My parents have a time-shared condominium that we visit three or four times a year. My family has made the familiar drive up north, for over thirty-five years. I have taken middle school friends, then high school friends and college roomies for the weekend and now, my own family enjoys this getaway. The family dogs, have all been lead down the familiar paths through the moss covered trees on the stretched out property.
When we are there, we can’t search the internet. We can’t scroll through our Twitter feed and we can’t attack zombies with our upgraded weapons. We can’t get stressed about our house that needs cleaning or the laundry or the unpaid bills.
Those things are put on hold until our return on Sunday afternoon.
Instead, we walk in the woods and absorb the sound of the river. We swim in the pool and hear our voices echo in the racquetball courts. We splurge a bit about our food choices and play favorite board games later than our normal bedtimes. We read magazines that we don’t seem to have time to read at home.
We talk together in a way that doesn’t happen during the busy work weeks.
I love going to the condo; however, I was a bit nervous that the internet withdrawal would be more intense for my TBP because of the excitement of Halloween and the complaining in the car.
“How can you expect me to be away from WiFi for two days?!”
“I’m bored!”
It turned out to be another great trip. It was short, but it was perfectly timed and absolutely needed.
The extra “fall back hour” was a wonderful bonus to address the laundry that was created on our getaway. My son had adequate computer time despite being off the grid for most of the weekend.
As we drove home, we enjoyed the beautiful fall day and were so thankful that we went even for a short bit.
Where does your family go, to reconnect and escape for just a little while?
My Twice Baked Potato 