Tell me about your summer vacation

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here it is, August 10. Pretty soon, any kids will be back in school and all that. Much of the summer vacation season is already over.

If you went somewhere for summer vacation, tell me about it. About where did you start out from? Where did you go? How did you get there (plane, train, automobile?) Anything interesting on the way there? Something unexpectedly good? A nasty surprise? Great roads? Nothing but construction? Beautiful scenery? Nothing at all to see? Ate a wonderful meal at this place and that place? Food poisoning from somewhere else? This hotel or chain was great. This other hotel/chain is a cesspool.
Do you have a tradition where you always go to the lake, the beach, the mountains? Do you do something different each time? Vacation overseas?
Would you recommend it for someone else to do next year?

2

I had a great summer vacation. My wife and agreed to go an extended family reunion in Frontenac, Kansas (We live in Roswell, GA) to take part in a celebration of the memory of my great grandfathers nephew. The American Legion hall is named after him, and there’s a window with his name on it at the local Catholic church. He is listed as the first resident from that town to die in WW I (John Francis Derby). Well it turns out that the 4th of July was the following weekend and I have family in Oklahoma, and my wife has family in Kansas. We decided to turn this into a big driving trip.

To make the trip shorter and more interesting we decided to see all the roadside oddities along the way that we could find. It was awesome.

We started by seeing the Musica Statue in Nashville, TN.
From there we passed through Metropolis, IL, home of the Superman Statue and the Giant Grocer.
Next Stop, Mount Vernon, IL to see the Giant Uniroyal Girl.
In St. Louis is the Giant Shoe made out of shoes!
When we got to Columbia, MO (U of MO) there’s a Beetle Baileysculpture (Mort Walker went to school there).
Giant Meat Cleaverin Topeka, KS
Giant Wrenthat used to sit atop of WREN Radio Station
The 100 year old cemetary statue of a 5 year old girl that someone still dresses in Topeka, KS.
Big Brutusnear Mineral Springs, KS
Giant Shuttlecock in Kansas City, MO.
Giant Needle and Button in the garment district in Kansas City, MO.
Giant Solo Cup in Springfield, MO
Giant Fork in Springfield, MO
Giant Rocking Chair in Branson, MO
Giant Blue Whalein Catoosa, OK
Giant Vitamin Water bottle in Tulsa, OK.

I realized when posting this I don’t have all of my photographs online yet. There’s also a picture of the giant library books at the Kansas City Library parking lot. A giant indian statue in Oklahoma and the ‘The Driller’ in Tulsa.

We had an awesome time doing this. Most of the stuff we found on roadsideamerica.com.

3

Enright3, I cheated and looked at your whole Picasa album from the trip. What a hoot! I especially liked the one of you looking up the Uniroyal Girl’s skirt. It sure looks like you had a fabulous time!

I had a teeny-weeny vacation – a one-day white water trip on the New River. I started and ditched several threads about it because I was freaking out about it (mostly worrying that my 14-y-o son would freak out). My fears were massively exaggerated. We had a blast! I paid an exorbitant amount of money for these three photos, but I couldn’t resist.

4

The highlight of my summer was Milwaukee’s Summerfest. What a blast! My brother has been going for a number of years now and finally convinced me to make the trip this year. Drove up from Chicago and stayed in the downtown Marriott. A ten minute bus ride takes you to the lakefront where there is nothing but music, food and beer! (okay, souveniers and shit too, but that’s not important now). What kind of music you like? Rock? You got it. Country? You got it. Oldies? You got it. Elvis/Tina/Blues Brothers impersonators. Yeah, got that too. Music for every taste and food to match. The crowd is friendly, the food is good and the music is outstanding. I highly recommend it but you must book early. Hotels fill up by April.

5

For the 14th time in about as many years, I went to Martha’s Vineyard. Subway/subway/bus/ferry, it took me about 4 hours to get there. I just returned a week ago yesterday.

I stayed in Vineyard Haven, but got to Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, Gay Head, and/or Menemsha almost every day. I made new friends pretty much everywhere I went. I had dinner with a very nice couple that lives there, though they get to actually do touristy stuff maybe one day per year. I’m glad they spent it with me.

The day I got there the weather was dreary, cloudy, and foggy. About half an hour after I arrived, it cleared up and was perfect. Did the gingerbread houses that night, then sat on a bench in Ocean Park. It looked like a freakin’ postcard, it was so beautiful.

Friday I was sitting on a beach, and I said hello to a woman passing by. She ended up talking to me for about 45 minutes. After a few, it was clear that she was completely crazy. Nothing she said made any sense. Something about the government/doctors/Microsoft changing her body by putting microchips under her skin and controlling her through microwaves. Yikes!

Saturday I went to Gay Head, the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. The waves were out of control. I tried to get out past where they were breaking, but couldn’t make it. Sometimes I got swept twenty feet back towards the shore.

All in all, a fantastic time!

6

That’s incredible! So do they have another raft go down ahead of you with a camera guy? Was that taken from land? I’ve always wanted to go white water rafting. I went 50 miles down the Illinois River once while in Boy Scouts. Of course right now I"m laid up with a really bad sprained ankle so a trip across the room is an adventure for me. :frowning:

7

That sounds awesome. I’m sure I’d enjoy some pictures.

8

I don’t know where New River is, but ten years ago I went WWRing in the Smokey Mountains. There was someone on the land taking pictures. About five minutes after we got out of the raft, they had the pictures up on a board. They charged something like $45989 for each copy.

9

Sure.

Toy boats at Owen Park

Fishing boats at Menemsha

Statue at Menemsha

10

It’s coming up. My ex-wife took my son over to England, toured with him for a week, then left him with my family. I am going over to stay for a week and bring him home.

