Warmest Greetings,

There Were No Search Engines At The Seashore  

:: Monday, July 19, 2004 ::

I had a clear case of withdrawal at the beginning.
 
Before leaving for a week at the seashore, I did a search in Google to get more information about areas of possible interest surrounding Ocean City, Maryland, our destination.  Sure, we had family there and were staying at a family-owned bay property.  But I would have a house full of kids ranging from age 5 on up - each with their idea of what they wanted to do.
 
None of the web sites I found were easy to use.  Most of the sites I found, by way of links from larger sites, were either no longer being updated, or the link itself was dead.  It took me about 3 minutes to quit looking, out of frustration.
 
Later, when we got down to the shore, one of the first stops being for beer and wine coolers, and then after that, new boogie boards and beach towels for those who forgot to bring one, I grabbed several free publications and read, the old fashioned way, to get ideas for things to do.
 
Though I swore I wouldn't, I'd brought my laptop.  There were a few shops where I could have brought my laptop and hooked it up to the 'Net. These were tucked into small buildings with teeny tiny signs,  as if connecting to the Internet is some sort of covert operation. 
 
Every day I mumbled something about wanting to check my email, and every day the kids were fighting over the TV, or making 123 trips out back to the dock to check the crab cages, or the teenage girls were wondering when I was going to take them shopping. Again.
 
This is how I know there are no search engines at the seashore, or email, or easy Internet connections for vacationers.  Everything is targeted to a different target market.  When on vacation,  is it not logical to want to go miniature golfing, or explore the upstairs museum of sunken ship's treasures at Sea Shell City?  Is the point to burn your tootsies on hot sand,  gaze at cute lifeguards,  watch the teens try to sneak wine coolers from the fridge and walk until you drop at the Boardwalk?
 
It took awhile for me to get it.
 
I haven't had a week off, where I went "somewhere else" to rest and relax,  in 11 years.  I was grumpy for the first 3 days.  My fingers yearned for the keyboard.  There was this constant drone of noise, all day, from dawn to way past nightfall, of kids' voices.   Although he was there, I don't think I actually saw my mate until Tuesday. We'd come down the Saturday before.  By the time he came to bed, I was passed out from exhaustion.
 
Home was only a phone call away.  And we got them.  Eric's job called a few times, just like they do at all hours of the day and night, every day of the week.   Don't even get me going on what I think about that.  And, while watching my teenage charges in a clothing outlet store, I got a cell phone call from a neighbor who said it rained 4 inches that day, our pool was full and knowing the history of our finished basement, which houses my office, she was worried it was flooded. But, Eric had installed a new pumping system, which when checked out by his father (who was in charge of feeding and entertaining the cats),  we learned the house, my computers and the cats didn't drown while were away.
 
By the next Saturday, I didn't want to leave.  I would have liked to ship the kids back though.  By the end of the week, Eric and I were holding hands and flirting with each other so much the kids were getting grossed out.  The kids slept for nearly the whole 4 hour drive home (we make stops for food and "I have to go potty".)  I was wide awake, making plans in my head for my next vacation and wondering what happened in Usability and SEO-land while I was gone.  
 
I waited until Sunday to finally boot up my main computer to catch up on the news and email.  This is when I learned about Google's new picture organizer thingy called Picasa. 
 
Now, if I wanted to go to Google while on vacation, I could have been sorting all the digital pictures we'd taken.  But, who in their right mind thinks of search engines or accessing the Internet on their vacation?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 7/19/2004 11:46:45 AM

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