Spring Break has long been sold as a bacchanalia for youth, a week of sun, fun and booze that's a must-do while in college. According to my extensive research (I read Mental Floss) Spring Break's first iteration in this country began when Fort Lauderdale opened Florida's first "Olympic" pool back in 1928. Competitive swimmers would come down for training in March, and over the years, it became a combination training camp/social event for student athletes from across the country.
Needless to say, other students noticed their peers returning to campus with tans and big smiles on their faces, and in 1960 the modern version of Spring Break became a defined by Where the Boys Are which I've never seen, but which sounds like a bit of a downer (spoiler: boys can't be trusted and girls who have sex get sideswiped by cars. Good girls get George Hamilton!) The scenery was terrific, though, and it started a rush to beaches all up and down Florida's Gold Coast, followed by Key West, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, etc. etc.
I don't remember ever doing Spring Break myself. My parents were extremely open-handed about anything to do with education, but a trip to Florida with 10,000 other college students wasn't the kind of education of which they approved. The Smithie spent one Spring Break having fun with friends in New York City - one set of parents had a pied-a-terre - and another getting extra hours at her work-study job. In my circle nowadays, if kids are going on a warm-weather vacation, they have to do it without access to the parental pocketbook. As one mom told me, "If I could afford a trip to Cancun in March, I'd take it myself!"
Which make me think - maybe what we need is Adult Spring Break. Let's face it, in 90% of the continental US, late March is a trial, ranging from "when is the grass going to get green" to miserable snow and sleet. There's no better time to get away to some place with warm, flower-scented breezes and drinks in coconuts.
As adults, we can afford our getaway - we don't have to ask mom and dad to help out. And we'd be much better guests for tourist destinations: we tip well, we stay in hotels with good mattresses, and we'll never bother the locals with loud partying at 1am, because we all go to bed at 10. Instead of spending money for our kids to swan off to tropical islands, we can pay them to house sit. "Don't forget the cat's special allergy food! See you in a week!"
Reds, do you have any memorable Spring Break experiences? And what do you think of my idea for Adult Spring Break?
JENN MCKINLAY: I worked all through college so I usually worked all through spring break, but I did take off to the Bahamas for spring break during my sophomore year and it was a blast. My favorite part was hopping on a bus and taking an unofficial tour through the non-tourist parts of the island. It was on a Sunday, so the ladies all had their church hats on and there were chickens scrambling through the aisle. Oh, and the accents. Caribbean accents are just divine, aren't they? I am raising my hand in favor of an adult spring break. Take me away!
HALLIE EPHRON: When I was in college, I never had the money to go exotic places on spring break, and I couldn't go home because it was on the opposite coast, so I pretty much stayed at the college or visited friends whose families lived nearby. Or maybe the concept "spring break" simply hadn't yet been invented. As a grownup, I once had the misfortune of once (accidentally) being in Key West during spring break. Lucy can talk about what a bad idea that is. It is my firm belief that spring breaks should be taken in the dead of winter.
RHYS BOWEN: At college in England we had an Easter break but I remember using it to study hard as exams were in June. My kids certainly did cool spring break things, going on the combined UC ski trip to Aspen and Whistler. I'm not sure where the money for that came from. Certainly not from me. But they did have jobs in college. I'd rather have an adult summer camp, or rather mommy' summer camp where we can hike, swim, do crafts, relax on hammocks, cook marshmallows and laugh around a campfire with plenty of good food and wine. Who is in with me?JULIA: My kids went to an amazing summer camp, and I told the director for years if she opened a week for adults, she'd be booked in five minutes.
LUCY BURDETTE: Seems like all of March in Key West is now spring break. At this point we try to work around the busiest places--forget about the beaches, bars, Duval Street--and make any reservations well in advance. I think the worst is the crazy people on scooters with no helmets racing around town. We always leave a little extra time to get anywhere!I don't remember going on spring break either--it must be a newer invention, and yes! I'm in for adult spring break, though can we write a little too? I'm behind on everything!
