We Need The Real Thing
IN AN ACT OF SELF-PRESERVATION I have decided to start thinking about where, when, and how Dawn and I might squeeze out some vacation time this Summer.
It has been a while since our last true vacation. Our last vacation was a real doozy to be sure – seven weeks in Ireland, but that was then and this is now.
I know – it seems like we have been going to and from Texas every other day, but those trips don’t qualify as vacations. Those are family visits. I’m not complaining. They are all wonderful people, but visiting with Family is no vacation. We need the real thing.
Nashville
My Brother-in-law and his wife are going to be soon going off to Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a well deserved vacation. I’m sure that they will enjoy themselves, but a trip like that just isn’t my cup of tea. I want something a little more restful. A short coma perhaps.
In late June, my wife, the lovely and officially sanctioned, Dawn, and I will be going off to San Diego for about a week. Nice, but not a real vacation. We will be attending our Church’s Annual Meeting. Dawn will be there in her official capacity and role as an ordained minister. I will be there as – well, I used to say as “Arm Candy” but with the encroaching effects of time I am now more accurately being called her “Arm Brussels Sprouts.” This will be my first visit to California since I fled the Organized Insanity that is The Golden State.
San Diego
While I am sure that we will have a good time seeing old friends and making new ones, it will not really be a vacation. It will be warm, with good food, and a lot of free time, so, it will be wonderful, but still…
I’m thinking of some time together when we will have no responsibilities, obligations, or duties – kind of like being a three year old, only with alcohol.
We have both put on our thinking caps and I know that we will come up with something. It doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive, or even that far from home, We have had some wonderful short vacations just an hour’s drive from Terre Haute (That’s French for, “I thought I packed socks,”). We know of a very nice hotel in Bloomington, Indiana where we can hole up, surfacing only to hit the bookstores and maybe catch a show at the Indiana University. Our little Hoosier Hideaway.
Of course, we would love to return to Ireland for one more visit. We’ve been there four times
and would like to make it five. The only thing in the way is the expense. We like to go there for at least two to three weeks at a time and rent a house rather than do the Bed And Breakfast routine. B&Bs are fine, but they get tiring after a few days – getting up early and living out of a suitcase. By renting a house we have the luxury of choice – get up and take day trip around the country or get up and spend the day in our jammies watching TV. Options are the luxuries we love.
The big expense is the airfare. So, unless we can hit the lottery or you send us cash in unmarked bills with no strings attached it may be awhile before we get back to Ireland.
When it comes to a real vacation this year I am afraid we may be restricted to Ritz Crackers, cheese in a can, and Netflix.
Whee!
Down the Hall on Your Left 