Take A Day Trip For A Rejuvenating Mini-Getaway

Does it count if you’re just watching

Can a Day Trip really feel like a getaway? Yes, I think it can. I think I can attest to this after spending two-plus hours in the car, feeling like we were headed nowhere, even though we had a destination.

Then, there were the five or six hours (depending on which of us you’re asking), sitting on the side of a slow-moving stream as my husband tested his fly-fishing chops in the southern part of the state.

Can a mini-getaway just be about doing nothing

I don’t fish but I do read, and a day in nature with nothing to do but crack open a book sounds just fine to me. I might have flagged a bit during the drive, or, more precisely, as my husband considered any number of spots along the river to stop and cast his line. They all looked pretty much the same to me, but apparently I was missing something. Either way, I kept telling myself I was just along for the ride.

He did finally choose a spot, and after unloading and making our way through the woods to the river, I set up my chair and opened my book.

“Aren’t you going to watch?” he said, turning back to see me involved in my own thing.

“Absolutely!” I answered. But were my eyes glued to the end of his line that entire time? Suffice it to say, nope. But I did sit-up straight every time he caught a fish. Here’s his first one.

He won’t be happy to see I posted this

But I can’t help it. There was a lot of excitement about this little guy. I did snap the quick pic and then he was quickly put back into his home-stream to give him more time to grow.

If a fish hooks the end of your line and there’s no one
there to see it, did it really . . .”

A fisherman’s wife

This is blasphemy, I know. But the catch-and-release policy helps ensure a fisherman’s tale can remain a fisherman’s tale. And I’m not really sure the fish on the end of the line is really the point anyway. The point is that a day of fishing beats a day of lots of other things, for my husband.

While down river, around the bend, apparently other fish were caught. Even big fish. A 14-incher was hooked on the end of his fly at the tail-end of the day. But I was upstream, so no picture of this one.

Can it be a mini getaway without lunch

My husband, who never misses a meal, missed lunch. I’d packed a nice Mediterranean Pasta Salad, but he was so captivated by the fish, the water, his casting, and maybe just having a day to do nothing but cast a line, he wasn’t there to see lunch.

And maybe that’s the whole win — being so relaxed on your mini getaway that you don’t even realize you’ve missed lunch, hardly read your book, and gotten a few bug bites.

For me, that day of doing pretty much nothing, was just what I’d needed. I didn’t get my to-do lists made, and hardly touched my book, but I did realize the rejuvenating power of doing pretty much nothing. And sometimes it’s most fun to do nothing with the one you love.