The Ways the Pandemic Changed My Vacation

My wife, my kids and I are on our first vacation since 2019 right now. We have two days left, and it’s been fun. We’ve gone to the beach, ordered takeout, we even ate inside a restaurant. We are still masking up whenever we venture away from our Air BnB, but for the most part, it’s been relatively “normal”.

When I woke up this morning, and was given the plan for the day, I stopped for a moment and realized what my favorite part of this vacation has been so far. As I said, we’ve done done tourist stuff, I’ve been trail running, I’m taking my son hiking today, but my favorite part is the fact that we are back at our place no later than 7:15 every night. It’s glorious. Our kids are still young, my son is nine and daughter is five. The younger one goes to bed at 8:00 every night, and she doesn’t want to change that, even while on vacation. The older one goes to bed around 9:00 or 9:30, but he really enjoys his hour of video game or TV time he gets when his sister goes to bed, so he wants to be back for that. My wife and I really enjoy the hour or so before we go to bed that’s just the two of us. That’s our time to reflect on the day, to relax, to just be adults basically. It’s fantastic.

Take last evening as an example. I wanted seafood for dinner and we hadn’t purchased any at the grocery store. We decided we would pick some up and bring it back to the condo. I also had to make a stop at the grocery store to grab more bottled water for us. The tap water in Gulf Shores is not great. So we went to the beach for the day, then I went for a run and then we made sure we left the condo at 4:45 so we could accomplish all the nighttime stuff that needed to be done. By the time I left the grocery store, it was 7:15, and that was considered late. We got back to the condo at 7:30, made ice cream cones for the kids and watched some TV. I read my daughter a story at 8:00 and left her room by 8:15. By 8:30 she was out. A day of swimming and running around really made her crash. Then we let out son watch Hulu in our room until 9:00. Then he put himself to bed. Then my wife and I watched TV and just relaxed until 10:00. We had our ice cream, we talked, watched “The Office” and we’re both ready to conk out by 10:30. It’s been wonderful. I remember being a kid on vacation and wanting to stay up late and go out and do stuff all the time. That was crazy. I get why my parents had us get back to hotels or family members houses now. As a parent of younger kids, the day starts so much earlier, so by the early evening, you’re totally exhausted. That’s why everyone wants to go to bed early.

We have two full days left, counting today, and I’d be willing to guarantee that we will all be going to bed even earlier. I’m taking my son hiking while the ladies go to the beach. Then we are spending a full day at the beach tomorrow, and I’ll be doing more trail running in the late afternoon. We will all be tired, it knowing that we will be back in the condo by 7:30 is a wonderful, and comforting feeling.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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