons. When people ask me that question, I always tell them that winter is when we really get ready for the summer and fall seasons, because when the season is upon us, it’s all we can do to get a good grip and hold on for the ride. All of our planning, our marketing, our ideas – that all happens during the off-season.

Which, of course, is why I’m scared to death to travel someplace sunny, warm, and relaxing for a week without the protective shield of my laptop. I forget that I deserve this vacation – that I’ve accomplished a lot this year. I forget that even though winter isn’t exactly an un-busy time in Door County, the pace of the peninsula has slowed down a bit, to the point where this vacation is possible. I have a great boss who wants me to take time off, and I forget that at the end of the day, all of the things I’m dealing with aren’t proverbial brain surgery or rocket science, and that they can wait. And if they can’t wait, there are plenty of capable people that can handle it in my absence.

As I write this, a mere two hours before I drive to Milwaukee to catch my flight, I finally find myself getting excited for my upcoming trip. My mom just called, telling me that the resort we’re staying at has computers and Internet. My ears perks up, my breathing quickens. Computers? Internet? Hooray! There is hope after all!

I am so excited I almost don’t hear the part about the 15-minute time limit.

“Can you imagine?” I ask my mother. “What is the resort thinking? This is a vacation. They can’t limit my Internet time! Sheesh.”