Vacation to Shop?

So the weird thing about going on vacation is I swear most of my vacations used to revolve around shopping.

Seriously too. Its like we would drive somewhere for hours only to get there and hit the stores. And some of those stores would be right at my mall at home! Maybe I'm the only one who has noticed this, but I swear we all do it. We seem to flock to places where "outlet" malls reign supreme or mega-malls dot the state.

This weekend Noah and I went on a little weekend away just me and him. At first we did start to creep into the stores we would normally hit, but this time it just felt wrong to me. Every store we went into I thought, "What the heck would I do with that anyway?" It was like as though shopping had little purpose or something. Like I couldn't wrap my brain around it anymore. This has been a condition happening to me for some time now, but being on vacation took it to a whole other level or something. Everything looked like junk and most of the stuff was NOT made locally--let alone on this continent! Ugh. Sure we did hit up the KB Toy Store which was going out of biz because I promised Noah a toy (yes a toy more then likely that was made in China I admit it OK!?!?) due to some excellent behavior he had. But after that when we hit the stores I couldn't bring myself to buy all the stuff I normally would have bought just to buy.
There were many many stores having some serious sales--70% off-- but I stayed away. If I had gone in I would have bought just more clothes to replace all the stuff I just gave away! That wouldn't make sense.

I'll admit I used to be one of "those" people who just bought something because it was cheap. It was like some sort of badge of honor or something.

So instead of shopping me hit the arcade (OK I know, not so green and a HUGE waste of money, but he's a kid and he loved it so much) and froze our butts off at the beach this morning beach combing.

I need to remind myself that I go on vacation not to go shopping or see the malls or outlet stores, but to experience the place I'm in. I have swam in the ocean after all and sat on the beaches in Cebu!! Why would I waste seeing all God has created to pick up some silly trinket made in another country?

I doubt I'll die and wish I had shopped more.

But I'm sure I'd be happy knowing I saw everything I could and experienced it as much as I physically could. Even if this means enjoying what is in my own city as vacation are not always possible.

Take a look around your city and when you are on vacation and enjoy what God created around you! You might see something you hadn't seen before. Just do what I do, tell yourself--"I'm never going to forget this moment" and you won't.