JULIA: Maybe for folks in tourist-heavy vacations, Spring Break can be a (frozen) lakefront cabin in Minnesota!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: No spring breaks for me, I'm afraid. It seems like I was always studying through any sort of breaks in college. In any case, I couldn't have afforded it, and my parents certainly wouldn't have paid for it. But, yes, I'm all for adult spring break! I'm imagining a bunch a writer friends, getting together for a couple of days visit with some sightseeing, good food, and walks on the beach. I'd be thrilled with a hammock and a book, too.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Debs, absolutely. Spring break. Spring Break....did we have that? I know there were movies about it, with, like, Annette and Frankie Avalon, and that was when I was about 13. But when I was in college? I have no memories, not one, of spring break. We used to mourn the winter in what we called the January Flats, the horrible bleak January in Ohio. And yes, then there was a February break. Huh. I remember now. Sort of. Okay. I think---I stayed at school? Or maybe--went with my family somewhere? But "spring"? Oh, gosh, scary, I have no spring break memories. I'll call my sister.And I was just thinking today about how I'd love a little vacation. Somewhere sunny. But vacation to me means I can work! Just in a warmer place where there are margaritas at night. So yeah, I'm in!
JULIA: How about you, dear readers? Any good Spring Break stories? And do you want to start planning for Grown-Up Spring Break '20?
Alas, I’ve no wondrous spring break stories to share. Like Jenn, I worked all through college, and I definitely didn’t have the money for a spring break vacation. Adult Spring Break? Count me in . . . .
ReplyDeleteI just don't know many people who "did" Spring Break, Joan. I'm beginning to suspect it's a smaller and more privileged segment of society than I had thought.
DeleteNo spring break for me, either. Spent the time peddling applications and resumes while working. I am TOTALLY IN for an adult Spring Break!!
DeleteI remember posters up on the campus bulletin boards advertising New Orleans trips for Mardi Gras, and spring break trips to Padre Island, but I never went on any of those. I did take a spring break trip to New York with a bunch of the other theatre department students, led by one of our professors. It was fun, but hardly a bacchanal--unless the boys were up to something they didn't tell the girls about. I spent most of my days in the art museums and our nights were all at shows.
ReplyDeleteThese days I'd love to take a spring break, or any break! Each summer I spend time searching for "someplace cooler than here" but for the past few years those quaint seaside getaways along the Pacific coast that I dream about have all caught fire. And then my AC would die, and if I stayed in a nice hotel it would be here at home, waiting for the repair guy to make my house livable again. I call this adulting. It sucks.
Sounds like a tragedy in 3 acts! :-(
DeleteGigi - Try Klipsan Beach cottages on the Long Beach Pennisula WA. You would love it.
DeleteHa, Hallie! Last year was not my favorite summer, but I survived, so it can't be a tragedy, can it? Unless, of course, I'm not the heroine . . .
DeleteAnd thank you for the suggestion, Coralee. I'll look into it!
Gigi, your college trip to New York sounds great. We should add one like that to our Adult Spring Break list.
DeleteNo spring breaks a la Annette and Frankie--my best spring break I spent in Kentucky with my grandparents--just hanging out with them--wouldn't trade those memories for any amount of sun, sand, or booze. And an adult spring break would be fabulous--although I'm not sure leaving a bunch of kids to house-sit would be a great idea--not when 'parents gone for a week' might spread like wildfire through today's social media!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Flora! If we can come up with a hashtag, we're already half-way there.
DeleteI'm in. Spring break AND summer camp for ME. I spent my college spring breaks training with the crew team, and visiting college friends in New England and on Cape Cod.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, you were a rower?
DeleteThe Sailor rowed for Trinity. That sport is ROUGH.
