Showing posts with label family vacations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family vacations. Show all posts
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Vacation Time!
Since I'm on vacation for a few weeks, my plan is to limit my blogging to some extent. There will be a few posts at Tossing It Out, but on Wrote By Rote I'll likely go dormant until I return home.
Of course if I really have something big to say or am finding that I have more time for blogging than I had expected, then I might post here and there on this blog. Don't count on it though. When I'm not driving for extended periods I'll be enjoying time with my family members.
Whatever the case may be, have a wonderful summer. You can expect me back here probably on August 20th or so. See you then--or whenever I get an urge to post on this site.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Vacation Destination (#atozchallenge)
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| The El Garces Hotel was later on historic U.S. Route 66 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Vacation Destination...
Where do I go? Where I always go. My typical vacation destinations are Houston, Texas; Maryville, Tennessee; and the Jersey Shore area, with all sorts of stops and side trips along the way. For the past several years this has been my general itinerary since these are the places I must go to see my kids, my grandkids, and my other family members.
These are all fine places to go if one plans to take a vacation trip. Exotic places and major tourist destinations are fine for some, but for me I want to see my loved ones and spend some quality time with them. Besides, I've been to plenty of places in my life already and though I love the travel and the thrill of discovering new adventures, I've got to stick with the places of my heart and mind.
No theme park or far away city can give me the joy of watching my grandchildren and hearing them talk to me. Spending quiet time with my daughters or running around with them as they go through their life routines give me new memories and allows me to relive some old ones.
Maybe one day I'll go to Europe or Australia or do some big vacation thing that I've never done before. Or maybe I won't and not particularly miss not having done those things. I'll let life just come as it will. On the way home from our visiting, my wife and I will take our time. Maybe we'll see a national park or two, a historical site, or some kitschy roadside attraction. We'll enjoy the journey and we'll enjoy being home.
Every day is part of a journey to some destination which may be new or may be old or may be the one that is totally unexpected. My life has often seemed like one long vacation with a few stops here to work or there to rest. The journey is the best that life has to offer. One destination leads to the next.
What is your dream vacation destination? Are you sometimes disappointed when you reach a destination that you've been looking forward to? What is it that you like about the journey before you get where you are going?
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Another Journey Ends
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| English: Volkswagon bug RV (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Time for a breather. Kick back and catch up to all that's piled up while I've been roaming the roads of America. It's been a great time that I somewhat sadly leave behind me yet exhale a sigh of relief that I am home again. That is, the home where all my stuff is. The place where I pay my house payment and receive the rest of my bills. My heart may not totally be here in the place where I live, and my mind is divided as to where I would really like my "home" to be.
This vacation that my wife and I embarked on was 47 days away from our house. That's by my wife's count of the days. I wasn't counting, but her number sounds correct. It seemed longer in a way and yet it all seemed to fly. It's good to be back in our own home, but it was nice being gone.
The saying goes "All good things must come to an end" and so it goes with a vacation. Some family members and friends have suggested that when my wife retires we should sell our house, buy an RV, and just travel all the time. I'm not sure about the RV part. Sure, having the portability of possessions might be nice and it could be very handy to just pull over sometimes to sleep in my own bed and use my own bathroom. There is much to be said for having a "house on wheels". I'm just not sure about driving a big ol' thing around.
In my younger days I had plenty of experience living out of a van and staying in motels all the time. I got used to that lifestyle and quite enjoyed it. It's a good idea to have an address--a base of operations so to speak. I always used my parents address back then. Now that's not a viable option. I guess I'll keep a home somewhere. Maybe not as big of a house as we have now unless someone is living in it when we're off galavanting.
It's all something for us to consider in the years to come. We've still got time to decide, but my wife and I need to start thinking more seriously about the years to come. I hope there are years--many more of them.
This previous journey has ended, but the life journey continues. With each ending comes a new beginning. It's a circle of life just like in The Lion King. We've got places to go and people to see before they and we are gone. The kids are getting settled into their own cycles of life and the grandchildren are coming and growing. We don't want to miss out on those grandchildren who now live across the country from us.
I guess we'll figure it out. One journey has ended and others wait ahead of us.
