A Crafter's Life, tierneytravels

The Relaxation Vacation Experiment

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I began this post a couple of days ago and then got really blue about what is going on in Italy and other parts of the world, not to mention my own country. But I think we need to carry on with “regular life” as much as we can (while we socially isolate and for some while we “shelter-in-place”), so I pulled myself out of my blueness and I am finishing up this post that might seem a little frivolous at this point but…

Remember mid-February? Remember when you had access to all the toilet paper you needed (or could possibly dream of) and terms such as “social distancing” were not part of your vocabulary/life?

these

Well let’s take a brief break from our global pandemic in this post and let me share my semi-failed experiment in my first planned “complete relaxation vacation” (but if I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I would not have failed at the relaxation vacation experiment!)

Cabo San Lucas, February 2020

As mentioned in my previous post, Cabo San Lucas in Black and White, my partner John and I took a (nearly) week’s vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

2020-02-14_14-41-10_0422020-02-15_10-10-15_0302020-02-15_10-14-14_2812020-02-17_12-18-51_3192020-02-17_12-30-34_451

You might look at these photos and think: “Wow, what a vacation/holiday in paradise”. This is what normal people would think. However for John and I it was a “Relaxation Vacation Experiment”.

And we may have failed at this experiment…

John is a widower and as many of you know I am a widow. Our former spouses were both the type who liked to do “Always Busy/Scheduled Activities/See As Much As You Can” vacations.

I was with Terry the Quilting Husband since I was 20 years old (nearly my entire adult life) and every vacation we went on was filled with endless sightseeing and other busy activities. I am not complaining we had some wonderful vacations and I got to visit some major historical sights and battlegrounds in the U.S. and Europe (Terry was a Military History buff) on our trips as well as fun and playful vacations like Disneyland, etc.

John’s previous life was the same – his vacations were filled with trying to do as much sightseeing as possible during the vacation time allotted.

So he and I came up with the idea that for the first time in our lives, we should go on a vacation in which we do something crazy…RELAX!

In our minds, we would enjoy our first completely relaxing, have nothing scheduled, lie around on the beach and read books, vacation.

John’s sister has a lovely condo in Cabo San Lucas and so we thought that would be a perfect (and not too expensive) way to have a mid-Winter relaxing vacation in a warm and tropical place!

Things started out promising – we managed to goof off a couple hours wandering and sitting around the beach and reading books on our first afternoon in town.

2020-02-14_14-39-14_8772020-02-14_14-43-30_5792020-02-15_14-42-03_342We even invented the “Shoe Coaster” (patent pending) for our special beverages on the beach!

2020-02-15_14-43-24_358Unfortunately we grew a little bored of just hanging out on the beach after  a while.

There were lots of wonderful restaurants on the beach so we tried just hanging out for long stretches “relaxing” at restaurants on the beach. Here I am on the way to the beach or a restaurant on the beach, preparing for some more “relaxation”:

IMG_20200215_101434The truth is, after just a couple days of this “relaxation” stuff, we were bored out of our minds.

Yes we did do some sightseeing in the main area of Cabo San Lucas but everywhere you walked someone was trying to sell you something and after a while I just felt like a “dollar” walking around for vendors trying to get.

We did one afternoon however have a lovely lunch at the marina area of Cabo and we did have brief sweet moments of “total relaxation”.

2020-02-17_13-00-21_4012020-02-17_12-33-16_143IMG_20200217_122256But like the creature in the image above, after a couple of days we decided all this relaxation vacation stuff was “for the birds” and not for us!

After an awkward discussion where we finally both admitted (previous we were each secretly thinking it without telling the other) we were absolutely bored out of our minds with all this relaxation (we had even tried just staying the condo and binge watching a Netflix show when we’d had enough of the beach, etc.) – we decided to change our flight and come home early from vacation.

Are you shaking your heads in disbelief at this point?

(To be honest, now, with what is going on in the world, I too am shaking my head – I wish I had stayed longer in Cabo and embraced relaxation…)

We both accepted we had “failed” at the “Relaxation Vacation Experiment”.

Actually we did not fail, we learned.

