On this list so far: Austin Upstate NY San Fran Charleston Siesta Key, FL Not so much summer, but closer to fall: Hong Kong/Taiwan later on Bachelor party somewhere - New Orleans? Wedding somewhere - Jamaica? Love me some travel.
Jesus, you people without kids get around. The only two getaways I have planned this year are both in July. First, I'll be road tripping with my wife and daughter up to Ottawa for July 1st weekend. My wife's grandmother (who I like very much) lives there and usually I'm not too thrilled since that city sort of sucks balls, but I guess the town bumps on this weekend. Plus, it's next to Quebec which means a very inexpensive premium beer fill-up at Costco. Win-win. Keeping with tradition, we'll be also going with our friends to their cottage for a week in mid-July, immedietly following their wedding. Their daughter is the same age as ours (we met them because we both had 3-month premature babies in the NICU together) and they're best friends, so that also works out great. Not a spectacular-sounding trip to most of you, but I absolutely love it and look forward to it all year. It's just a week of relaxing in the sun, drinking lots of beer, playing good reggae, firing up meat on the barbecue, and no worries at all. An ideal Canadian holiday if you ask me.
Well, I'm either spending a month solo travelling around South America followed by a fortnight in Vegas and New York, or staying home with a busted knee and a calamitous degree of rage. Two pieces of advice: once you have paid any money for a trip (airfares etc) buy your travel insurance immediately. If bad shit happens (leg breaks, grandparents die, etc), having that early travel insurance will save you a lot of money and some heartache. And two: don't drunkenly wrestle with friends 2 months before your flight leaves. Take my word for it.
I'll spend some time in South Carolina and potentially Ohio. I cannot wait to do my own barbecues and enjoy the culinary delights of one of the fattest states in the fattest country on Earth. I'm planning a road trip to Charleston to visit some cousins, fish and have some seafood. Any three day weekend I spend in the US will be spent on a Harley or at the range drooling over a G-36 that I can barely afford to shoot, much less own. After that, I'm either moving to Australia, Brazil or Korea for the next year or two depending on where I can find a job. Also, this: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.blueridgebbqfestival.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.blueridgebbqfestival.com/</a>
If everything goes according to plan, I'll take Li'l Bandit back to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, as well as seeing some other Texas monuments/sites along the way. This is the best picture I could find, but trust me, it's awesome!
I hate the summer. Impossible to get time off due to how busy work is, so all my holidays happen at the beginning and the end of the year. This year I have done 3 weeks in China in March, and in November I will head over to Manilla for a week and then Japan for a week. Next month will be a 5 day long-weekend to Barcelona, and maybe a few weekends away sometime.
I've recently posted in the World Travel Thread, but I'll repeat here. My girlfriend and I are going to an adults-only all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic in mid-July. By going through a travel-agent friend of hers, I think we got a great deal. The resort ranks in the top quarter of hotels in Punta Cana, and in addition to airfare, meals, and alcohol included, we somehow scored the "platinum" package which includes a bottle of rum, cigars, and 50% off all spa treatments. It's only costing me about 1100 before excursions, so I feel I got a steal. I'm really, really excited because other than weekend getaways, I haven't gone on a vacation since 2004. ALT FOCUS: Most of my vacations have been with immediate family. A lot of them have been of the sort where we go to a city with a lot to do and we have different activities every day. My favorites, though, have been where my entire family on my dad's side goes to Oglebay in Wheeling, WV. Other than my grandparents' place in Akron, I think Oglebay is the only place where all of us have been together, so it's special to all of us. It's an excellent family resort tucked in the woods and hills, and a must if you are a golfer. I've spent multiple summer vacations, weekend getaways, and a Thanksgiving there with that wing of the family.
Focus: I'm going with my brother and parents to Monterrey, CA for the Moto GP in late July. After they leave I'm going to spend a few extra days there and hang around San Francisco and go to Napa with my cousin. The only other trip I have planned is to go with my dad to Austin to see my crazy grandmother. Other than that I'll probably just go camping a few times and go to Fort Collins to hang and drink with my cousins.
