Road Trip!

This week's topic is vacation and travel, which is apropos for me, since I feel like I've been on one long, extended vacation all summer, hopping from Ohio to Utah, Arizona, Mazatlan, Washington, D.C., New York City and tomorrow, Orlando.

Twice, the travel has included long trips in the car. I have to confess, even though in many instances I would much rather fly, I do love a good road trip. Which got me thinking... what makes a road trip good?

Here's what I came up with:

1. Good company. To me, a road trip is no fun done solo. It's all about the person you're with. The miles go by faster when you're talking and laughing. The shared experience of the trip is half the fun of making it.

2. Good Music. This must be good sing-along music so you can crank it up and belt it out. My favorite road trip music is classic rock and a select collection of show tunes. Just be careful... I once got pulled over because I was rocking out to an old Zeppelin song in the middle of the night on an empty road and the highway patrolman thought maybe I was drunk because I had been keeping the beat with the gas pedal.

3. Good scenery. There are certain long stretches of interstate that can get tedious *cough* Wyoming *cough* but for the most part, I love seeing how the landscape changes from state to state. Sometimes you have to look for the beauty to appreciate it.

What about you? Have you been on any road trips lately? What do you think makes them good?

Tweet

Scrapbooks love vacations

I wish I had the scrapbook gene.

Lots of my friends do. They create these glorious, lavish scrapbooks with all kinds of cool layouts and embellishments to remember the major events in their lives. I, on the other hand, have only ever managed digital scrapbook pages. And only then because there are really cool digital scrapbook programs that cost less than $30 each and require you to simply drop pictures into an already designed page and do a bit of journaling.

That I can handle.

But I decided that I want to create a real album for my husband and my first ten years together. This is partially because I would like to give traditional scrapbooking a try and partially because all of our photos from that time are (gasp) actual photos and the idea of scanning them all in (even if my scanner was working) makes me want to pass out.

About five years ago, I did the laborious task of sorting through those first ten years of pictures and putting them into labeled envelopes with the date and event. Apparently, I had to go take a nap after that because that's as far as I ever got.

But in pulling out all those envelopes again, I've discovered that pictures--at least for me--fall into one of three categories:

-- Holidays
-- Major life events (birthdays, weddings)
-- Vacations

And really, vacations is about 80% of them. It appears we do nothing noteworthy in the slightest the 345 days a year when we are not vacationing. :-)

It's fun though, this nostaglic look at vacations past. So I thought it would be fun to note my top three favorite vacations from the first five years of marriage. If my scanner was working, I would even include pictures. But alas, Miss Scanner is a finicky girl.

3. The great California trip

Back in the late 90s, my husband and I took a weeklong vacation in California with another couple. We flew into LA and did the Tinseltown routine (and Rodeo Drive) and then drove up the coast to Carmel. We ate at the Hogs Breath Inn which Clint Eastwood owned at the time (perhaps he still does) and then stayed the night in lovely Monterey. Then it was up to San Francisco for three days where we did Fisherman's Wharf, saw Phantom of the Opera and ate. A lot.

2. Grand Cayman

My husband actually won this trip through his work! A week at a gorgeous resort on Grand Cayman. This was the first trip we'd taken in a LONG time where I wasn't obsessed with work. (I actually took my laptop on our honeymoon - no lie.) We sprinted across the Miami airport trying to catch our flight... which left five minutes EARLY even though they'd been alerted to our airplane's delay... but managed to get rerouted on Cayman Air. I hate to fly. I'd rather walk, but the Cayman Islands are, well, islands. So that wasn't really an option. One thing I will say is that Cayman Air served us Cayman punch (I think it was called) out of a gallon jug in these little plastic cups. And it was GOOD. Turns out it was also laced with Cayman rum. Live a little, learn a little. Anywho... we ended up having a nice flight despite the chaos. My favorite memory is sitting out on our balcony with the scent of barbecue floating into the air and chilling out to the sound of steel drums.