We learned that we like to more active vacations in places where there are lots of museums and historic sights to see. We are not the “lie on the beach and relax” kind of vacation people.

And that is okay (smile).

Postscript

The day before we were scheduled to return home early our enthusiasm returned and we decided to fill our last full day in Cabo having a less traditional experience: we decided to go “Farm-to-Table” restaurant hopping. I guess there is a big farm-to-table movement in Cabo and we thought it would be fun to explore.

Luckily we had a car during our trip so we drove to a remote area for our first Mexican farm-to-table experience. The road to this farm, Los Tamarindos, was a quite bumpy (unpaved) and a little scary (in the middle of nowhere) but it was so worth the drive. We had an amazing meal and experience and here are a couple photos:

2020-02-18_12-49-38_054IMG_20200218_122904IMG_20200218_122931IMG_20200218_123031IMG_20200218_124654IMG_20200218_130223IMG_20200218_130227

The food was not just fresh and amazing, it was sort of a spiritual experience!

After our first farm-to-table experience in Mexico, we were hooked and headed to the next farm, Flora Farms, where we did not sit for a formal meal but wandered around and amazing cocktails and the most delicious ice cream cone in my life!

2020-02-18_14-41-33_337IMG_20200218_142440IMG_20200218_1403592020-02-18_14-33-41_9462020-02-18_14-30-10_1462020-02-18_14-21-53_5182020-02-18_13-47-45_693

This trip and these photos seems like another lifetime, like another world.

Hoping you all stay safe in the reality of our current world. Hang in there.

Love,

Tierney and John

2020-02-18_13-59-45_344

 

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

52 thoughts on “The Relaxation Vacation Experiment”

  1. The art of relaxing is something we are still learning. It took us a couple of trips to figure that one out. There would be days where we would just go, go yearning for days to do nothing. When I need to really decompress, the beach is the perfect antidote. I loved all your pictures from Cabo and am sad this pandemic is happening. We are canceling our trip in April. Perhaps we will reschedule for next year. Stay safe. Hugs.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh Kathy I am so sorry about your trip. I remember how cool it sounded. Okay we’ll all get through this and there will future trips! Thanks for your comments – hugs, T

      Like

  3. I loved reading about your San Cabo trip–especially the farm-to-table part. I’m not a lying on the beach person either. This was a good experience for you and John to learn how to be honest with each other, too. Loved that dead branches bicycle!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I appreciated the moments of relaxation and beauty you brought to all of us today. I would imagine that 5 minutes of relaxation for all of your readers, is equivalent to what you and John would have had if you just stayed on the beach doing nothing for your whole vacation — in other words it equals out so you don’t have to feel you failed at relaxing! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  5. What beautiful pictures Tierney! I agree with you though, I prefer a vacation filled with adventure and sight seeing. There is usually a bit of time for relaxing as well. Your farm food adventure really has me wanting to try it. Yum!!! – I’m so glad you were able to go on your relaxation experiment before all of this craziness. Thank you for sharing.❤️❤️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks so much Tracy! I appreciate that vacation even more than I did when I first got home. Lately I’ve been just appreciated every little good moment. 🙂

      Like

  6. It made me smile, Tierney! Although I love walking along beaches, I am not one for sitting on them ~ sunburn, sand, eech. In my book a beach is for beach combing. Also I am a great tourist; I love to be out seeing and doing and experiencing what the local area has to offer. So I am with you! (BTW, did you find any good fabric shops?!)

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Yes, those relaxing vacations always sound good, but in reality… I’ve tried and failed in that experiment as well! Now we’re all doing it at home! Your photos are awesome and what a gorgeous place!!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. And I envy your fabric skills! And I agree, we do seem to have similar outlooks. On many things.

        I remember we went to the NJ shore about 15 years ago (what were we thinking, beach vacation) and we sought out every tourist site there was (including a large straggly semi-wild nature garden place with chickens, but it was fun wandering around. Everyone else on the beach getting a suntan and we are being chased by chickens. Yes, we are different.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I’m a half and half person – when I was away last March (f/b keeps showing me my memories) – I would go all hog out on an attraction and then the next day lounge about. I didn’t see everything, even when other overseas tourists recommended it either. I was travelling err drifting around the South Island, I live permanently in the North Island of New Zealand. The same occurred in Sept when I was gone 3 weeks to 3 different towns in NI.

