A Life of Dilemma

Vacation time is nearly upon us, here in Podunk, RI. I am offering you, Internet, the opportunity to weigh in on what Todd and I will do for our week of vacation. Normally we do 2 weeks, but because I’ve started a new job in June I can only take a week. Todd will take the second week anyway, and will likely do cruel things like email me pictures of him and the dogs napping, lounging, and goofing off while I am working. Nice guy, huh?

On the way in to work this morning we talked about our upcoming vacation, scheduled the last week of August, and what we should do with that week. Originally we intended to sail to Block Island and anchor there for the entire week. But this morning he brought up sailing for half the week, then doing day trip adventures for the remainder of the week: diving, canoeing, camping, etc.

I am torn. Both ideas are equally attractive to me. Here are the pros and cons of each vacation idea. Tell me which one you would pick if you were on a game show and had the chance to win either of these vacations.

Behind door number one, the sailing vacation.

Pros

1. We will be on the boat for an entire week. Our boating season has been off to a late start due to the big leak. We only went on 1 weekend trip so far and have only been night sailing on weeknights a handful of times so far.
2. We haven’t been to Block Island for a few years now. We love Block Island, and the idea of spending a relaxing week there is very appealing to us. Oh, and there’s a guy who sells pastries off his boat every morning and every evening in the anchorage on Block. There’s nothing better than hearing the guy on the Aldo’s bakery boat calling out “Andiamo! Andiamo! Andiamooooo!” every morning as you wake up. *sigh* it truly is a magical place.
3. Then there’s the restful vacation aspect of spending a week in 1 place.

Cons

1. There is little variety in activity in Block. I mean, sure we can rent mopeds or bring out bikes and explore, go kite flying, lounge on the beach and chill out. But that’s just about it.
2. We’d likely kennel the hounds while we’re on this trip. So we’d spend about $500 on kennel for them.
3. Coming and going to Block is very weather dependent. If there’s fog we’re stuck out there or stuck at our home port because our radar isn’t working yet.

Behind door number 2, the multi-adventure vacation.

Pros

1. Variety. We’d sail for a few days. We’d camp for a night, we’d canoe, we’d dive, we’d do this and do that.
2. Cost savings because we wouldn’t kennel the doggers.
3. Our adventurin’ season has gotten a late start because Todd was sick this spring. We haven’t yet been diving, camping, canoeing or anything that we love to do. So this kind of trip would give us the chance to do a lot of that.

Cons

1. We wouldn’t get to go somewhere for an entire week and just chill out and have a relaxing vacation. We’d likely be on the go constantly.
2. We wouldn’t spend much time on the boat. We spend so much money on it every year, that it feels wasteful to not spend as much time on it as possible.
3. We would probably spend a lot of money in gas getting to dive sites, camp sites and everywhere else we’d go.
   

So, knowing what you know now, which would you pick?