A quick confession - I hate vacations! I spend most of my time trying to cram my (ongoing, constant and unfinished) creative life into what ever is left over from housework and learning the next show(s) to earn a living. It just about kills me to have to take time off and go somewhere where I can’t practice and I’m not supposed to write. However, it isn’t about me - it’s about the kids, who may well be picking my old folks home. So, in an effort to be positive and focus on happy thoughts, I thought I’d start this thread.
What are your summer vacation plans?
We’re taking the train to Montréal for a few days, to see the Insectarium, the BioDome, the Museum and the Guitar Show.
Then train to Ottawa for a few days - Changing of the Guard, Museum of Natural History, paddling around Dow’s Lake, Museum of Civilization.
Then we drive to Great Wolf Lodge, a waterslide hotel near Niagara Falls. Two days of waterslides…
Then we drive to a resort on Lake Simcoe, where the cuisine is exquisite. I anticipate much sporting about in canoes and pedal boats.
And then the kids go to visit Grandma for a week and we’ll take what’s left of our vacation to visit either Stratford or Shaw Festival.
I don’t have kids quite yet, so I’m saving up my vacation time for the fall when I can get outside without melting.
So this summer, I’m enjoying my weekends at my new house, fixing it up and getting it how I want it. Lots of yard work to do, painting, repairs… It’s a work in progress but it’s exciting!
Summer vacation is not something we do. Summer is the time we can hike, bike, kayak, picnic, party all in our area. Now winter vacation? That we have all planned and the flight/etc paid for. Two weeks in St Martin again. While Pennsylvania is frigid, we will be at the beach!
I’m off to Antwerp next week for a long weekend, it’s the start of the Tall Ships Race so I’m looking forward to that.
Then later this month I’m off to Hungary and the Camups Festival in Debrecen. I have friends over there so we’ll be visiting them as well as seeing some bands and doing some of the touristy stuff.
Other than that, I have nothing else planned at the moment.
We’re hopefully going to Hilton Head with my sister and brother-in-law in late summer. It’ll be us, my husband, my son, my daughter and them. Hopefully she’ll be pregnant again by then; if not, we’ll see how they feel about it and maybe just the four of us (minus sister & BIL) will do something together instead.
We may also take a few weekend trips, meeting my dad somewhere between Des Moines and here - possibly camping - or finding someplace nice to spend time outdoors.
I already had a mini-vacation last weekend up in Sonoma County. I hiked at Armstrong Redwoods, took a dip in the Russian River at Monte Rio, and checked out some of the Kortum Trail along the coast near Goat Rock.
I’m heading up to Lassen later this month and maybe going to Mono Hot Springs sometime in August.
Going to British Columbia to irritate my kids and grandkids. I’ve been doing this for awhile so I am really good at it. 3 weeks holiday time and 1 week accumulated overtime.
The grand-daughters are 13 and 15 so old enough to drag me to movies etc and for me to whup them at cribbage. In between we’ll do housewifely chores to ‘help’ daughter who, as a teacher, has been putting in ghastly hours and requires a break.
Hopefully I’m getting 2 weeks off in August and I will do the following by car, starting from Florida:
– See the Havasupai Gorge (near the Grand Canyon)
– See Las Vegas
– See LA (as in, literally see LA. Not really do anything there, and then drive on the PCH until I’m bored of it.)
– Party with my family in a beachside cabin we’re renting near Portland for a couple days.
– See Yellowstone.
– Hike in Rocky Mountain National Park
I haven’t been to any but the last place before. Everyone tells me it will be terribly rushed but I actually have a couple days of slack time in case I need to decompress or something goes wrong!
Wife has 2 sisters, and we all have 2 kids each.
Add her parents and aunt and we’re 15 mouths to feed & board.
We rent a ginormous house on the beach next to the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club for 3-4 weeks.
The kids all get along; we just chill, jetski, sail, take the kids to the waterpark and search for good restaurants.
We won’t all always be here, so we want the kids to have fun and have good bonds with their cousins that will last long after we’re gone.
We change up spring break every year so the kids get to see a variety of places. NYC, SFO, SAF; all over the country.
This year was St. Croix. Very cool house on the ocean, and mongooses running around everywhere!
We’re home for a day to catch up on laundry and get the car tuned up. The last two train trips, the air conditioning on the train has not been able to keep pace with the heat, making for a very hot 5 hour trip between Ottawa and Toronto today.
I’m also getting tired of hotels that charge $10 a day for internet. I just spent the last 48 hours out of touch, even though I said I’d be at least checking e-mail. I’d rather spend an extra $10 on the evening’s bottle of wine…
The same as every year: a week at the shore (Cape May, NJ to be specific). I’ve been working a lot – 40-45 hours at one temp job or another, plus (smallish) freelance jobs for some of my regular clients most weekends, since Feb. – so I’m looking forward to lots of lolling on the beach reading, swims, walks, miniature golf, and hanging out with the same group of people I’ve vacationed with every year since '96.
We’re taking our new son (he’s seven months old now) to some relatives who haven’t met him yet. First my aunt in Montreal, then a bunch of my in-laws in Chicago.
In a week or so I’m headed to beautiful Ulaan Baatur, Mongolia to…well, I’m not really sure. What is there to do in Mongolia? I guess I’ll find out.
Ten days there and then it’s off to California to see my family, who I haven’t had much time with in the last four years. Finally, I’ll move to DC and start grad school in August. Busy!
We’re driving up to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories next month. We’ve never been there before. I’m looking forward to getting away from it all, and from what I understand, the land around Yellowknife is truly away from it ALL.