Vacations are the sort of thing where you have unthought out expectations of what it should consist of.  I don’t mean the destination, I mean the intangibles that you don’t think of in advance, but you expect to have happen.  Perhaps you expect that a vacation includes sleeping in late at the hotel while your spouse expects a vacation to include getting up early and seeing the sites before the crowd.  Perhaps you expect a vacation to be all planned out, no surprises while your traveling partner is thinking a vacation isn’t a vacation unless it’s filled with unexpected moments and events.

With my first wife and I we had to come to terms with money on vacation.  I remember her worrying about money and what we were spending and me getting annoyed at that.  At one point it came to me, I had an expectation I hadn’t realized.  My vacation was in large part a vacation from worrying about money!  

When we get right down to it the best, most rejuvenating vacations are a break from worry, right? Might be worrying about money like I was doing back home, or worrying about obligations and judgment and duties.  So, when you plan your vacation, think along those lines and plan accordingly.  What do you want to not worry about?

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” – Earl Wilson, 1907-1987, American journalist.  At least I think it was this Wilson.  The other choices are a baseball player and a congressman.  I made the most likely choice to have a witty saying.