What I Did On My Vacation

I don’t vacation well, but I am doing ok so far in Maui.

Maui feels like a collation of all the most exotic dreams a twelve-year-old could have. Sun, trade winds, swimming pool, beach, volcanoes.

But I am no longer twelve. My travel inclinations lean toward the cities of Europe, and long walks through urban settings. I don’t click with luxury resort living. The Glitz Carlton in Maui is exactly the sort of place I would have loved as a child, but now I long for something embedded in a vibrant, living city, not isolated in some parkland.

I was dragged into a team building exercise that my wife’s company, Cuna Mutual, threw as part of this President’s Circle event: that’s why I am here, as a spouse of a top producer. The exercise was a “geo-teaming” scavenger hunt. We were outfitted with gps devices, a map, and a pocket PC with clues and pictures. 27 teams went out scavenging, and our team — named the Yellow Underdogs, because of the color of our bandanas — came in third place (and we would have won if we had walked the 300 feet to get one last site). It was fun.

But I itch to get out of here. I know many people would love to be here, but for a wide variety of reasons, I want to be elsewhere. So I am counting the days ‘till I fly out to SF, and get back to what I love.