Here is a selection of ideas that I may choose to do (recognising of course that I could enjoy all of these on sunny days as well).
Reading a good book
My enjoyment of a good book while on holiday might, however, be dampened by the thought that I had paid thousands of dollars in travel and accommodation to do something I could equally as well have done at home. I share the universal anticipation of exploring 'new and different territory' when I choose to travel!
A day bus tour
Although it is wet outside, the bus will be dry and the tour group will provide everything possible for me to stay dry while getting on and off the bus.
My wife Delma and I, when at the Baptist World Congress in Hawaii in July, took the bus tour to Pearl Harbour on a wet day. It was great! More recently when at the Australasian Religious Press Association annual conference, on our one free day, we did the Hobart bus tour.
There are many such bus tours in popular tourist areas. They may cover wineries, historical houses, a major dam, significant waterways, museums, lookouts and vantage points, or whatever else the main attractions of the area are. On a wet miserable day, such bus tours can be very accommodating.
Shopping
Personally, we both like shopping. Before you say that the same shops are in every major residential area across the nation, there is shopping and there is SHOPPING. One of the things my wife and I enjoy is looking for that bric and brac shop, the odds and end shop, the antique shop.
While visiting the heritage village of Richmond in Tasmania recently on a wet day, we found four such shops. Yes, it was a bit annoying getting from one to the other when wet, but once inside the shop we took our time and checked it out thoroughly. We never know what we might spy in such a place, and unlike museums, you can usually handle the goods (particularly in antique or craft shops) and it gives an opportunity to talk to the locals and get a much more personal perspective of what it is like to live in that place, which is sometimes different from that portrayed in the tourist brochures.
I'm always looking for that 'something' to be stored away in the Christmas gift cupboard that I might not be able to find elsewhere. While in Richmond I found very inexpensive local wood-carved envelope openers. I purchased four.
A country drive
There is nothing quite like seeing a 'foreign' countryside when it is wet. The colours and smells and happy flowers in the meadows and gardens look quite different on wet days and sunny days.
The added advantage of being on holidays is that there is no rush; there is time to talk, discussing family business and suggesting ideas for the future. There is hardly a better or more personal place than the motor vehicle where my travelling companion (nowadays usually Delma) and I can, in confidence and trust, allow intimate issues to be aired.
A morning tea here, a nice lunch there, an afternoon tea somewhere else. It can be an experience that will be remembered favourably for many years to come.
A time to pray
A wet day when on holidays can also provide a time to pray. There may be very serious matters at hand, where a day of prayer might be the most desirable way of resolving the issues.
There have been a number of occasions in our lives and ministry, where my wife and I have taken a day out spent in prayer, strangely - often on wet days. This has not been a twelve hour day on our knees, but rather a day set aside to contemplate and seek the Lord.
Over the years this has taken a variety of forms: reading His Word (The Bible); private reflection; a walk along the beach or the in the bush (wet or otherwise); creating an experience away from the routine workaday world to allow the Lord to speak into our heart.
There is nothing quite like a day of prayer when on holidays. In our case, our eyes saw what we couldn't perceive previously, in many cases resulting in the best holidays we've enjoyed.
Yes, wet days can be very productive indeed.