watching expired appliances align

Recently DF posted his thoughts about his stay at a fake lodge on the outskirts of Kansas City. Experiencing a made up retreat filled with sanitized notions of fun, relaxation and vacation scarred him. And he can't stop thinking about it. Since reading his post, I can't stop thinking about it, either. And thinking about it just makes me ask more questions.

Is DF overreacting? I don't think so. The conflict he brings up is very real. And it's one that a lot of us face in this format or one that's similar. What makes for a real experience? How does one deal with the guilt of spending extravagant amounts of money for the same "manufactured" experience that hundreds of others experience every weekend? Do some people even confront this issue?

I think I've seen a Great Wolf Lodge, or something similar to it. Two years ago while traveling across Michigan, some friends and I pulled into a chain restaurant for a late breakfast / early lunch. Across the street, and right off the highway, was a massive hotel structure with a giant water park. It was strange. We'd been traveling for hours, surrounded by trees and other aspects of "nature." Out of the blue, a "destination" spot appeared. How close were we to The Dells, a more traditional Michigan vacation spot?

I should be upfront about my biases. A trip to a museum is not my idea of a vacation. I don't have children and I'm not sure I'm currently capable of handling that lifestyle. I can't imagine what it would be like to spend my time planning how those children are going to use their time. I expect I'd become one of those parents who takes his child to museums, but the hand-on touch-the-horseshoe crab-type museums. I'm okay with that. I went to those types of museums as a kid. But I also spent two summers working at a theme park. I still have memories of receiving a plastic wallet card and being told to memorize the corporation's "mission statement." I read websites about the newest technologies and I wonder how I can incorporate those items into my life. I like shopping for and buying expensive toys.

I also want to mention a trip last summer in which a few friends and I found ourselves in Las Vegas for twenty-four hours. DF compares the fake lodge with its indoor, climate-controlled water park to Vegas. I couldn't wait to get to "sin city." I craved the gambling. I wanted to face my reaction to such a manufactured environment. The idea of giant hotels created for the express concern of taking me "out of my day to day reality" (as my Kings Dominion mission statement used to put it) was as exciting as it was repulsive. Was it going to be a day of "forced fun" or were there moments of real joy and entertainment to be had? Were those feelings going to be the result of the environment or the result of interacting with good friends?

After three hours in the big hotel casinos, the urge to visit the seedier, older casinos took hold. And from there, I wanted to see the low-rent casinos, the casinos where the Vegas regulars play. Driving from the strip to the outskirts of town was a quiet thrill. How is the very recently constructed Las Vegas just like the rest of our "fast food nation?" And what are the tiny things that make it different? Besides the glitz and glamour of our very expensive hotel, which was designed to look like a fake New York City, what made Vegas Vegas? I don't have the answers to those questions. I was also interested in playing craps, and my urge to gamble usually wins out over my urge to pretend at being an "urban explorer."

I could go on at length about my interest in towns and what I want to see and the oddities of what makes those small towns or large cities tick, but I want to get back to the bigger questions DF's post has me asking. None of these questions are original. Most of them have been discussed in books and on the internet ad infinitum. I guess this is why blogs are here, so that each of us can join in on "the conversation."

DF alludes to this, but I'm not sure it came through as loud and clear as it could have, "what sort of culture do we want from out lives?"

How does the notion of spending time with our families play into that?

How has our relationship as individuals and nuclear families changed with the increasing geographic distance between extended families?

Do individuals have too much free time on their hands or not enough?

How has global connectivity and shared knowledge changed our perception of ourselves and our "rank" with the others in our lives?

What role does technology play?

Besides identifying these issues, when do we start asking questions that change our habits? How can we go about changing our habits (if we do, indeed, need to make changes)? What other options are out there? Is a vacation to a "real" mountain lodge, nestled by a lake an option for everyone?

How does the sheer number of people in the country alter destination choices?

Is the need to spend vacation time in cramped, artificial spaces an inherent need to reconnect with humanity because we spend so much of our day-to-day private time within the confines of our McMansions?

With regards to parenting, how have priorities changed over the last half-century? Twenty-five years? Decade? Is there too much structure? Too much parenting? Too many options? How does that alter the way parents, and consequently children, perceive relaxation and vacation?

And that's where I start on the topic. What comes next? Do I want to try to answer these questions in subsequent blog entries? Have I had so much exposure to TGIFridays and the like that I feel hopeless about the answers to many of these questions?

UPDATE (2/14/06): Matt Zoller Seitz's take on Disney World. It adds to the conversation in an interesting way, suggesting the merits of large scale productions being personal and conforming to childhood visions.