For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we're on the cusp of summer, the traditional vacation season. As I'll be starting a new job in May, we won't be taking a vacation this year. The closest we'll come to one will be a weekend in Austin moving my daughter into the dorm. So let me do a little vicarious vacationing... Focus: What are your summer vacation plans? 7 days at an all-inclusive in Bali? Volunteer work in Guatemala? Testing your immune system in a variety of European hostels? A staycation with a few cases and a Netflix stream? Alt-focus: Tell us about the best or worst family vacation from your youth.
Vacation for me will be limited this year. The past few years, my girlfriend and I have done a big trip in the summer (past 3 years have been Galapagos, big trip down the coast of California, and hiking in Peru). She's writing for her PhD, though, so she can't leave for any length of time - we've decided to save up and do a big trip to Africa next year. I'm headed up to New England to see my dad for several days at the end of this week. My best vacation as a kid, was after my junior year in high school. My mom started realizing that after high school, I really wasn't going to be around to do family vacations, so she blocked off 6 weeks in the summer, bought an SUV, and she, my sister and I drove all around the country. It was pretty awesome. No deadlines, no rush. We each chose one place at the beginning that was an absolutely-have-to-see destination, and everything else was just picked as we went along. Drive somewhere, spend a day or two, pick somewhere else to go and drive there. We hit 30+ states, touched both oceans, about a dozen national parks, a bunch of state parks, and just had a really great experience. It gave me a huge appreciation for how much variety there is right in my own country. Not to be too corny, but it also really cemented a good relationship with my mom and sister, even though the subsequent years have resulted in us drifting apart. It's just a really good family memory to hold on to.
The girlfriend doesn't have any paid vacation days until September, so my vacations this summer will be limited to a couple long weekends, where either Friday or Monday are spent sleeping in and going to the range (shooting or golf) or playing golf with a couple friends. I am hoping to get in some camping this summer, though. That'd be nice.
The boyfriend has a little piper arrow, and we've made it to New Orleans and back (to NY) in it, so we'll probably just beach-town hop in the summer weekends. I'm taking summer classes, because they're free at my school and I'd be an idiot to not take free credits, and we're both going to be working full time, so no long vacations for us, I think. Worst Vacation- Being 17 and being dragged by my mom to Vegas to catch my dad cheating? I still don't understand what we were doing there. It ended up with my dad's arrest, my parents separating, and me getting in a lot of trouble for hanging out with some cute Dutch tourist. Being 17 in Vegas is awful.
I'm going to be in the Boundary Waters (where my profile pic comes from) for a weeklong canoeing/fishing trip, leaving in three weeks and a day. Can't. Fucking. Wait. Aside from that, I'll have some sporadic long weekends for a couple of weddings and bachelor parties this summer. The weeklong trip is taking a big ass bite out of my PTO, but will be entirely worth it. It's not exactly vacation, but I'm also hoping to attend at least one shooting competition per month this summer- ideally two, and in multiple disciplines. You pretty much have to set an entire day aside for them so it's enough of a time/money investment to feel significant.
Perfect timing on this thread since, as I just wrote about in the R/R thread, my passport arrived yesterday in preparation for my first ever trip outside the United States. Pretty much my entire life my vacations have consisted of road trips with friends to see concerts or the like, staying in cheap motels or crashing with friends/relatives. Probably the biggest trip I've ever been on was a band trip to Vegas when I was in high school, or when my parents took my sister and I to Disney World when I was 16. Not this year though. My girlfriends parents invited me to join them on their family vacation to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, which just happens to be the same day as my 29th birthday. So in about three weeks I we will be at the Majestic Elegance Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I've never done the all inclusive thing before, so I'm pretty excited to sit on a beach for a week, drinking for free, completely paid for by her parents.
The maid of honor and best man from my wedding are getting married down in Navarre Beach, FL in June, so I'm taking about 10 days of vacation to do the wedding thing and relax at the beach. It'll be perfect timing, too, since it's right after our big PGA Tour event at work, and I'll have spent the past 2 weeks working every day. Should be a good time, unless someone shows their ass at the wedding. Other than that, we might take a few daytrips here and there since the wife is off for the summer. Worst Vacation: Most of the one's I took with both of my parents were pretty awful, but I'd say the one that was the drizzling shits was when my mom, my aunt, my little sister, and I went to Florida when I was 8 or 9. They both have an awful sense of direction, so we got lost multiple times. My mom and her sister can only stand one another's company for so long before they get into screaming rage fits with one another, so my aunt ended up leaving midway through the trip. My mom got mad at my sister (who was 3) one day, and in her anger, accidentally pulled my sister's shoulder out of socket, resulting in her having to go to the minor med. To top it off, we had to stop in some shitty backwoods town in Mississippi for a reunion with some of her childhood friends and their family. At the reunion, some of the little Deliverance kids got me lost deep in the woods for a few hours, scaring the shit out of me; then, on the way home, we stopped at a Bonanza Steakhouse Buffet, and I got food poisoning. Quite the vacation.