DeleteSpring break hadn't been invented when I was in college. There was, of course, Easter vacation, and I went home for that, checked in with high school friends, and spent most evenings at Beano's. Beano was the pharmacist at the local Rexall, and he had turned the back room into a place with high backed wooden booths, a juke box, and absolutely no dancing or alcohol -- except for the little half pint boot bottles he sold to the older boys, all very under the table.
ReplyDeleteAdult spring break sounds frabjous. We are in our fifth month of winter up here on the tundra, but summer is coming. If you're looking for a summer break destination, the Finger Lakes are gorgeous, and you can count on sleeping under a quilt with the windows open most nights.
We have a lovely guest room, just sayin'.
Finta—Beanos? That is an amazing story! Right out of Archie comics!
DeleteFinta, do you live in the Finger Lakes region? My folks live on the shore of Onondaga and I went to school "high above Cayuga's waters."
DeleteNot folks. My dad. I still haven't gotten used to referring to him as a single man. :-(
DeleteJulia, we live in Rochester. Twenty minutes to Canandaigua. Unless I’m driving. Then it’s thirty. Does this mean you’re coming to dinner?
DeleteI can just imagine the reaction if I told my parents I wanted to go on Spring Break! (“You must be rich! We’re not!”) All I can remember about spring break is studying and visiting relatives on Easter Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI never went to summer camp. However, a couple of summers ago my niece got married and the reception took place over a weekend at a summer camp, complete with activities such as campfires, boating, swimming, games for people of all ages! It was great fun, and I’d do it again!
DebRo
I'm going to have to mention this to Youngest, DebRo. She was wistfully remembering her well-loved summer camp days just recently. I bet a wedding AT summer camp would thrill her (many years from now, after she's gotten her masters/law degree.)
DeleteYeah, make sure her education is WAY behind her first!!
DeleteDebRo
I've been telling her, "No marriage and babies until after grad school" since she was ten...
DeleteWe didn't have Spring Break when I was in college or if we did I never heard of it, even though I did see Where the Boys Are. I must have thought it was a movie thing, not something for real life.
ReplyDeleteI look outside and I am STILL seeing snow! It would be lovely to go somewhere warm and then come back after mud season when things are green. So count me in!
Right? Mud season is the time you really want to get away. We just have to find someplace that's NOT overrun with university students...
DeleteSpring Break, to my friends in college, meant extra hours to work to pay for school and housing. I did not know anyone who went away on vacation during Spring Break. Whenever we had free time and did not have to study, we could drive across the bridge to San Francisco to see the museums.
ReplyDeleteRhys, there is something similar to a mommy camp through my alumni. It is called Women's Weekend at Lair Camp.
Diana
Diana, that reminds me of the Smithie's spring break in NYC. The girls spent their time at museums and seeing the sights. One night she called to check in - they were all playing board games in the apartment. Kids today aren't really any racier than they were at ant other time in recent history.
DeleteI worked part of the time I was in college, and I went summers and overloaded in order to graduate in three years, so I have no memories of spring break at all. But I do marvel that as a middle aged (or older) adult I have found that not one but two couples I know through church first met on spring break. I would think the chances of starting out at spring break and ending up two or four kids later still happily married and singing in the church choir, have to be slim.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the couples, the wife was from Quebec and the American husband showed up at her door there a few weeks later to say he had thought of nothing else but her since they parted. Talk about romantic!
That is romantic, Susan. On the other hand, I know a family where the oldest girl went on Spring Break and came back with a souvenir... who is now in college herself.
DeleteOh my! Yes, that is a significantly less romantic outcome!
DeleteI'm in for adult break! I did go somewhere warmer in February - Santa Barbara - but they were having a cold snap. Still, it was warmer than at home, flowers were blooming, and the air smelled of orange blossoms. The beach I walked on on the last day - which was overcast, of course - turned out to be melancholy, though. The last time I'd been on Ventura Beach was when my mother died in 2012. Sniff.
