Summer Vacation.

Close your eyes and think about those two words. I bet you're picturing yourself with your toes buried deep into the hot sand, the cold waves occasionally hitting against your ankles as you sit in your chair. Your head rested back, skin is warm from the blazing sun, sunglasses perched on your face. While all of this is a pleasing thought, why is this exactly what we think of first when we think of summer vacation?

Don't get me wrong, I love the beach as much as the next person. But why are we subliminally conditioned to thinking that vacation during the summer months has to equate a trip to the coast? Vacation simply is just a getaway from everyday life. Just this past week, my family went on their own vacation--but not to the beach.

We went to the mountains. We packed up our car and took our family out to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to explore the Great Smoky Mountains, and it was the most fun I have had on a vacation in a long time.

And yes, maybe nature isn't your thing. However, escaping to the mountains gives a different type of freedom. It made vacation feel a little bit more enjoyable for me. I really felt free to do whatever. I didn't feel like I had to have our days planned down to the minute. When I'm at the beach, I feel as if I have to be at the beach all morning, and then go out and do something fun in the evening. When I was out in the mountains, we spent days just at our cabin sitting out on the porch in hammocks, just reading and taking in the views. There's fifty-eight National Parks across the United States and many other destinations across the nation that have the same beauty high in the mountains.

For your next vacation, think about ditching the beach for once. Go out and get lost in nature. As John Muir once said, "The Mountains are calling, and I must go". Maybe you should too.