Vacation

Recently I just returned from vacation.  The family and I went to Ocean City, N.J.  I have always loved going there, it is quiet and family oriented and it seemed like a very nice place to visit.  I had a nice time and really enjoyed being with my children and grand-children, but it occurred to me that going there is not what it is cracked up to be.
For starters, we paid an exhorbitant amount for a week's stay. It is inconceiveable to me that people pay , in some instances almost three times their mortgage payment.  The house we stayed in was nice, it had four bedrooms, a master bath, multiple TV's,
cable, internet, a washer and drier. The same things I have at home. There are nice restaurants, stores, a playground, and close by, the casinos.  The same things I have at home.  If you want to go to these places, you have to drive, just like at home.  The only difference I can see is Ocean City has the ocean and a beach full of sand.  I have a big yard, a deck with an awning and a pool.
People say " its the idea of getting away ".  Yes it is true, but when I sit in my yard by my pool, I am away. It is quiet and peaceful, just like the shore and I don't have to fight traffic to get there.
I guess you can say as I get older I get more cynical, I just feel that the shore has really become overpriced and it annoys me to have to finance someone's mortgage payment.  What also annoys me is having to pay to use the beach, but that's for another time.
I have been to quite a few vacation spots in my lifetime, and quite a few have been less costlier than the shore.  I guess if I still lived in the inner city I would think differently about the shore.  I told the family, next year they can come to my house and stay, we can go shopping, go out to dinner, go to the casino, relax by the pool and spend time together. We can all sleep in our own comfortable beds and relax in our own comfortable living rooms.
This blog is just my opinion, I'm sure there our lots of people who love everything about the shore.  I do believe though that we are all pressured to go to these vacation spots in order to help their economies, and things are made to appear more attractive than they really are. That however, is how our economic system works. It is after all about making a dollar, and I think the shore practices that very well.