Dear Abby (old advice column in the newspaper famous for providing life advice),
my wife MJ and I have caught a case of the travel bug recently and don't know how to shake it! In 4 consecutive weekends (including a long Thanksgiving weekend) we've been all over the United States, from the golden gates of San Francisco, to the rainy harbors of Seattle, to the snowy urban streets of downtown Manhattan, to the neon lights of busy Las Vegas. We've used various methods of transportation to get to these places, literally trains, planes, and automobiles (subway system in New York included). We've had so much fun on these trips, but to be honest, we're tired! How do we harness this travel bug and avoid the negative symptoms of travel fatigue?
These trips have been short but effective: they're a whirlwind of activity. We've typically left after my work on Friday, we get excited about the trip while packing and researching all the places well go to, and by the time we're in the air (or in the car on the way) we're so excited! It's the life I always imagined, working hard during the week but being a "weekend warrior" and traveling far away during our free time, all weekend every weekend. The only regrets I have are losing some personal items along the way (headphones, gloves- those pesky gloves always seem to get lost, and they block our fingers from the source of life itself, our smartphones!) and not having enough time to experience EVERYTHING that a place has to offer. I guess the only solution is to go back there some other time!
Travel fatigue is very real, as each time after all the new stimulus we take in (and walking! So much walking around the cities!) we're dead tired by the time we get back Sunday night or even Monday morning (bleeding into work time!) and slump into my desk at work, it almost seems like a dream and I often have to remind myself that the weekend even happened. The pictures we take, though, are all undeniable: our experiences are very real, we can still feel the icy wind blowing into our faces as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, we can still picture the colorful burnt glass at the Chihuly Garden in Seattle, taste the fresh caught oysters at a restaurant off the San Francisco embarcadero, breathe in the smoke in the Las Vegas casinos (it took a couple days to get all that smoke out of our lungs and wash it out of our clothes!) Luckily for me, my body recovers pretty quickly, and by Tuesday or Wednesday we're ready to embark on another adventure the following weekend!
We also learned a new travel hack in Los Angeles to get to the airport (at least until the new metro line is built connecting downtown LA to LAX): drive to Aviation Station on the Metro Green Line, park in the parking lot, ride their free shuttle to the airport, then go on your way! As long as you're a weekend warrior like us and the trip is less than 72 hours, you can park for free as long as there are spots! Your readers can thank us later!
You know what Abby, I don't think travel fatigue is all that bad! Thanks, I'm cured!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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