Are you living a life in retirement yet? What are your plans for the future? If you were living a life of travel how would you want to do it?
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Summertime Travelling
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| Photo taken of the south face of Picacho Peak, Arizona, United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Will you be doing any travelling this summer? Some of us in the northern hemisphere might be hitting the road. A few with greater financial wherewithal might even be flying to far off places or hitting the seas in cruise ships. Travel options are many.
High gas prices and tough economic situations for some of us might curtail travel and cause more than a few to opt for staying at home if any vacation time is to be had. Or maybe some of you work through the summer. Since my wife is a teacher and I'm essentially retired we have a couple of free months in the summer. Travel is on the current agenda. If everything goes as planned we'll be packing up our Chrysler Town and Country van and visiting family scattered about the U.S. far from where we live. If we don't go to visit them, odds are we are unlikely to see any of them during the year. I'm not fond of scattered families, but life sometimes takes those turns as we all pursue the dreams that the economy sometimes dictates.
In weeks to come you might find me in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and New Jersey and many points in between. The trek from Los Angeles to all of those places means a lot of time and many miles on the highways. No telling where you might find me in the weeks ahead. I'll be pre-scheduling my posts before I depart so I'll be writing about generalities. A bit of the past and some guesstimates of where I might be in general at the time when the post goes up.
If you aren't travelling yourself you can join me in my travels. In a sense that is. I'll try to give you a feel for things that we might encounter. We've made this trip a number of times so even with my bad memory I'm sure I'll pull up a few highlights that we've experienced on past trips that most likely we'll experience again.
Hope you don't mind if I take the easy blogging route and reminisce about the road. Maybe we share some memories between us and maybe I'll share some that are new to you. I hope we all have a happy safe summer.
See you next Saturday on the first leg of the journey.
What are your plans for the summer? Do you hit the roads during the summer months? What is your favorite travel destinations and activities?
Saturday, July 6, 2013
The Grand California Tour of 1961
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| Yosemite valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
My parents often opted for some rather eccentric vacation ideas when I was a kid. It was rather typical for my father to use his vacation time to have our theatrical agent book a summer tour of fairs where we would perform our juggling act. This was fine with me as it always proved to be a novel and fun experience.
In the summer of 1961 we took a more traditional vacation trip throughout California. By this time my parents had my sister Joy and me and our two year old twin brother and sister Jay and Joni. Piled in our station wagon with no air conditioning had to have been hot I suppose, but since that's what we always had, we must have been pretty accustomed to traveling that way.
We started the trip with a brief stay in Las Vegas. The oasis town was glitzy then, but nowhere near what it has become. Vegas had a sort of small town feel then with lots of entertainment and nightlife. It was definitely an adult oriented place, but there was still plenty for us kids. The highlight of that visit was getting to go see the early family edition of a show featuring singer Gogi Grant. That year she'd rereleased her 1956 hit "The Wayward Wind" and it had become a big favorite of mine. I can't recall much of the show, but I do remember Gogi Grant singing the song for which she was most famous.
After our brief Las Vegas visit we continued on to Yosemite National Park. We stayed in permanent family tents that had wooden floors. It was the closest to camping that I had ever experienced by that time. We took in the famous landmarks by car. My parents weren't too keen on much walking with two year old twins.
Next we went to Tracy, California to spend a few days with my aunt and uncle and cousins. They always came down to San Diego to spend a couple weeks with us so it was a twist to see where they lived. I recall staying up late with my cousins as we told scary stories and had a generally good time.
During this trip I gave a big boost to my postcard collection. I picked up several cards from Vegas, Yosemite, and Central California. The one that I prized the most depicted the decapitated head of Joaquin Murrieta, bad guy or hero depending on one's point of view. The gory head was actually a wax reproduction from a museum which we were not able to visit much to my chagrin.
I still have all of the post cards from that trip of fifty years ago. I only wish I had more vivid memories of that vacation. Childhood flies when you look at it in retrospect, but seems to last forever while you're living it.
What are some of your favorite vacation memories? Did you visit relatives at vacation time? Did your parents ever take you to any memorable shows or concerts when you were young?
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