For thirty years I didn’t get a “summer vacation” from work. In the fall of 2023 I started working at a school district and in 2024 I had my first full summer vacation from mid June until late August. It is roughly 8 weeks in length.
This summer I was ready and prepared. I have to admit it wasn’t spectacular by travel or recreation standards, but for me it was very satisfying and enjoyable.
I broke it down into nine areas and will share a little on each.
I did a lot of walking. I averaged between 15 and 20 thousand steps per day, often starting my day with a good six or more miles. All together I walked from Bucks County in the south along the Delaware River to Easton, PA. I walked the D & L trail for that part and followed it along the Lehigh River to Allentown. The trail is primarily the tow path for the canals
I also walked from Easton north to Tatamy and its neighbor Stockertown to east of Wind Gap in the north.
I hiked along the Appalachian Trail from Wind Gap to Delaware Water Gap and back. These trails were atop the Blue Mountains and wonderfully empty of people. There were some other hikers, especially around Water Gap, but most of the time it was me, my thoughts and nature.
I did do a little work for extra pay by participating in the extended school year program with our Life Skills kids. This was fun. I got to play with them for two hours a day, three days a week, for three weeks. I walked to the school, worked with the kids and walked home. There were nine of them and I had all of them at some point in time. It was good seeing them and hearing how they were doing.
I also took courses through Coursera. This was a good deal. I spent $60 per month and completed 14 classes with three specializations addressing all of the areas I address in my coaching program. In this way I have credentials to support diet, exercise, well-being, professional employment skills, emotional intelligence, positive psychology, and family financial planning.
The Coaching program made great strides. I finalized the six session course content, created my marketing plan, revised the website, sent my initial announcement, and found a tool to organize content online via google classroom.
My love of Tolkien continued as I heard positively from a publisher regarding my book proposal and am working through aspects that I knew were going to be a challenge, but wasn’t going to tackle the issue until the proof of concept was proven.
I had a pleasant surprise that an article I wrote, and had forgotten about, was being published in the Tolkien Society’s journal Amon Hen.
Finally, I presented my lecture on Dragons at the New York Tolkien Conference and it went well. It was a fun day with fellow fans of the Professor. Diane from 2nd Breakfast came from Philadelphia, so it was good seeing and talking to her. Also got to meet Tom Hilman, who I’ve corresponded with online for years, but hadn’t met in person before.
I’ll be presenting this again at Oxonmoot on Labor Day weekend and excited about that event to officially close out summer.
While in NYC my brother and I helped mom move apartments. Fortunately it was in the same building and they did most of the trips while I was at the conference.
Enjoyed the time with them in the city. We did a grand tour around the island of Manhattan by boat which was really good, walked at night from 42nd to 84th and then back through Central Park. Our last morning we walked 42nd to Broadway to the Financial District and up the Hudson back to 42nd.
I had never been to the Financial District before, so enjoyed doing that.
Closed out with a few visits to Musikfest, mostly during the day, and stayed one night, which was packed. I also got to a few Friday night shows at Steel Stacks, including 4th of July night. Got a tribute band show and multiple firework displays from my vantage point.
Snuck one home improvement in out of guilt and embarrassment. I noticed how bad my patio area looked when my brother stopped by and the next day I started weeding.
The weeding turned into re-landscaping. I took out a fence section and gate. I pulled up some walkways and made beds. I moved the pond to where my grill once was. I planted wildflowers, relaid all the rock I pulled out, removed some grass and really liked the way it turned out.
What does all that mean? I felt very accomplished in that I tangibly did things, while socializing, thinking, learning, reading and writing, which gave me great pleasure. I spent a good amount of time in nature which always gives me peace, appreciation, and gratitude.
Throughout it all, I had a lot of activity, good sleep, maintained my diet and good eating habits and had surgery to repair my two hernias.
When August ends in addition to everything else, I have a job, home, well-being and I’ll be one year sober.
So that was how I spent my summer vacation, and it worked well for me.
Resilient Seeker Coaching | Ross Raymond Nunamaker 