Let's see, the children and Mrs. Noland are at the day camp run by school for all of June. Then the oldest goes to summer camp for all of July while Mrs. Noland and the other two will be at her parent's place in North Carolina for that month with a side trip to DC to visit her grandmother and Philadelphia to visit her aunt and uncle. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Notice anyone lacking from those excursions?
Our vacations aren't always in the summer. Last month we spent a week in D.C., and had a fantastic time. If you are American, visiting the nation's capitol should be mandatory. If you aren't American it's still pretty cool. More on topic, I am trying to plan a week in August for Acadia/Bar Harbor. The scenery there is incredible, and it's almost worth the trip for the lobster and micro-brews alone. Work obligations may prevent us from going, but I'm making plans anyway. Alt focus: Growing up, our vacations were pedestrian, but devoid of notable horrific events. I've been on some shitty vacations with the Misanthropic, however. The worst was back in 2005 at Lake George. It rained almost all week, and were stuck in a cabin with a hyper 18 month old most of the time. When I say it rained, I mean it RAINED: - It rained so much that the water level in the lake rose 1-2 feet, covering the dock and inundating most of the beach - It rained so much that this happened http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-109973208.html - It rained so much that it swept away houses and people http://www.stcplanning.org/usr/Program_Areas/Flood_Mitigation/STC_Historic_Floods.pdf. Scroll down to June 2005. What isn't mentioned here is that at least two people were swept away and never found.
The part about European hostels and the immune system pretty much explains my plans, at least some of them, in June I'm spending a week in Pisa/Florence with a couple of my friends. Yesterday, I quit my job to focus on writing my M.A. dissertation, which I have to finish by September. So apart from those two things I haven't anything planned yet. Although I have been invited by a chick to visit her in the U.K. Yep, that pretty much sums up my plans for this summer.
In June I'll be going to Iowa for what promises to be the most boring wedding I've ever attended(does fun even exist in Iowa?). No booze allowed because the groom crashed his car drunk driving when he was 17, so I'm leaving with some people shortly after the after-party to hit up the Indian reservation casinos. In July I'm visiting New York, and hopefully move up shortly thereafter as I'll be mixing business with pleasure and applying for a few jobs as well as meeting some friends and hitting all the touristy/night life areas for NYC and Albany. Other than that, nothing terrible exciting. At least I'll be getting out of this damn Florida summer for a little while (hopefully permanently). Edit: I know we have a lot of New Yorkers on this board. If there's any must see spots I might not know about please send me a rep, or pm.
I'm broke as hell, so my vacation will be pretty local this year. My kiddies go back and forth between their dad and I for a week at a time in the summer, so I've booked vacation for one week when I have the Auto Tots, which will consist of beaches and picnics and the carnival, and 1 week when I don't have them, which will consist largely of a camping fetish event.
My vacation card is starting on Sunday headed to Catalina on a sailboat with a bunch of tanks, some spear guns and very bad intentions, then a turkey hunt at the end of May. In June I am headed back to the Sea of Cortez for a week on a mothership, putting the wood to some fish, followed by some marlin fishing in July in Cabo and finally in August going to chase some tuna around in the Pacific. I need to figure out somewhere to go with my wife as she is on none of those trips.
Since I was on deployment last year, all my vacation days from last year have been pushed till this year, meaning I have about 3 months of paid vacation in total*. Most of which I will be taking out this summer. Will be spending most of that time in Gothenburg, Sweden and the general West Coast. I have nothing specific planned, which is exactly how I like it. However I have some general ideas: -Attending the various and great concerts in Gothenburg. No idea who's playing this year, but I have never been disappointed -Lounging around on some cliffs and drinking beer -A shorter trip to London/Leicester to catch up with old friends -Booze runs to Germany / Denmark -Sailing around the west coast archipelago Should be good. *Most of that due to the insane amount of time we spent on field exercises leading up to the deployment (=more paid vacation).