1. San Juan, Puerto Rico

This is hands down my favorite vacation ever. We stayed in a bungalow right on the beach with a hammock outside the door. We ate Monte Cristo sandwiches and ate luscious seafood and watched the waves crash over the rocks outside our favorite restaurant's window. I also managed to get a horrific sunburn while snorkeling and spent two solid days on our covered balcony with John Grisham (in book form, not the real deal). But it was still by far the most relaxing and wonderful vacation EVER.

What about you? What's your favorite vacation ever?

Tweet

Vacation/Travel...NOT

Before we get started here, I'd like to apologze to Alyson, Amanda, Jessica, Kay, Kelly, Linda, Liza, Melissa, Sara, Sara, Stephanie, Teri and Wendy. Have I got everyone covered? (Double-checking the TFC sidebar.) Yup, I do since I don't have to apologize to Lauren seeing as Lauren is me.

I'm apologizing for being remiss lately. I have absolutely read and been entertained by your blog posts here, cheered your successes here and elsewhere, but I've failed to take that extra step of vocally commenting or cheering, because I've been a little self-involved lately - even more so than usual - and that's because...CRAZY BEAUTIFUL came out on Monday!

Terrific, now that the mea cupla and the obligatory self-plug - darn, that sounds dirty - are out of the way, we've got another hurdle. You see, I've been assigned to write about Vacation/Travel this week, and the problem is...I didn't go anywhere this summer! And I refuse to use the word *staycation* - outside of having just used it but that was only so the rest of this sentence makes sense - because that word annoys me. In fact, it goes right in the bin with other odious verbal constructions like "teachable moment" - bleagh.

So what shall we talk about?

I know! We'll make this mercifully short. I'm going to name one city/state and country I traveled to in the past and loved and one state and country I've never been but would love to go to. And then you do the same. If you're really feeling creative about it, you can tell us why you're so passionate about those particular places, but don't feel you're required to strain yourself - clearly, I haven't been feeling that requirement lately!

OK, here is self-absorbed me going first:

(I can't believe Blogger doesn't have a way for me to underline things!)

OK, here is self-involved me really going first (having decided bolding things will work almost as well):

A favorite city/state I've been to: Seattle, Washington. Mountains, water, tearing a king crab apart like a crazy woman.

A favorite country I've been to: Iceland. Waterfall, geyser, volcano, falling off an Icelandic pony.

A state I am dying to go to: Well, I don't know about dying, but I would like to see South Dakota. Shouldn't someone really want to see South Dakota? And isn't that where the Badlands are? I think I belong in the Badlands. Yes, thank you, Wikipedia, they are in SD. And so's Mount Rushmore. I thought it was but didn't want to speculate before checking Wiki because then I might expose myself as being geographically stupid. Oops. I just did.

A country I am dying to go to: Greenland. I see no reason to explain myself further.

OK, your turn, if you'd care to share: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THAT YOU'VE LOVED AND WHERE ARE YOU DYING TO GO?

Be well. Don't forget to write.

Tweet

Aloha!!

So, this week at the café we’re talking about vacations, which, as luck would have it, is really timely since I just spent two heavenly and much needed weeks in Maui.

It was awesome!

Spectacular!

Everything I wanted my vacation to be and more!

And we enjoyed it so much, we decided to extend it just a few days further and move on to Lanai, which is really, really quiet compared to Maui but also incredibly beautiful.

And some time between lounging by the pool and lounging on the beach I realized just what it is that I love about vacation: It’s not just the break from the stresses of everyday life—nope, that’s only part of it. The main thing I like is that the vacation Me is the Me I can only dream of being in my normal life. The blissed out, uber relaxed, well-rested, well-excercised, well-meditated, well-fed, well-dressed, version of Me.

The Me that tends to vanish sometime between the drive home from the airport and the third load of vacation laundry.

Still, it’s nice to know she’s in there somewhere!

What about you? What’s your favorite part of vacation??

Tweet