AN ODE TO SPRING BREAK

The idea was born in the frigid throes of winter in Minnesota. It was so cold that the dog wouldn’t go outside for more than 30 seconds (his water bowl had frozen solid two months prior). The sort of negative temperatures when snowmen beg to come inside for even a few minutes.

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“How great would it be to wear shorts and worry about sunburn instead of frostbite?”?I asked my wife as we stood around the fireplace some time in January.

A short time later, we were online, researching escapes to the Gulf of Mexico.?

The thing is, when we travel, we are roamers. We’re not ones to spend a vacation horizontal and idle on a cruise ship deck. We want to spread our bare-skinned wings - especially when those wings have been covered by hoodies all winter.?

So we made sure to go somewhere with more options for fun than hours in the sun-drenched day. There’s a time and place for relaxation, but we prefer to recharge our batteries by experiencing new things, trying new activities, sampling new foods, and moving … constantly. And from the moment our plane touched down on the Yucatan Peninsula, we roamed from dawn to dusk, relishing the joys of warm breezes, the symphony of crashing waves, and sipping the occasional umbrella drink.?

We snorkeled with sting rays and rainbow fish. Tried pickle ball (newsflash: it’s SO much fun and you don’t need to be over 60 years old to fall head-over-heels in love with it). Took a sailing lesson. Got the stink eye from a ten-foot crocodile. Kayaked. Painted pottery. Rediscovered our dance moves. Jet-boated across a vast, inland lagoon. Watched my wife and son parasail hundreds of feet above the beaches (I’ll keep my feet planted safely in the sand, thank you very much). Chased iguanas. This was roaming at its ultimate finest!??

And, as we watched the sun set over Caribbean waters on the last night of our vacation, I smiled at several days lived to their fullest – in joy, comfort and family togetherness.??

Garett Graubins is Marketing Director of Sportiqe. He owes an apology to every person he blinded with his pasty white skin on this Spring Break Vacation.?