It is Saturday Evening and I'm sitting on the deck next to a trailer in the Adventure Bound Campground in Truro. It is the first evening of our annual family vacation to Cape Cod. Kim and Fiona are inside reading and soon we will all be heading off to bed.

There is so much that I want to do that slowing down is a challenge, especially while I'm running for State Representative. Some will say that I should really be back in Woodbridge knocking on doors. I wonder how much of a working vacation this will be. I've already sent emails to supporters working on different aspects of the campaign, and I'll probably send more tomorrow.

It is an important time to sit back and think. Perhaps, I'll spend some time working on my positions and my speeches. Even when I am on vacation, I need to keep my mind fully engaged.

On the drive up, we listened to Weekend Morning Edition on NPR. They did a segment on a Congressional Race in Iowa, where a conservative candidate spoke proudly of his ties to the community. He spoke about his children having one father, one mother, one church, one school all in one town. He seemed proud of it, but really, it made me a little sad. I've lived in probably a dozen different places in my life and have travel a lot. I've worshiped at many different churches and many different denominations. I've gone to many different schools as have my children. I have learned a lot from these experiences and I believe my life is richer as a result. From a purely political perspective, I believe that I can better understand the wide array of people that I hope to represent, and not just a narrow subset that are most like me.

Later, Scott Simon offered a commentary on politicians taking vacation. He encouraged them to do something different, not worry about what gets spilled on their shirts, read a trashy novel, speak with people with different viewpoints. Yes, perhaps I'll do a little bit of that on this vacation. Yet I also hope to spend some time doing this he suggested avoiding, thinking out policy positions, reading and listening to things that may help me be a better speaker.

Heading up the final leg of Route 6 towards our campground, we hit some traffic. So, we went off the beaten track and headed up some side roads. We ended up on dirt roads driving by kettle ponds in the National Seashore.

Settling in on the Cape, I checked social media. I checked in at various locations, posted pictures and checked to see what was others were saying or up to. A friend posted a link to an article in Scientific American about encoding messages in DNA. It is an idea that I've thought a bit about and have long wanted to write a novel on. Sort of a mashup of this idea and the movie Contact. Maybe some day I'll get a chance to write it.

National Novel Writing Month is November. The first week of November will be tied up with election stuff, so I doubt I'll have time to tackle it during this year's National Novel Writing Month. Maybe some other year, or maybe just write it as a short story.

In the evening, we went to one of the beaches. I like to sit quietly and just listen to the waves, but it is still hard for Fiona to sit still. Yet we managed to unwind a little bit. Now, back at the trailer, the rain has started again. It provides a nice soothing sound and hopefully, we will all be asleep soon.