So in a few weeks I am going back to Helsinki, and then a week later to Norway on my own for several days. It will be the longest I have been on my own in years. It should be interesting. The big trip of the true "summer" is to St. Petersburg, Russia with my mother, and my mother-in-law, so I hope I make it back alive. However I just finished the fine details of my wife and I's trip to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic this September, and I realized that making trip plans so long in advance sucks. Alt Focus:My best vacations were always with my dad. My mom took me on a lot of vacations, and I appreciated every second of them, as she worked so hard to make it a good time. However, it was always on a hardline schedule, every minute would be planned, without any flexibility. And my god, is my mother loud. I don't know if it came about because she teaches in a high school, as her students are LOUD, and maybe she just has taken to talking loud to compensate for their volume. But a quiet time with her is impossible, and that attracts a lot of stares in Europe. My dad however plays it by ear, only planning the destination, and allowing 2 extra days to get there each time. We have had great meals in road side diners, stayed in random hotels, out run a tornado, fished in random holes that produced great bass, all because we just "cruised" around, not paying attention to schedules. It is odd, as my father is a stickler about timing every other aspect of his life, but when it comes to cutting loose, he is a master. I learned about actually traveling from him, and it has really paid off. Also, we used to travel with his insanely MILF girlfriend, who would always lounge around in Bikinis. How he landed her, I don't know.
Week in Arizona with my family in June. Desert horseback ride, grand canyon, hot air balloon ride, and visiting Cauduceus Winery. I fucking love Arizona. Probably going to look for a place to live and a job while I'm out there.
Going to the Grand Prix in Montreal in June. Otherwise, there's a potential move in the works to an unknown place, so we'll see where that goes. If I can swing it, I want to do this: <a class="postlink" href="http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/articles/schlaf_im_stroh.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustr ... _stroh.htm</a> Maybe take two weeks, spend a few days in Paris, swing on down and spend a few more days hiking in the alps. Should be good.
No big trips this summer, but I am spending a few long weekends in Denver and Austin. My favorite vacation growing up was the week we spent Maui with 2 other families. It was the perfect balance of family times versus friend time. (Side note: don't do the Road to Hana trip. The twists and turns made my brother puke in the rental car, and we spent more time driving than actually out seeing cool shit. That was a fun morning).
I am going to Vegas in July for my friends bachelor party. What up cliche vacation?!?! I'd also like to go on at least one other big trip. Not really sure where. I good music festival would be cool.
FOCUS: I have a few vacations planned for this summer. In May I'm going to say a week at a beach house at the OBX. In July I have my sabbatical and there's a family get together at Table Rock Lake for a week during that. Then in August it's Sturgis with my dad. I'm most excited for the OBX just because I'm in dire need of a vacation.
This summer, I'm spending a week in New Orleans either with a boy I met in Costa Rica last year, or by myself if scheduling-alignment doesn't work out. There's also a chance a friend of mine may be down there visiting his brothers at the same time I will be, so that'll be good. I'm really excited. It looks like an awesome city. Besides that, I'm hoping to do a long weekend camping in the Adirondacks with a few of my lady friends, and a long weekend in Montreal with my dad. No, I won't be visiting three countries or going on a months-long backpacking trip like last year, but I'm pumped. I'm also weirdly excited about my summer New York City traditions that I didn't get to do last year. Alt Focus: My dad and I travel extremely well together, and it's one of my favorite parts of our relationship. Even though I've been travelling on my own the past few years and obviously enjoying it a lot, I actually miss travelling with him (for reasons far greater than him footing the bill...although admittedly that is pretty damn nice...) We have a lot of the same interests and like to do the same types of things when traveling, and if not we compromise well. Our two best trips together were to Maui and London. Those were two of the three trips I've ever taken (along with Israel) where I didn't want to come home whatsoever afterwards. There aren't any specific stories, just incredible trips. (Contrary to what TX said, the road to Hana is one of my all-time favorite memories, partially because it was the first time I went cliff-diving.) But in less extravagant terms, we also go to Montreal every couple of years, and it's always really nice. The city just suits us. If it weren't for their fucking winters, I'd be considering moving there much more seriously. Our worst family trip was our second cruise. The trip itself was lovely, but we just kept running into all these different kinds of boat traumas. On the way there, we hit a lot of whatever-the-ocean-equivalent-of-turbulence-is and the ship basically turned on its side and all the dishes and glasses and bottles fell off their shelves in the kitchen and shops and shattered, and I puked green over the balcony, probably onto someone's head. Then, while in the port, there was a fire really late at night and we all had to be evacuated. Then, halfway back to New York, a passenger had a heart attack and we had to turn back around so he could be flown back to the states. It was also the trip we took after my stepmom died, so we weren't in the greatest of moods anyway.