Except, the week is now four days.

And the Monday & Tuesday of those 4 days, I just had to email our London office to see if they have office space for me to work there on those days.

So my vacation this year looks like 9 hours on a plane each way in exchange for a weekend with my family.

11

Ivylad and I spent a week in Key West in late June, then spent two days at the Miccosukee Resort and Casino so we could explore a bit of the Everglades.

I have pictures on my Facebook page…friend me (tell me who you are) and you can see them.

12

Have just returned from a friends woodland cabin.

In the far northern forests. Beautiful, magnificent forests of mighty trees, sparkling lakes and enormous rocks. No electric, cell coverage, running water, tv.

We went canoeing out to the beaver meadows one beautiful day. Followed by skinny dipping with my friend and her eight year old, from a mountain of a rock with a commanding view of an enormous lake, all to ourselves, nothing but birdsong and water lapping shore as a sound track. Unless you count us squealing with how cold the water was!

Saw beavers, chipmunks, toads, loons, ducks, osprey, cormorants and others too numerous to mention.

When the full moon came up we paddled out onto the lake and it was as bright as sunshine, I swear, I could have read a book. The weather was often less than ideal but the beauty of the surroundings totally made up for it.

I am an early riser and was awake well before the sun and the rest of the cabin. I would rise and make a large cup of tea in an insulated mug, bundle up a bit (still chill in the early morning) and follow some trails out to a wonderful rocky point on an isolated bay, the other side of the island, where the sun would first burst over the forest, and hit my perch. It was very wicked awesome.

It is a huge system of lakes and we were out on it, in the night, a couple of times. Also very cool. How they were seeing where they were, was beyond me, but we arrived safely. Experience no doubt.

It was so very beautiful it is exceedingly difficult to find the words to describe it to you. Sorry no photos, I was too busy having fun!

And now, it seems, another friend from up there, has offered us use of another cabin on another island, so we needn’t all crowd in. Like how fabulous is that?

It was a really wonderful time, we ended up staying an extra couple of days!

Also I have a niece now living in town taking a degree at the uni, so we’ve been taking hubby’s car whenever he golfs and hitting the nearby beaches, which has also been a lot of fun for me. We’re off again this Friday. Maybe I could learn to love golf!

13

Wow, elbows, that sounds amazing.

14

Oshkosh - greatest aviation event for pilots on the planet. It’s always different and hard to describe. Saw the White Night II fly in as well the A380. Got to see Elvis do a water drop along with a 130. What is really amazing are the restorations that people fly in. There are lierally hundreds of planes that would draw a crowd by themselves at any airport.

15

No vacation here since our year ended June 30 and the auditors are coming. Since I hate the heat, this doesn’t bother me. October vacation will be leaf-peeping around home and maybe a trip to Colorado to see the parents. April will I hope be to an island.

16

San Diego, California.

4 days. I wish it could have been longer. Drove from Phoenix to San Diego. Loved seeing the odd geography along the way. Drove on the I 8 freeway and went below sea level and hit 119 degrees. Then, I went through a large mountain range and found myself in beautiful San Diego. Loved seeing all the neighborhoods, great food, and comfortable climate. Balboa Park was amazing. St. Paul’s Cathedral was a great church. I’m always in awe while I’m there.

17

Three weeks in France last month.

Nice then Provence then the Loire Valley then Paris.

Day one:

Flight to Paris then Nice.

Day two:

Nice beaches and museums

Day three:

Monaco / Little town in Italy I can’t remember and more Nice

Day four:

Eze and more Nice

Day five:

Antibes and more Antibes

Day six:

Avignon

Day seven:

Tour of Provence – lavender fields, Roussillon, Orange, Chateau neuf de pape and a few other places

Day eight:

More Provence – the carmague / the lavender museum / the town where Van Gogh painted

batshit crazy obssessed with Nostradamus tour guide but fabulous all the same

Day nine:

Arles

Day ten:

To Amboise

Day eleven:

Castle tour of Chambois and Cheverny

Day twelve:

Chenonceau and Amboise castle

Day thirteen:

Paris

Day fourteen:

Versailles

Day fifteen:

Day d’musee – the orangerie, the orsay, the lourve

Day sixteen:

Notre Dame / Eiffel Tower / Sainte Chapel / conciarge / Ille d Saint Louis

Day seventeen:

Jewish museum / Picasso Museum / Pompidou Center / Arc d’Triumph

Day eighteen:

Museum Science and Industry / Window shopping in midtown Paris

Day nineteen:

Jardin d’acclimation / Sacre Coeur / dinner at Rue Moufftard

Day twenty:

Jardin des Plantes / zoo / walk to Pantheon and Jardin de Luxembourg / Eiffel Tower at night

Day twenty one:

Breakfast in Montmartre then home flight

Fabulous!

18

The New River is in West Virginia. In our case, it was a guy in kayak who was doing both still photography AND video. Yes, the photos cost $75249 each (inflation), and you don’t want to know what the video cost! We didn’t buy one.

One of my strongly-held beliefs is that I only regret the stuff I DON’T buy. If I go an another white water trip with my son, it won’t be his first time, as a 14-year-old. The expression on his face in the first and second photos is truly priceless! I am soooooo glad I bought the photos!

19

I’m doing an internship in Hyderabad, India. It’s very loud and busy and chaotic. Once I saw monkeys in the road.

If you have Facebook, you can see my pictures here (this is where the monkey pictures are) and here.

20

Just got back from my “Heatwave Tour of the Pacific Northwest”. The first week, every day was over 100 degrees, and the second week was cut short due to a bizarre car malfunction. Still, I had a great time, and I made it to North Cascades National Park, which was my primary destination.

First batch of photos