Sharing a Vacation House with Friends
I got to have one of my favorite types of vacations on Labor Day Weekend 2018. I love when I get to spend time, whether it’s a weekend or full week, living in one house with friends or family. This may be rooted in my experiences as a kid. Every summer my dad’s whole family would bunk up in a house together for a week in Nantucket. Every Thanksgiving, even now, my dad’s whole family spends five days under the same roof. My family of four would frequently go away with friends for a weekend – renting mountain houses in Vermont for skiing and snowboarding with my parents’ college friends and their children; visiting my godmother at her beach house in Maine; or just crashing at someone’s house for extended hangout time. There was something magical about spending 24 hours each day in close proximity to people you love. There was always something to do, and someone who wanted to do it with you.
As you’ve learned by now, we have many “homes” and many different groups of people who make us feel at home. Reuniting with these loved ones always energizes me and makes my heart happy. Well, on Labor Day Weekend 2018 I got to combine one of my favorite styles of vacation with some of the people who make me happiest, and who I do not see nearly enough.
There are ten of us who met while we all worked together at our tiny school in rural Arkansas, but who have dispersed across the country. Evan and I are still at the same school; Meghan and Justin are a few towns away, but no longer work with us; Aaron and Anna are in Chicago; Maisie is in Albany; Jon and Angela are in Philly; and Carl is in New York City. Lucky for us, Jon’s incredibly generous parents let us stay in their rental property on the Jersey Shore (for free) on one of the most coveted weekends of the year. And it was perfect.
Let me tell you a bit about why putting tons of people you love in one house is one of my favorite forms of travel:
- When you only get a few weekends a year with your friends, nobody wants to waste time in their own hotel room or driving between multiple houses or coordinating when and where to meet up.
- When you have a shared common area, you’re tempted to stay up just a few more minutes because you have a short walk to bed. Or to get up a little earlier because you hear your friends talking upstairs and don’t want to miss out (and if you’re my friend reading this right now you’re laughing at me for even implying that I wake up early).
- When you’re living in a house with a large group, there is always someone who wants to do the same thing as you, whether that “thing” is to take a long walk, go swimming, or drink a beer on the porch in your soft clothes.
- When you vacation this way, especially with like-minded people, you do not need to make plans ahead of time. When you have multiple cars, a beach in your backyard, a restaurant around the block, and a kitchen stocked with groceries, there is no need to coordinate plans or worry that people aren’t enjoying themselves.
- With this style of vacation you naturally get time with everyone, both in the big group and more individually. In three days I was able to do the following: get bagels and smoothie bowls with Jon; get ice cream with Maisie and Jon; go on a day trip to another town with Evan; sit on the couch and catch up with Anna and Angela; swim at night with Maisie, Justin, and Evan; go to the liquor store with Meghan; pick up Carl at the train station; and sit on the porch with Aaron and Justin. Other than my day trip with Evan, none of this was planned more than 10 minutes ahead of time.
Few things in this world are better than having a group of people you love under one roof.