I doubt I'm going to manage to get away anywhere special this year but I've got a few festivals lined up so far (Download and Bestival) and I'll probably have a few heavy weekends in London to look forward to. The worst Family Holiday I have had? As much as an entitled asshole this will make me sound, it was when I went to Disneyland. To clarify, I was 16, it was my first holiday with my dad and his new wife and kids, the holiday was over the time I was getting my GCSE results so I missed all the parties with my friends back home. I also had to make a 4am phone calls home to find out my results, call up my college I applied to confirm my results and course choice. So I was stressing out about that, was clearly too old to be taken in by the magic of Disneyland and had to spend 2 weeks with people I didn't even know, let alone like. My step brother was the fussiest eater I had ever met. He would only eat McDonalds and other equally bland and inoffensive foods. This made eating out anywhere frustratingly difficult. The kicker? Dad had organised to take us swimming with dolphins, amazing right?. No, instead it turned out he only organised it for his partner and her kid. That was awesome to watch. They certainly seemed like they had the time of their lives. Was I an asshole kid? Most likely, I was a 16 year old who had been deprived of any semblance of privacy and personal space for a fortnight awaiting his exam results which could decide his fate. A grand gesture the holiday may have been, but I still felt as welcome as a fart at a funeral.
We never went on vacation when I was growing up. Each year we'd just go on trips to visit family. My mother's family lives in Mobile, AL. My mom has 7 siblings, and so I have a bunch of cousins my age. Most are pretty redneck trash, but a few were pretty cool. Most of the uncles and aunts were nice, and the food was always really good. One of my uncles has a house on Mobile Bay, so we'd spend a lot of time swimming. It's about 2000 feet from the mouth of Dog River, so the water isn't too salty. Pretty decent, as far as having your vacation be a trip to visit family is concerned. And then there's my dad's family. We'd visit them in either Columbia, SC, or Sky Valley, GA (population 221). My dad has two siblings, and neither of them have kids. Our entertainment on these trips would be looking at rocks, learning about rocks, and going to gem and mineral shows to look at rocks that were for sale. As soon as I moved off to college, my parents started taking really nice vacations, like cruises and trips to Europe and South America. My plan for this summer is to figure out what cocktails can be made with moonshine (specifically Lincoln County Lightning from the Prichard distillery in Tennessee).
The girl and I have been planning a 1-2 week trip where we start in NYC, drive up to Boston, then down to Philly, then down further to DC, then back up to NYC. It's nice because it's something we can do and explore together and still remain within our extremely tight budgets. We have friends whose places we can crash at in each city and we'll be driving, all of which should save a lot of money while still giving the vacation feel. I haven't been to Boston in years, and Philly I've only done with family (who basically only visits other family), so I haven't really explored the cities properly. It isn't set in stone yet, so it may not work out, but still, really looking forward to it.
I'm currently trying to get to London in June to see the girl. With a bit of luck I'll also get to Vancouver in Christmas to see the same girl again. Also trying to get to Sydney in September and Perth in October for fetish events and maybe San Fran for a long weekend either this September or next for Folsom St Fair. Trying to make money happen for almost all of those trips just keeps seeming more and more difficult. It's a good thing I like Ramen noodles.
I will be in Vegas in July as well for a bachelor party, but it's my cousin's. This should be interesting. I love Vegas. I love gambling, love the sensory overload, love the random cross section of girls from all over who are just looking to party. I can't wait. Additionally, it will be quality time with my uncle who was a prime example of someone you realize is awesome as you get older. He was always just my uncle who was cool and fun to play golf with. Then as I became an adult, I realized he was a smooth talking badass who is a better wingman than most of my friends. He will be a blast around the blackjack tables again. Other than that, I'm gonna try to make an East Coast swing. Spend a weekend-Tues in NYC, take the train up to Boston and see my friend who just moved there thinking he is going to reenact the Ides of March working for Romney. I've never been to Boston without family so it should be tight. Alt-Focus: Umm, summer before senior year in HS, Dubuque, IA for the "Golden Jubilee" of my great aunt who was a nun. Ain't now party like a nun party in 90 degree heat in Iowa. Sweet lord.
For most of the summer, I'm going to be working up for my deployment. I'll be doing a lot of multi aircraft missions around the NC area in addition to going to the boat a bunch to get used to it. At the end of the summer, I deploy with a Navy boat for a 6 month float halfway around the world visiting ports in the Mediterranean, Africa, Mid East, and India area. I am uber pumped and can't wait to finally go put my training to the test on real missions throughout the world.