Can You Spend Too Much Time on Vacation?

Are there vacation spots you feel like you could go to over and over again and never grow tired of visiting? It seems like I feel that way about most of the places I have visited.  Granted, there are those places that I spent a single afternoon at and I feel like I have done them justice and never intend to return.  But for the most part, I almost always leave a vacation location thinking about what I'll do next time I come back.

I've been wondering what causes this.  I think for me, it is the fact that I visit so many locations while on a cruise.  That means you have part of a day in that location.  Part of a day isn't enough time to even decide if you really like a location or not.  Some of the places that I have spent upwards of a week in, still require more time before I'll be able to really say, I've seen it all, I don't need to go back.  That's my goal.  I'd like to get to that point about a lot of places.  But then I wonder, if I get to that point, am I going to look back and be like, Ugh! If I have to go to Rome again, I'm going to throw up!  Quite frankly, I don't see it happening.

I think of the time I spent in Europe in 2008 both on land and during the cruise the only place I am certain I don't need to go back to is Palermo, Sicily.  It's not that it's a bad place.  I just think that a day is plenty of time to spend there.  It was very pretty.  Maybe if you are into all the mafia movies, you would be more interested in it than I was.  But I hate those movies and since Sicily is soooo proud that it is the birthplace of the mafia, it just didn't seem to be my kind of place.  I think Whitey Bulger would probably really enjoy it. He's like in his 80's now and what will he spend like 1000 years in prison?  Hmmmm... Hope he got to go earlier in life.

I used to think that I had also seen all of Florence that I needed to see.  We were there on a very rainy Monday in November.  I think we may have had about 4 or 5 hours there since we visited both Florence and Pisa in the same day and we managed to have a sit down lunch in that time.  So, you can imagine how much time we actually spent seeing the sights.  Plus, since it was Monday everything in Florence was closed.  I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but in Florence the shop owners learned years ago that tourists come into the city and want to spend massive amounts of money over the weekend.  Closing on Sundays for religious reasons was cutting into the bottom line.  So the shopkeepers all began to stay open on Sunday's and close on Monday's for religious reasons.  So now, it's like a ghost town on Monday.  If you add rain and 50 degree temperatures to the equation, it's a pretty dead place.

I think before I go back to Florence, I'm going to need to study.

 So while we were in Florence we saw the Ponte Vecchio and a small part of the Church of Santa Groce where Michelangelo, Rossini Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei are entombed. We didn't even go into the baptistry because we were in such a hurry.  That night at dinner back on the ship some of our dinner mates were talking about how beautiful it was and and I was like, oh... yeah... um-hmmh....  I had no idea what I had missed. The parts of Florence that I saw were lovely.  But I was pretty convinced that it was just about shopping since we spent an hour or so walking past closed Gucci and Versace shops taking pictures of the store fronts.  I thought to myself, I would hate spending a week here and just gazing at shops where I couldn't even afford to buy a disposable shopping bag.

Seriously, I was so put off by the possibility of spending time in those horrible pretentious shops that I totally glazed over the fact that Michelangelo, Dante and all of those guys were a major part of Florence's history. Then if you add to that the fact that The David was undergoing restoration while we were there so we didn't even get to see it, I think my misconception about Florence should totally be excused.  My travel buddy, Jenny has been saying since the moment we left Florence that she wanted to go back.  But I really thought it had to do with all the shops that were closed that she walked past taking pictures of.  Now, I realize that there actually is a LOT to see there and the shops just threw me off the scent of really great sights.  I guess if I did go back and spend a few days there, we could split up and I could go sit at an outdoor cafe sipping wine while she visited Versace and such.  I'd be willing to make the sacrifice.

I know that I need at least another week in Rome to see all that I need to see there.  Honestly, I'd really like to just move there for 6 months and totally be absorbed in Rome.  I think that there should be a program for people age 50 and up where you do a home exchange for 6 months.  You both continue paying your own mortgage or rent and all your other bills but you exchange homes for 6 months.  So, I'd go to Rome and live in their house and take care of their pets while they come to Dallas and lived on Meandering Way and take care of Jingle and Shiner.  It'd be a great program.... You know, if you could find any person in Rome who was willing to spend 6 months in Dallas.  How would you sell that to someone in Rome?  Hey!  Come to Dallas!  JR's not dead!!!!  REALLY... We'll introduce you to him AND Sue Ellen!!!!  Yeah, I don't see that working.  Even if you got someone in Rome to agree to it initially after the first 105 degree day in summer or the first icy day in winter they'd be out.

