Is there a full-time job with variety and academic rigor but also 2+ months annual vacation? (don't care if vacation is unpaid)
There are some universities and colleges in the US that require very little research of faculty and stress teaching above all else. In such a place, you have no research commitment, of course, but you probably still need to find the time to develop new courses and gather and create material for them. If, in your field, "taking time off" means things like creating new courses by visiting museums, and such then you can combine work and leisure. But it is rare in education at any level in the US to have no expectations for 2-3 months per year. 

There is more to "teaching" than teaching, even when there is no formal research requirement. But, most places, even those with quite modest reputations do require research and some publication, even if not at the level of R1 universities. 

Think of an academic position as full time. Actually, think of it as 24/7/52. Even when you aren't actively engaged in teaching/creating you need to be thinking about what comes next. Even something as seemingly simple as "keeping up with your field" can be a fairly major undertaking in some disciplines. 

Also, you may have a bit of a misunderstanding. Most academics (other than adjuncts) don't work on yearly contracts. The commitment is usually a bit longer. A person on the tenure track can usually expect a three or four year contract initially with a review at the end of it and a final review in the seventh year. The "annual contract" isn't about continuation, in most places, but about salary and, when necessary, changing expectations. Of course, you can be fired for egregious misbehavior, even with a contract. 



Finally, I'll note that some top universities in the US (Duke, Stanford, ...) have a special category of Teaching Faculty, whose expectations are more in teaching with somewhat lower research expectations. But lower doesn't mean less, it means, in some cases, more pedagogically focused than strict theory of the discipline. 24/7/52.