ReplyDeleteTwo memorable college spring break trips - both costing almost nothing. Mind you, I went to UC Irvine in Orange County, CA. Five girlfriend (one being my sister) and I camped in Joshua Tree for some days. We wore cutoff jeans and bandanas. We hiked and laughed and sipped from a Maneschevitz bottle. Got up when the sun came up and sat around a campfire at night. One of my best vacations ever.
The other was with a short-lived boyfriend and eight others. We drove an old VW van and another car to the Gulf of Baja California. This was way before there were Baja resorts. I had my first fish taco from a street vendor and was hooked. We swam in the warm shallow Gulf - but a sting ray got me between the toes and my leg was nearly paralyzed. My friend carried me to the campground where well-meaning American adults offered me adult pain drugs. I wouldn't even take an aspirin at that time and I refused, although I did accept a glass of whiskey. The camp manager, a native guy, mixed up a green herb poultice and that did the trick, drawing out the pain and easing the temporary paralysis. No idea what leaf he used.
So, not your typical college break trips!
Edith that first trip sounds absolutely magical. And the second trip deserves to be recreated in a novel!
DeleteSo noted!
DeleteI didn't do spring break per se--too wild for me--but my school was close enough to beaches that, each spring semester, a group would slip away for a weekend or two at a condo. Good times! I'd totally be up for adult spring break. I do writing retreats with friends, which is close but not really a break.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, my husband and I slip away for a few days at the beach, the last weekend before all the hotels open and it becomes a tourist nightmare. Fingers crossed for good weather at Rehoboth!
Good luck, Ramona! That area of Delaware is so beautiful. I've only ever been there during the shoulder season, so never had to endure the tourists.
DeleteRehoboth is beautiful! Sweetie and I went on our way home from Christmas with his family in Richmond. Only about one place in five was open (which was fine, given the size of the crowd!), but the restaurant in the hotel where we stayed had half-priced Hot Toddies, so we could sit inside and sip. And as always at the beach, no matter how cold, there were kids playing on the sand barefoot. You go kids!
Delete-Melanie
As a student, I always spent my spring break studying and writing papers. Now I'm a professor and I spend my spring break grading papers. Ah, the circle of life!
ReplyDeleteI love winter but I must admit that some days dreams of Disney World raise their little heads and try to distract me: sunshine, a nice resort, a swimming pool, fabulous foods, my favorite parks and rides... Yes, I think I need an adult spring break at Disney!
Yes, I discovered that conundrum this month now I'm teaching at our local community college. Me: "Yay, a week off!" Also me: "What do you mean, midterm grades are due?"
DeleteAdult break sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI have had a couple of memorable Spring Breaks. One was in high school when my high school went on a bus down through Florida singing in different high schools and staying with their chorale members. I was 14 and it was my first and only time to see Miami. Although the Holiday Inn may not be the best view.
One year when I was teaching my parents had arranged a trip to London to see plays. At the last minute, my father couldn't go (long story with bad boss) so as the ticket was not refundable I went with my mother. I will never forget our days together and nights at the theatre. I still have the fish knives we bought at Portobello Market. I was a single teacher but my mother insisted because they were such a good bargain. Now I use them whenever we have fish and remember London and my mother and father.
I love hearing about family memories like this. We never really think at the time how long the good memories will last, or how important they will be.
DeleteWhat a wonderful time with your mom, Atlanta. The trips I took to England and Europe with my parents when I was in my twenties will stay with me forever. As will the trips I took with my daughter to London and Paris. Such great memories.
DeleteNo Spring Break stories for me. I couldn't afford it and neither could my parents. The Girl spent most of her Spring Break at home, but she did run off to see a friend in NYC and spend some time in DC with her uncle.
ReplyDeleteBut I am all for Adult Spring Break '20!
And see, you're all set with the "kid old enough to house sit the cat" as well!
DeleteMy husband will be retiring from academia soon and I'm looking forward to taking any-season breaks when the rest of the world is NOT traveling!