Places that I feel like I need to spend a lot more time are not limited to Europe.  There are multiple places in the Caribbean that I need to spend at least a week in.  It doesn't even matter what place we are talking about really.  Is there water?  Is there sand? Then I haven't spent enough time there.  I always laugh when I hear someone on a Western Caribbean cruise say, Ugh! I've been to Cozumel a million times, I never want to go back!  Really, 'cause last I checked they still have water, sun, sand and tequila.  What's your problem?

Of all the places in the Caribbean the one that I really want to spend a lot of time in the most is Roatan.  I know that everyone else feels that way about those Eastern Caribbean islands and honestly, if you told me you'd pay my way I wouldn't turn any of them down.  But if I have to pay and can pick anyplace to spend some serious island time in, it would be Roatan just because the snorkeling is amazing, I'd really like to learn how to dive and it would be a great place for it and you could probably get the most bang for your buck there.  At some point, money has to come into play, right?

Yeah, why would anybody want to go back to a horrible place like this?

As far as inside the US, I can't count all the places that I either haven't been to at all or haven't been to enough.  Just two weeks ago I spent 2 days in Boston and feel like I need at least another 5 days just to see all that I missed.  Granted, I feel like I have officially seen all that there is to see in New York.  But I'd still go back anytime I got a chance.  There are always new plays to see and it's a blast to go with someone who has never been to see their reactions to everything.  Plus, the most time I have ever spent in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one day and I feel like I could spend a week there!  I will tell you that if I never have to go up to the top of the Empire State Building again, I'll be very happy.  But otherwise, there's really not too much that could become a beating for me as far as NY goes.

I could kind of do without Vegas completely.  If you aren't into gambling then it's sort of a waste.  But if you are into gambling and you want a travel companion, I'd go to Lake Tahoe with you anytime!  I've only been there once and I really want to go back.  Somebody told me once that you need to just lay by a pool in Vegas.  But I can tell you that I don't need to be laying by a pool with a bunch of beautiful high rollers.  And if it gets right down to it, I have a pool in my condos that I can lay around.  Why do I want to fly half way across the country to lay by one?  What a waste!

I've never been to Washington DC.  I know what you're thinking... How is that even possible?  But when we were kids all of our vacations were spent driving West rather than East and as an adult, I've just never gotten the chance.  I really want to go.  But I can't decide if I want to go with someone who has been there multiple times and it seems like everybody has been there multiple times.  Here's my dilemma.... If I go with someone who has been there multiple times, are they going to stand behind me bored looking at their watch while I'm walking around something like the Lincoln Memorial or strolling through a particularly riveting part of the Smithsonian and inadvertently making me feel rushed.  Or will they say things like "Oh, you don't need to waste time doing such and such, you need to see THIS instead" when such and such is what I realllllly want to do.

I know that no one I travel with would want to rush me or cause me to miss something that was really important to me.  But I know from personal experience that I have stood at the top of the Empire State Building on several occasions calculating all the time that was wasted going through security, standing in line for elevators and then standing at the top waiting to get close enough to the edge to see anything at all and looking at my watch thinking I can't believe I am wasting another 3 hours of my life on this....  You can't help but have a horribly bored look come over your face when you are at a terrible tourist attraction that you have been to 100 times and never want to go to again especially if you had to pay money to get into it! When I look up and see that expression on somebodies face, I want to make it go away.  So then I know I'll say something like "Let's go!  I can go to the top of the Washington Monument anytime..."  While in my mind, I'm thinking... really?  'cause I've had so many opportunities in the past...  That's the chance you take when you go somewhere with a person who goes regularly.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you have a travel bug, there really aren't a lot of bad places to travel.  Some just require a little more time than others.  But here's how you know if you've really got it bad.  Have you ever gotten in the car in East or North Texas and thought to yourself,  Woohoo!!!!  In eight hours we'll be in West Texas!!! and still been exited after having that thought?  If so, you've got it bad and we need to talk.