A Vacation at Home

This Memorial Day weekend, I had four nights off work. This originally was unintended on my part. The other doctor who exclusively worked night shifts at the same hospital actually wanted to work, so I happily oblidged. Previously when I had this much time off, we would have had plans (i.e. traveling, family.) However, this weekend kind of snuck up on us and we failed to make any.

I made the most of it and spent the weekend doing as little as possible, although it did start out a little active. Megan, Paige and I took a drive up to the Philadelphia Zoo to meet Long, Alexander, Kaitlyn, and Sarah. I basically learned that I never wanted to go to the Philadelphia Zoo on the weekend of Memorial Day again. It was extraordinarily crowded. I think we spent two hours on the last five miles of our drive in stop-and-go traffic. Having sunny weather without it being too hot or too cold certainly didn't deter anyone from visiting the zoo that day. Traffic-and-crowd-battling left us a little exhausted for a prolonged zoo visit, but we still had fun with my nieces and nephew. In particular, I spent a lot of time with Alexander, pushing his stroller and pointing out animals with him.


On the Sunday, the actual "doing as little as possible" really kicked into high (or is it low?) gear. As soon as Paige woke up, I took her to our backyard and planted myself on the back deck. We spent four hours there, with Paige running around while I "watched" her from a lounging position on the deck. I went through about four cups coffee and two meals with only minimal getting up on my part. That afternoon we walked three houses down to the annual block party thrown by our neighbors, which basically meant more food, drink and sitting in a lounge chair for me. A few of us went back to my deck for a burger dinner that night and you can imagine how strenuous that was for me.


Monday, I awoke still full of food and beer. Our only plan that day was yet another barbeque party. This one was a real blast for Paige. A four year old boy named Brady singled her out to play with her, and later she became the object of constant attention from a twelve year old girl. This girl Samantha was tireless when it came Paige. Samantha was a real natural when it came to playing with and handling a toddler. Megan and I realized immediately that we found a babysitter to hire. We knew Paige was having fun since she rarely came running to us for attention. Our daughter was so exhausted from this event that upon our arrival home, she remained asleep as we transfered her from car to couch to crib, clothing-change included.

So that was my first full Memorial Day Weekend off (without foreign travel) since residency. I'd be willing to repeat it again, but all that beer, burger and inactivity really put some pounds on.

Pictures here.