The Perpetual Tourist

It’s more than a little ironic that right after I write about healthy vacationing, I leave for my trip with something I definitely didn’t plan to bring with me — the flu. Being sick on an airplane is no picnic, but being sick in a car on a 10-hour drive in the middle of nowhere is worse. No rest stops, no comfort, no end in sight. Getting here was not easy, but we made it to Reno yesterday morning, and I’m feeling a lot better now, so I’ll spare the details of my illness and focus on the highlights of the journey.

Oregon is one of just a handful of states in the US that I’d never visited. McKenzie grew up there, and has seen every piece of the state working as a FedEx driver over the past decade. The two of us met on the bridge circuit, fell hard in love, and he left Oregon behind to join me in Virginia. He says he loves it in my home state, and I believe him, but his homesickness is obvious most of the time. I’ve been looking forward to my first trip to Oregon for a long time. He has a lot of great things to say about it, and not a day goes by that he doesn’t tell me about the places he wants to show me. With all this talk over the past several months, you’d think I would have been prepared for what I would see.

We landed in the Portland airport just before midnight on Christmas day. It was cold and wet outside, and I couldn’t really see much in the dark anyway. We drove to his parents’ place in Salem that night, and left the next morning for our 10-hour drive to Reno. My first real glimpse of Oregon came on Wednesday morning just after a light snow had painted the hills white. I didn’t honestly expect the beauty to live up to all of McKenzie’s wistful testimony, but so far Oregon was exceeding my expectations.

We were only on the interstate a short while before exiting for Route 58 through the Cascade Mountains. The road was icy and I was sick, but all of my worries evaporated as I looked out the window of our van at the scenery we were driving through. There are lots of sights in Virginia that are breathtakingly beautiful, and our state’s rich history and visual appeal are well documented. However, most of the best views are off the beaten path, and you sort of just have to know about them. Driving along the highway back home is pleasant enough, but I had no idea you could see such amazing landscapes along any roadside until we hit Oakridge, Oregon, a little over an hour into our drive.

The Middle Willamette River runs alongside Rt. 58 as you drive into the mountains, and the Douglas Firs were covered in snow like I’ve only ever seen in paintings before. Every couple of seconds, I excitedly pointed out things to McKenzie that he has seen a thousand times before. “Z! Do you see that?! Look over there! And there — oh my god, this is beautiful. Oh, wow.” These were the only words I was able to get out in the times that my jaw wasn’t hanging down in my lap. I’ve been moved to tears by beauty in literature, film, and music in the past, but this was my first experience where nature did it to me.

For the first time, I really grasped why McKenzie was so homesick, and how much I must mean to him, that he was willing to leave this behind for me. It was overwhelming, but in the best possible way. When a downed tree blocked our path and we had to stop for a bit, I wasn’t even frustrated. I was happy for the opportunity to get out of the car and take it all in, and figure out how to work my new digital camera.

Even though the flu made me more uncomfortable than I can remember ever being in my life for 90% of this long drive, the scenery along this stretch of road is enough to easily put this trip among my all time favorites. Now that I’m feeling better, hopefully I’ll have some fun here in Reno before turning around for the drive back next Tuesday. I’m studying up on gambling strategy today… Check back soon to see how that works out for me on the casino floors.

I would not call myself a health nut, but I am fitness conscious. The gym is part of my daily routine and my fridge is stocked with items that taste great and also won’t make me feel guilty about eating. But if I let myself skip too many days of exercise, or indulge my sweet tooth too much, it can be a real battle to get back into my healthy habits — which is why vacationing can be dangerous.

Certainly it’s great for my mental health to take a trip, but all that eating out and all that lounging around can really wreak havoc on my fitness agenda. After all, it’s sort of a vacation tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel and Hardee’s and munch on m&m’s and salted peanuts in the car. Then of course sampling the local flavor is never as enjoyable when you only allow yourself to get the salad. Forcing myself to diet while on vacation is never successful or fun, so instead I just make sure to work healthy choices into my travel agenda.

If you’re staying in a hotel, you probably don’t have the option to cook for yourself, and even when you do, it’s more likely that you’ll be eating your meals in restaurants anyway. It’s fine to eat what you want — you are on vacation, after all — but don’t lie to yourself about what you’re doing. In the past, I’d rationalize my gluttony by promising myself to work out twice as hard and really watch what I eat when I get home. I think a lot of people do this — but when you spend a week or more overindulging, it’s damn near impossible to turn the willpower back on immediately. When you get home, you’re going to have to play catch up at the office and probably catch up on some sleep, too. Does that really leave time for extra exercise?

My parents go on a lot of cruises. They eat like kings and laze around all week, then come home ten pounds heavier. Dad throws himself into exercise and cuts himself off from any but the healthiest foods, and sheds the weight by the end of the week. Dad is not a real person. Real people are like my mother, who comes home more exhausted than when she left, and spends the next week complaining that she can’t be more like my father who can lose his vacation weight almost instantaneously.

So back to those healthy choices. Most people gain weight on vacation, but as long as you aren’t a complete pig, your vacation doesn’t have to be a huge fitness setback. A nice thing about vacation is that you do have plenty of opportunity to have fun and be active at the same time. In your day-to-day routine, your fitness time probably isn’t the most enjoyable part of your day, but when you’ve got 24 hours a day to plan any way you like, you can work exercise into your day without having to go to a gym. Do some sightseeing on foot to casually and enjoyably burn off the calories from your hotel’s breakfast bar. If you’re at the beach, go swimming in the ocean, or take surfing lessons. If you’re in the mountains, go for a hike with your camera around your neck. Do whatever you want — it’s easy to work active activities into your itinerary, and you won’t have to guilt yourself about what you’re eating or lie to yourself about what you’ll do when you get home. Plus, keeping active while on vacation will make it easier to get back to whatever fitness routine you practice at home.

The key to a great vacation is finding a balance between indulging yourself and making enough healthy choices that you don’t regret it all later. Eat what you want, have fun, and stay active. You may come home a little bit softer around the middle, but it will be easier to get back on track physically as long as you don’t completely let yourself go in your time away.