WHERE'S MY VACATION?

As the summer moves along swiftly toward the beginning of a new school year, it seems people everywhere are talking about vacations they've taken – they speak of Disney Land, Virginia Beach, an Alaskan cruise, Colorado, the Cayman Islands, Turkey, even Cuba.

I listen with envy – where's my vacation? I'm a grown woman, for goodness sake, perfectly capable of planning and arranging to take a real vacation. Yet my one trip to Disney World was in July 1976 during the Bicentennial celebration. I don't know that I've ever seen Virginia Beach; if so, I don't remember. I certainly never saw any portion of Alaska. We made a trip from Texas to Yellowstone National Park – almost 25 years ago. We once drove to Branson, Missouri. At the time, I'm thinking we were the youngest people in the city. If we went back today, we might fit in just right, age-wise.

Are we over-due for a real vacation or what? It's not that I don't have plenty of vacation days to take from my law firm job. Where have they gone? Not to the Caymans, that's for sure. I sometimes spend a week with my Mom who lives across the country. Other days are used for writer's conferences or family events – weddings, family reunions, and the like. Of course, I use some days to stay home and write – especially now that I'm faced with a very real book deadline.

To tell you the truth, I'm not longing to leave home and fly to some faraway place on vacation – I mostly wish I were longing to do so. If I could snap my fingers and magically be standing before Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon I'd do it. Do I want to see foreign countries before I die? I'm not sure – it seems like a lot of trouble to go through and a large unnecessary expense.

Why doesn't the joy of vacation out-weigh the hassle of getting there for me? Is it because I'm a homebody at heart? Or because I'm just as happy sitting home and reading books? Or my thrifty Pennsylvania Dutch upbringing won't allow me to spend the money? Or all of the above? Seriously, I keep saying – in a very vague way – that we need to get out and see the U.S.A.

I really ought to make plans now – because time flies – tempus fugit as my mother-in-law liked to say. She's not with us anymore – her time to travel has passed. Which ought to send me a very real message.

Do you love to travel? Where's your favorite place to go?

Mystery author Kay Finch is currently writing her new Bad Luck Cat Mystery series set in the Texas Hill Country to be published by Berkley beginning in 2015. Her Klutter Killer mystery, Relative Chaos, features a professional organizer who finds a dead body in a hoarder's garage. Kay lives in a Houston, Texas suburb with her husband, two rescue dogs and a cat. Visit her web site at www.kayfinch.com.