ReplyDeleteTravel freedom!
DeleteThe very worst Hallie was taking ski trips over Washington's birthday weekend. Everything is mobbed and the prices are sky high...
DeleteSpring break only existed in a few places when I went to college (only a few years after Where the Boys Are came out) Plus, I barely had the money to take a long bus trip home.. Plus, where I was in college, those were serious times and we were serious people. We would have scorned Ft. Lauderdale. So, no. BUT years later hub and I took our young teens on a family trip during school spring vacation.Club Med in Cancun, where there was sunshine, great side trips,all-inclusive private property, teen program, scuba diving, at moderate cost. AND where, in Cancun itself, there were a million college kids, partying 24/7! I must admit, my kids were wide-eyed and fascinated. Me? Not so much. Now? Adult spring break? I could be convinced.
ReplyDeleteAdult Spring Break truly encompasses the idea that youth is wasted on the young, Triss.
DeleteIf there is a Reds Adult Spring Break next year, I will be there. That sounds delightful.
ReplyDeleteActually, the writing workshop Rhys taught in Tuscany, and the one Hallie is about to teach, was very close to an adult spring break. It was catered, three meals a day, with excellent accommodations, and a pool right there. (It was too cold to swim for most of our trip that year, but all of Europe experienced a cool, very wet May then.)
I got married at the end of my first year of college, so no spring breaks for me, even if anyone did such a thing in the late 60's/early 70's. Even my daughter, who graduated from high school in 1989, never took a trip in the spring. The younger two, though, were invited on a couple of fun beach trips, one to Seabrook Island in South Carolina, where a friend's parents had a home. I drove her down there, and the younger daughter and I had our own spring break trip: Charleston, Williamsburg, and Washington DC. Another year, I took her and my mother to visit two aunts and uncles in Florida. We drove, and sang oldies all the way there and back. Woohoo, big fun.
Most of those old movies had actors playing much younger characters, but in Where the Boys Are, Connie Francis was only 17 in real life. The star, Dolores Hart, by the way, is now an American Roman Catholic Benedictine nun. How's that for irony?
I saw that about Dolores Hart, Karen! There's a documentary about her on YouTube titled: God Was the Bigger Elvis. Hart famously was Elvis's first on-screen kiss, and she still gets asked about it. There's a clip where Mother Dolores says, "In those days, the MPPC only allowed a kiss to last fifteen seconds, but that one's gone on for forty years!"
DeleteLike a lot of us I worked my patootie off during Semester and Quarter breaks at University.
ReplyDeleteNow I live in FL where Spring started officially with Ground Hog Day. The wet season is soon to arrive. I once saw a bumper Sticker that said "Welcome to Florida --Now GO HOME. sums up my feelings about breakers. I would love to join any of you at summer camp or writing camp. I would be your cook and head researcher. Can I come pretty please?
Absolutely, Coralee!
DeleteOh yes, count me in on Adult Spring Break! Thinking about this, I've realized that I, actually, already attend such a thing: every spring (and fall), I visit my (now 90-year-old) mother for a 4-day weekend. We spend our time lounging, reading, talking, eating, drinking and watching hours and hours of TV and Netflix. It's a wonderful time-out from my usual work schedule and, while I never get enough sleep, I always arrive home relaxed...and so happy to have had that genuine down time. I think a Spring Break could be a stay-cation -- the pace just needs to be radically different than your usual (likely) break-neck speed.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Amanda. When Youngest was home, I actually encouraged her to lounge and sleep as much as she wanted, because her day-to-day schedule is packed full to bursting. We all need real down time once in a while.
DeleteLate for work so... No Spring break in my history and I"m ALL IN for a Grown Up Spring Break in '20!!
ReplyDeleteSign me up!
WooHoo! And for our Spring Break - no one is allowed to worry about getting a "beach body." What we have is good enough!
