Adventure vacations

It is something of a joke in my family that we don’t take vacations, we go on “adventures.”  Every family trip I can remember involved some sort of adventure, usually of the un-planned kind.  The best one involved my great grandmother’s home-made fried cinnamon sugar donuts, a windy road in upstate New York, Ziploc bags, and the “return” of the recently consumed donuts (if you get my drift).  My most recent vacation is, of course, no exception.

My husband and I are of two different minds when it comes to vacations.  I spend most of the days of my working life a relatively high level of engagement....called to respond to the demands of 100+ needy adolescents as well as those of my family.  I work, work out, come home and work some more...by the time I sit down at night, I'm exhausted, mentally and physically.  My husband, on the other hand, works from home.  He spends most of his day in solitude, occasionally speaking to other humans via instant message or video conferencing.  Where I crave a slow, more relaxed pace during my vacations, Dan demands action and excitement.  This is usually where the adventure gets added in…
Our first “adventure” in the Keys involved snorkeling at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State park.  If you have never been, you take a half-hour boat trip out to the coral reef, snorkel at the reef in the Atlantic Ocean for an hour, and then take the half-hour boat ride back.  I have been on boats many times before (my grandparents always had a boat) and I’ve snorkeled a bit, so I figured I had this well in hand.  The boat ride out was fine…beautiful water, sun, warm breezes.  The waves were rough because, as I came to learn, March is extremely windy in the keys.  The Atlantic is quite choppy for this reason.  But I enthusiastically jumped in the water and started to snorkel.  I saw barracuda, coral, conchs, all sorts of beautifully colored tropical fish.  But then I started to get nauseous.  REALLY nauseous.  I wanted to keep snorkeling, so I pushed it out of my mind.  I got back on the boat at the end of the hour, feeling that my breakfast was going to make a return appearance very, very soon.  As soon as I got on the boat, though, the nausea subsided.  Doesn’t that seem the complete opposite of what most people experience?  Don’t most people feel sick on the boat but fine in the water??  My sister pointed out that, for a Szuba, this seemed perfectly logical.  We have a tendency to do things all backwards.
Our next adventure came on Jet Skis.  I’ve never jet skied before, so I was scared.  But I pushed the fear down and climbed aboard.  The guide told me as I pushed off the shore, “remember, the throttle is your friend.”  I thought to myself, “I’ve got this then….I’ve got a heavy lead foot…surely I can handle some speed on a jet ski.”  I took off following the guide in a single file line…I listened to him and he described our upcoming journey and continued to push my fear down to some place that hoped it wouldn’t find me.  We took off…and I fell in line.  The people on the skis ahead of me sped along in a zig zag path, seeming to move effortlessly.  I, on the other hand, gripped the handlebars with a force that can scarcely be described. 
When the time came to stop and for me to raise my hand to signal people behind me to stop, I found I had to pry my hand from the handlebar; I had to force my fingers out of the curved position into which they had become frozen .  The guide gave us a few more pointers and described some sights, asked if I was ok, and I gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up that really didn’t describe the stupefying fear that was welling up inside of me.  I plowed ahead.  I began to realize that my muscles were so tense, that I was gripping the handlebars with such force, that I was unable to turn the Jet Ski correctly.  In fact, I was gripping it so hard and tensing my muscles so much that it was constantly pulling to the left (my stronger shoulder).  I began to panic and fear that I would be lost out in the Atlantic Ocean forever!  Sharks would tear at my flesh!  I would drown!  I would starve!  I would get sun burnt!  All sorts of irrational fears ran through my head.  This is at the same time that I am supposed to be driving a powerful machine and following directions.  I dug deep, pushing the fear and the panic back again, and found the strength to relax and enjoy the remainder of the trip (really, I’m not quite sure how.)  When the trip was over, when my husband asked what we should do next, my emphatic answer was ‘RELAX ON THE BEACH.” 
So we headed to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.  We sunscreened up, toured the fort while our sunscreen absorbed, and then headed to the beach.  The CLOTHING OPTIONAL beach.  If you’ve never taken a 16 year old boy to a clothing optional beach, try it.  Just for kicks and giggles.  Needless to say, my relaxation was cut short.  When we finally ended up at Bahia Honda State Park (the Key’s only natural sandy beach), I was ready to relax in the sun.  My husband asked if I wanted to snorkel some more; he doesn’t understand how I can be having “fun” if I’m not doing stuff.  But really, after what I’d already done that day, sitting on the beach and reading a book is about all the fun and adventure I can handle. 
And two days later, I’m still sore from the death grip on that Jet Ski.  What have I learned?  Two things:

1.       I’m adventured out.

2.      The mind is a pretty powerful thing, if you can control it.