I have always been attracted to the special beauty one finds in seasonal places when the season is over and the people gone. There is often a quiet majesty to these temporarily abandoned sites. When I was a young man in New York one of my favorite winter holiday expeditions was to the seashore to walk on the Boardwalk. The gaiety of summer was long over; the neon signs dark, the storefronts once teeming with activity shuttered.

When I lived and taught in England, I often would drive from Cambridge to a small town on the Lincolnshire coast. There I would seek out a favorite pub of mine and have a quiet lunch looking out the windows at the empty beach and the expanse of ocean, punctuated only by an occasional gull in the gray sky.

I no longer live near an ocean and so my winter break walks are now here in Douglas County. But the same beauty I once found at the abandoned seashore is here, too, if only one looks. I have been seeking out these tranquil spots the past few days and shall continue to frequent them over the next month. I have two favorites.

The first is Perry Lake. Far too few folks from Lawrence venture as far north as Perry Lake. We are generally satisfied with Clinton and Lone Star lakes. But Perry Lake is really splendid and in the winter, it’s particularly special.

The campsites are empty; the summer buildings are shut. But the sky is still blue; the birds still wheel through the sky, and the water is a choppy gray, which, after a while, makes the warmth of home seem even more pleasurable. One can walk around the lake if feeling energetic or simply sit on a park bench and listen for the echoes of summers past. What I especially like at Perry are the late afternoons when the low winter sun casts an almost magical light over the lake and its grounds, a twilight that whispers.

My other favorite place at this time of year is the Kansas University campus. When the students have left, the campus is transformed. What was once a bustling city in miniature becomes almost park-like, its stately buildings quiet with a few windows illuminated. There are no crowds on Wescoe Beach and even the chalked messages, so vibrant and fresh when students are around, have faded away.

The sound of students laughing and talking is absent and one can hear the rustle of squirrels in the bushes and the plaintive cry of a cat searching for its supper. There are few people on the streets: an elderly professor carrying piles of exam papers and a graduate student staggering under the weight of her books — or, perhaps, her research. The perennial campus problem, finding a parking space, is not a problem now; there are spaces galore. And one can enter the quiet buildings to take a pause and warm up if the weather is just a trifle chilly.

This is the time of year when all of us take a pause. It is Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and midwinter break. It is, we hope, a peaceful and a joyous time and a time when most of us have time to relax and reflect and enjoy family and friends. It is a time when we can do things we might not otherwise be able to do. It is a time when I will wander in the quiet places and enjoy their special peace and magic. I encourage you to do so, too. Happy holidays.

Mike Hoeflich is a professor in the Kansas University law school.