DeleteI don't think that we had spring breaks when I was studying. A couple of days around Easter but no travels. Maybe a visit to the sugar shack if maples flowed.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally open to Grown Up Spring Break '20
Yesterday was maple Syrup Sunday here in Maine, Danielle! And while it had many charms, it's still not a beach on the Caribbean...
DeleteThat last photo is my favorite because it is the only one to which I can relate! Never went anywhere warm and sunny on spring break when I was in college. Couldn't afford it, didn't run with a crowd that did that sort of thing. I am all in for adult spring break, wish we started planning many months ago because right about now would be especially sweet.
ReplyDeleteAdult Spring Break '20! Because while kids can make plans a week ahead because they're willing to sleep eight to a room (with one double bed) we all need to have time to make reservations that include hot showers and Posture-pedic mattresses.
DeleteI am actually taking a little spring break next week. For the third year in a row, my daughter and I are going to Round Top Antiques Show in Brenham, Texas. I hope there are still bluebonnets! The wildflowers in Texas this spring have been phenomenal. This year a friend of my daughter's is joining us, as my friend who's gone the previous two years will be in Hawaii, poor thing. We have a darling cottage for two days in Brenham (halfway between Houston and Austin, if you are wondering) and we will shop, eat, and drink. And wear comfortable shoes and sunhats! Divine.
ReplyDeletePlease take loads of pictures and do a blog about it, Debs! I've read about Round Top and it sounds so amazing for an antiques/vintage junkie like me.
DeleteBy the way, it looks as though the spring break photos are arranged in ascending order, timewise. It's interesting to see the changes in dress through the decades, even in bathing suits, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThey are, Karen, and I was trying to find the ones that showed the change in fashion and hair!
DeleteI’m one of those that never did spring break. I often used it to write papers or so other projects to make the last couple of months (or weeks) significantly easier. And when I was focused and did that, I was always thankful I had.
ReplyDeleteMark, as a mother, I can say, well done! I wish my kids took the same approach!
DeleteOh my, most of you missed the fun, I think. Whether you call it Easter Vacation or Spring Break (the same thing!) it meant being in a warm, fun place. I lived in southern California, in Orange County, so I was already there, and with no high school, my friends and I went to the beach every day. Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Corona Del Mar, Newport. Lie on the warm sand with our transistor radios tuned to the local top 40 station, swim in the water, play volleyball, consume burgers and shakes, meet girls to go to parties with at night. It was great.
ReplyDeleteIn college it as more of the same, plus beer, and then when I was at U of Arizona, we went down to Mexico, usually to Pocky Point, with even more of the same plus more beer or tequila and big beach parties. We slept in sleeping bags just off the sand, or even on the sand, and cooked up big pots of shrimp. No one got in trouble, no one got hurt, everyone had a ton of fun. It was a blast. Then after a week, back to classes. Sigh.
Rick, between you, Ramona and Edith (above) I begin to see the important factor in spending Spring Break at a sunny beach is... going to school near a sunny beach. I got accepted to UCLA School of Law, and I went to U Maine instead. Now I'm kicking myself.
DeleteI attended University of Miami - no spring break for us, we were living the life. My Freshman year UM broke the advertising campaign of "Both Semesters are Spring" and parents protested. Things got more academic after that. As I recall, we came back from spring break to midterms so most of my break was spent studying.
ReplyDeleteThat's tough, Kait. When I was an undergrad, we had Fall semester finals AFTER Christmas break, so i spent the whole holiday swotting textbooks and writing papers. Well, I did fit in skiing, going out dancing, and bar-hopping with hometown friends, but the REST of the time, I was hard at work!
ReplyDeleteI was glad Youngest finished all her midterm papers and exams before she came home It meant she had a real break.
Can I put in Costa Rica as a suggestion? I hear the coffee is amazing and we're writers so it seems a perfect fit!
