Enjoy a ‘staycation’ by just staying at home

The notion of a “staycation” has become popular in these tough economic times. If you’ve somehow managed to miss the buzz, a staycation involves spending your vacation time at home or taking short trips from home base, rather than traveling to more exotic—and expensive—locales. In addition to saving money and providing families with needed respite from busy lives, staycations can cut back on summertime travel pollution.     Transportation contributes most of our ozone-forming air pollution in Maine, and studies point to air travel as a much more potent force in global climate change than other sources of pollution, because airplanes emit their greenhouse gases directly into the stratosphere where they go to work immediately trapping heat. Opting out of the long family road trip or the cross-country flight can reduce or eliminate this transportation-related pollution from your vacation plans.
Of course staying home for vacation doesn’t have to mean finally re-painting the garage or organizing the attic. It’s still possible to experience exciting new things right in your own back yard. Here are some ways you can get started enjoying a staycation right away:
Without leaving home: Cook a meal you’ve never made before (use fresh, local ingredients from your garden or the farmer’s market). Set up your hammock, pour a glass of lemonade and dig into a stack of library books or all those magazines you don’t have time to read the rest of the year. Invite friends over for a relaxing local-foods potluck and play one of those games that have been collecting dust in your garage (croquet, anyone?) Take the kids on a Back Yard Safari to see how many different kinds of plants and animals (bugs count!) you can find; look up unfamiliar ones in field guides.
In your own neighborhood. Take yourself on a home-and-garden tour: walk down streets you haven’t walked on before (or recently), noting the details in the local architecture and the flowers blooming in your neighbors’ yards; if you live in a more rural area, observe the wildlife or farm animals. Hop on your bike and tour your neighborhood, try out local trails or head to your favorite local restaurant or coffee shop.
Farther afield. Pretend you’re from “away” and send for visitor’s information from Maine’s Office of Tourism (www.visitmaine.com), draw a circle around your home on a map at the 15, 20 or 30-mile mark and look for places you’ve never been within your home range: restaurants, parks, hiking trails, beaches, lakes. Several brochures are available tailored to certain interests, such as The Maine Birding Trail, The Maine Garden and Landscape Trail and the Maine Fiber Trail (www.mainefiberarts.org). Book a sightseeing tour, such as a whale watch or lighthouse cruise. Use your staycation as an opportunity to take a class and learn a new skill, like kayaking, painting or gardening.
This summer, when juggling vacation plans with dwindling budgets and concern for the environment, don’t just go somewhere, stay home and have fun.
 This column was submitted by Andrea Lani, an environmental specialist with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Air Quality. In Our Back Yard is a weekly column of the Maine DEP. E-mail your environmental questions to infodep@maine.gov or send them to In Our Back Yard, Maine DEP, 17 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333.