I just got back from a family vacation in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Most who go on these excursions spend their time out on the beach or by the pool all day, either getting in some reading, playing random games or just enjoying the nice weather.
Well, I did all those things, but there’s one thing I did not get last week: a tan.
It’s not as though I didn’t try. I took my books outside and laid out just so to absorb the sun’s healing rays. I splashed around in the ocean and pool, I went on long beach walks, and I played random sports with my family. But alas, I remained almost as ghost white as I was when I started the week.
And you know what? I’m more than OK with that. I don’t need a darker complexion to feel like I accomplished something while I was at the beach. Know why? Because to me, that’s not the point of being on vacation! The whole reason I took a week off was to get away from work and southcentral PA for a while and spend some quality time with my family. I wanted to accomplish these goals while getting as much rest and being as comfortable as possible, and maybe get some summer reading in, too.
I would have loved to do this all outside. But alas, there is such a thing as too hot to lounge comfortably outside, and for most of last week, that’s exactly what the weather was in OBX. So, while I did make strains to at least attempt to alter my pasty tone, I was much more focused on not dying of sweat on my week off.
I’ll admit to shunning the fantastically sunny weather at times. I’ll admit to doing in North Carolina what I would have done back at home: watching Phillies games and loafing around in the air conditioning. But I’ll also admit to some pretty epic nighttime mini-golfing, late night movie-going and long, long strolls down the shoreline. And if I barely came back even sunburned, I say good! (After all, my skin typically goes straight from white to red and back to white again.) That’s an improvement over most of my beach trips, anyway.