ReplyDeleteNo beach party spring breaks for me in high school and college. I don't remember families taking off to the beach in high school. However, there were spring break trips when I was in junior high and high school. They consisted of my parents taking me and my brother and maybe a friend or two of ours to the boys' state high school in Louisville. Spring break was time in our school district and others around the state to coincide with the tournament. Sometimes our team played, and one year I was a cheerleader when we went to state. And, in college, I was heavily involved in academics. I didn't realize the true concept of spring break until I had children and people around me were heading to the beach. So, we did do some beach trips then. Now it seems that not only do parents take their kids on spring break, but there's the fall break in which they're off to somewhere, too. I guess the idea of a summer vacation isn't as big a deal as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteI am completely in favor of an adult spring vacation, or summer or fall. Going with one's spouse is always great, but I have to say that a girls' trip is the best fun of all. I was just talking to two friends last night and today, one with whom I'm planning to attend Bouchercon next fall in Dallas, and another friend who might need a substitute for her granddaughter to go to the Bahamas in May. Then, I'm looking at going with my high school girlfriends somewhere this year. I love friend trips! And, I'm sure I can fit a Jungle Reds friends trip in there somewhere, too.
Adult spring break? This year I'm calling that Malice Domestic. By the time I get home, the daffs may finally be blooming! Said by a New Englander who spent part of the weekend tramping around a soggy yard picking up fallen branches and sticks. Fun in the sun? Nah, hotel conference rooms! Hope to see some of you there!
ReplyDeleteAnd in college, spring break meant more hours working to pay for that undergrad degree. Ugh, waitressing--never again! I was horrible! But snarky! An example, a lovely regular customer at lunchtime once complained to me that his Spring Vegetable Soup didn't have many vegetables in it--it was mostly broth (this was New Haven, CT in March). And before I could stop my stupid mouth I said, "Well, it's not really Spring yet, is it?" He stared at me for a minute, then started laughing and laughing! "Better order dessert," I said.
-Melanie
I lived at home when I started college, didn't drive and never even dreamed of going anywhere solo. Though, truth be told, in high school I spent about 2 weeks in Mexico with the Girl Scouts. I had never spent time away from my family so it scarier than I thought. Okay, let's be honest here, the term is home sick, and I didn't have as good of time I could have because of it. When I had the opportunity to repeat a part of that trip years later, during a choral concert tour, my grandmother died. Mexico is not high on my list of places to visit. And I really liked Taxco.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally went away to college, money was really tight, no car, lived on campus and my roommate each semester was an exchange student. 3 were from New Hampshire, one from Nebraska. Yes, I had a different roommate each semester and none were from California. They had requested San Diego and got sent to Chico. So when breaks happened, they would take off. I would walk across town in the wee hours of the morning to take the Greyhound home while they traveled and got sun tans and ...... You know, I really didn't miss anything because that type of trip wasn't what I needed or wanted.
Adult Spring Break - sounds wonderful except, like someone else said earlier, I don't wouldn't like going to any place popular at a popular time. How about some place not so popular but just as picturesque, with soft breezes and pleasant temperatures, during a less popular season like that time between spring and winter but not Presidents Day weekend that's a horrible time to travel.
As an academic, I've never not had Adult Spring Break, but it's mostly called "collapsing in an exhausted heap and looking at the piles of grading I need to get on with." To be fair, our students seem less bacchanalian and more "wow, I can catch up with my friends who are home, too."
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at this age, I was working a 40 hour week during that period considered spring break. Now as a senior it would be wonderful to enjoy some sun and fun as long as there aren't big crowds. I don't enjoy crowds too well. Thanks for your amusing blog.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a university town, attended said university while living at home with the parents. As a “townie” I had little social connection on campus so life continued on as normal throughout Spring Break.
ReplyDeleteWhen I’m in Key West every year during February I manage to just miss Spring Break. As Lucy/Roberta has said the town is overrun and best avoided. My sympathies to the locals who have no choice; maybe a 2 week visit to the grandkids up north??