Getting Away From it All

Rai, if you had the ability to speak then you may have asked us a few months ago: "Mom? Dad? Do you consider a visit to the family cabin a vacation?" Our answer, then, may have been, "Well, definitely a getaway, but not necessarily a vacation."
'Vacation' implies not only time off, but a trip to a place that is different than that one calls home. So, for us, a vacation would mean traveling to somewhere that offers a change from life in San Francisco, an interesting and even exotic place that could, for even a short time, forget completely our daily routine back here in the City by the Bay. All this seems to imply flying off to some distant place.
To get to the cabin, we don't need to fly, we just drive a few hours, getting no further than 200 miles from our home here by the ocean. Traveling to the cabin, we haven't even left California. Finally, we are surrounded by nature here in our part of the city so the natural setting is nothing new either.
Rai, nothing is permanent, not even opinions. Today, we have to change the answer we may have given to your question. We just spent the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday at the cabin and the experience was not just a getaway but a vacation in every sense of the word.
While there, we were completely disconnected from our life back home. The lack of television and internet at the cabin solidified this isolation, allowing us to enjoy the place completely without any reminders of life outside the valley.
The snow that fell on Thanksgiving Day showed us just how different the place is too. Mountains powdered with snow, pine trees shaking white mist through the air, crisp walks in snow that crunched under our feet, endless rows of tall pines, and evening dips in the nearby hotsprings while gazing at a sky full of stars made us realize that the nature fix we could get at the cabin is nothing like that that we get in the city and along the coast.
The main difference however, and the main reason that we now see a visit to the cabin as a vacation, is the lack of people. All the other cabins in the Shay Creek area were unoccupied, and we didn't see a soul for our entire stay except during our visits to the hotsprings. It's been a while since we've had a reminder like this one that getting away from humanity and the city to a place that remains vastly untouched and natural is a powerful and revitalizing experience.
So, Rai, as we spend weekends and holidays at the cabin, we want you to always remember that these aren't "just another trip to the cabin" but that each visit is a chance to get away from everyday life, a chance to experience something different, a chance to forget everything and live simply and in the moment. Keeping this in mind, you'll have more vacations in your first few years than many have in their entire lives!