General Thoughts on Successful Vacations

A successful vacation should be judged by its ability to transport the vacationer completely away from home and to such an extent that memories of home and its attendant cares have taken on an air of unreality. Where is that place that I once lived? Could it be only a few days ago that I left? At some point, however, comes the realization that home is calling, that this sojourn demands a return ticket.

Some people never return from their vacations. I have heard stories of eastern city dwellers so in love with places out West that they went home to pack up and cross the Continental Divide for good. There are ex-Wall Street financiers who now run sandwich shoppes in places like Taos and Durango and who make their own soap. They weren't the first easterners to do this.

I'm returning to New York City today, understanding too well that I can't stay in the alluringly beautiful Grafton County, New Hampshire. For the foreseeable future, home is the big city.

Daybreak for A Vacationing Flaneuse

6 a.m. Grafton County, New Hampshire

Reporting Live from New Hampshire: Decision 2008

I haven't a clue where I am. New England, I think. Gently rolling green hills, a gurgling brook, a dense forest carpeted with ferns, hummingbirds, a pond - the whole nine yards of Transcendentalism. I haven't been in touch with Great Nature or the Emersonian over-soul in years, so it's nice to catch up.

The business of flanerie, needing some avenues and boulevards, cafes and buildings, and something called a crowd, is pretty much dead in the water once you cross into New Hampshire.

I will instead Walk in Nature, the tradition established here.