    The highlights for me were the smaller attractions 2 standouts – March “mailboat on the Marlborough Sounds” and Sept “mail run (whole day) along the Whanganui River Rd with just me, the driver, her dog and of course the mail”
    Whereas the steam boat on Lake Wakatipu (Queenstown) was packed with tourists and it was hard to move around…the scenery was pretty great, but it felt impersonal with mega$$ to go on it…

    I was supposed to go back to the SI last Dec but my health reared up…and then I thought “well what about March” but my health wasn’t balanced for that either…and NOW, “no can do…”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I like that half and half balance – I think we were trying to hard to “fully relax” in how we think you are supposed to relax in a beachy place! New Zealand is my fantasy holiday and I plan to visit there someday – I am sure there will plenty of stuff to do! How awesome you did a mailboat adventure – how unique and cool!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. And I had taken with me some art supplies – little things. I made little collages at some places – this more in the SI – they had to be fairly flat as I didn’t have much room in my trolley case. But then I also collected small bits as well, and affixed them when I got home. Tourist brochures that I cut words or maps from … a flat stone from a lake front beach at Wanaka where I also scored a piece of wood chip from a huge pile after a farming type show, where one of the competitions had been wood chopping. The pile was still on the field a couple of days later, and I took one that reminded me of the mountains…

      Liked by 1 person

  11. One way to find out is to try, and you did. Thank goodness you were finally able to tell each other how you really felt!
    What is relaxing for me on vacation (or anytime actually) is to get up, have a slow cup of coffee, do some email and finally shower and get moving. But get moving to see things I do like to do. And when seeing things requires an early start, I can do that too, so long as I have a day soon to veg. Didn’t know that the first couple vacations planned, though. To live is to learn.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for your comments and I am like that with a slow cup of tea and some public radio jazz (we have this awesome station KUVO in Denver) and flip through a magazine. Hey wait – that is cheaper than going to Mexico – ha!

      Like

  12. I´m not much of a relaxation holiday person myself. Love your photos from the Farm to Table outing, that looks so fantastic! Especially now that we are all stuck at home. Thanks for bringing a little sunshine to our screens and stay safe!

    Liked by 2 people

  13. I can’t do lying on a beach relaxing either, I wouldn’t have even lasted a day!!Even in Bali, whilst my OH sunbathed and swam, I sat in the shade with some sewing!! I love the idea of farm to table, looks fab! Take care Tierney 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Margaret – thanks for stopping by! Bali sounds like the ultimate relaxation vacation but I would want to have sewing too! Farm to table was wonderful 🙂

      Like

  14. Looks lovely, but not a beach person either. I like to have a holiday with a few key things planned and then other days I can either choose to do something or choose to relax.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That sounds like my kind of holiday! I think (when it is safe to travel again), for our next holiday there will be a place with museum and a fabric shop or two 🙂

      Like

  15. Relaxing is a skill and an art. Some people just have it. Some can learn it. Some try but never really succeed. And that’s okay too!

    You tried, and going by your story and the wonderful pictures, it was a very nice experience! I’m happy for you. You discovered something about yourself and about each other – isn’t that the best part?

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Ahhh, your photos are lovely… But like you guys, I would be bored out of my tree just sitting on the beach all day! Farm-to-table restaurant-hopping though – THAT I could get into! The food looked amazing! Cheers for sending a little Mexican sunshine my way this morning 😊

    Liked by 1 person

  19. It took me a while to finally finish my latest blog post. It is hard to write when my spirits are down; I feel like it will somehow seep into my words, and I don’t want to affect others with any undue negativity. That being said, thank you for the beautiful photos! You look absolutely stunning in that hat!!!

    Like

  20. Restaurant food & drink, vacation scenery, and a couple of cheery faces…just what I needed! I can’t help but wonder if the stores will ever have toilet paper again…until they do, I’m being incredibly conservative with my squares. Stay well!

    Like

Comments are closed.