Best vacation you've ever been on.........stories please. I like to live vicariously through others travel experiences. Just had some friends come back from Tuscany, Lake Como, Venice....Paris. She shared all their wonderfrul stories and it was great.
OR
Plans for an upcoming awesome vacation.
That's not an easy one to choose. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Hungary, touring around Budapest and the surrounding villages. Eating at the King's Castle, while listening to a fine gypsy orchestra playing traditional songs. It was still under Russian occupation, so the selection of food was limited, but the music and the wine from Lake Balaton made it all worthwhile.
And then there was the trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the National Art Gallery and the Smithsonian. Fascinating, but not enough time to really explore.
Does this whet your appetite for travel, P.C.?
The Smithsonian has always been on the top of my list for places I'd like to go. (I have the appetite to travel.....I'm just chicken. Hub always tries to come up with new plans to get me on a plane. He would love to take me to Europe. As soon as we can afford to cruise there, I'm in.)
I love flying. I would like to do more travelling, if I get the chance. (and win a lottery!)
Oh I've got lots
I'll start with the 'big trip'
We just got a mini van. First real 'vacation' car we ever had. So we decided to see the country!
We went through Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvannia, Maryland, Delaware, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and east coast of Florida before visiting grandma.
We first went to Indy and took a tour of the race track. wow huge!
Dad took forever at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, we got stuck in traffic to go under the tunnel into Windsor at a Ribs and Soul festival. We drove through the night and got to Niagra Falls at midnight. It just happened to be my birthday, I spent it in Canada! woot! We visited everything at the falls. I got a canadian flag hockey puck (which I'm looking at right now on my desk) and a flag. Then we went to Cooperstown in Upstate New York to the MLB baseball hall of fame for a day.
Then in 1 day
We drove to New York went to Ellis Island, took the audio tour, went to the statue of Liberty. Then we got into the van, drove to Phili visited the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall. Then we got into the car again and drove to D.C. The next day we went to the white house. (we went back the next year to D.C. and did everything else and late in the afternoon we were in the same senate train car as John Kerry, just my family and him, that was really cool.)
Then we drove through Virginia stopped at Williamsburg an old colonial village. (the next year we went to Jamestown)
Then we drove in one night from Virginia to South Carolina. I was in charge of keeping dad awake by just talking. (I wasn't old enough to drive yet). The Shenadoah mountains are really cool in Virginia. Went through the mountains there.
Oh this trip was summer of '99. It took place at the same time jfk jr. died in a plane crash. We were having so much fun we never turned on the tv until a lady outside of a mom and pop hotel we were staying at in rural upstate new york told us the news. We were like 'what news?'.
That's the 'big' vacation. I've got the Boston trip (which was the last family vacation we've had) then trips to Colorado.
Boston Vacation.
Summer of '02.
We had a wedding to go to back in Ohio (cousin). The wedding 2 days after my 16th birthday so I was able to drive alone for the first time. (I drove to school 60 miles a day in heavy interstate traffic since I was 15 so it really wasn't a big deal). But this was the first vacation when I was able to drive. My dad usually does all the driving and then when he sleeps mom drives and she gets us no where, she's always lost and she stinks at driving. So dad went to sleep in the back in Illinois (as usual) I got to drive. When he woke up we were in Ohio. :) lol. So from then on I did most of the bulk of the driving. Well I got to meet my grandma's sister. She's polar opposites of my grandma. She was super happy and had a super outlook on life. While my grandma is the polar opposite. lol.
Anyway I drove from Ohio to Mass. then into Boston. Spent a couple days in Boston seeing the sites. Beacon Hill and even went to Red Sox game at Fenway. We lucked out, it was a double header that day so the good seats were still available. Well we were really lucky. We got 3rd row seats behind the plate. LOL
Red Sox ended up winning 16 to 2. lol nice.
Visited all the old colonial places in Boston, amazing town but a pain to drive in.
Then we went to Cape Cod for a couple days. We biked up and down Cape Cod, visited this awesome ice cream place in Orleans. Saw the Kennedy Compound and overall had an awesome relaxing vacation.
Then we went to New York city and got on the Today show. Then after the show the anchors come around and talk to everyone take pictures etc. Well my dad was on the phone with my uncle who was with my grandma in florida. (she just had lung surgery, black lung disease from coal mines in poland)
Well Soledad O'brien comes over and my dad was like "hey Soledad my brother is a big fan" and they talk on the phone for 5 mins! lol! We got a picture and everything. I'll never forget that. lol
We went to the Empire State building. Overall I'm not a fan of NYC, its buildings are too 1920's and bleak. I prefer Boston and then Chicago.
I bet you did ok on those essays we all had to write every September....How I Spent My Summer Vacation....lol
Sounds like excellent journeys SD.
lol they were a blast. I've got tons more from when I was a little kid. Nothing beats driving to the destination though. Flying doesn't do a place justice unless there's something really exciting on the other end (school in my case) to a place you've never been. From my experiences of flying to places you've never been to, flying tends to get your head in a tailspin. While driving slows everything down. For example when I flew to Seattle, that whole week was just a blur, I got the feeling of looking through a telescope at a world I didn't know. I didn't get familiar with things that you would when driving.
I never had those 'what did you do during the summer' essays. lol
Somehow I never figured out how to drive to Hungary. LOL! But I was with a friend who drove down to Washington, D.C. I've also driven to California and Mexico, and back through Nevada to Washington. Beautiful scenery.
well it takes a while for everything to soak in I guess. When you fly to a place you've never been, it sort of hits you all at once and you go into auto pilot mode. At least that's what I do. Plus I was driven everywhere and didn't have a map. Gave me headaches, I like to know where I am.
For Europe, I've got to think train is the best way. That's how I'm going to do it anyway.
I like road trips too. Lots to see, lots to do. But it is rather limiting, and often impractical unless you have all the time in the world.
.....and driving to Europe is tricky.
I meant flying to Europe then doing everything by train. lol
As soon as they build a train to Europe.....I'm on it.
haha. What's your fear P.C. is it the airport? the take off or landing?
I love flying but I hate certain airports. Lambert (the airport here) is loud, and all metal looking and you feel like your in a cage. To me the more the airport looks and feels like something that doesn't feel like your in an airport hanger, the better.
take the cruise from Miami to the Mediterranean when the cruise lines are repositioning their ships around May each year......its around $1500 for a 17 day cruise, then travel around Europe by train....need to fly back from London though.
My fiance's grandma treated us to a trip to Harrison where we stayed at this place near the beach. This was my first "real" vacation. We enjoyed our evenings playing on the beach with other people. We played all the old games such as duck duck goose, some sort of tag/freeze game, hacky sack, etc. We also went to the springs. (my first time again)
It was the BEST vacation and most relaxnig.
I can't wait to do other things like go camping.
camping rules
take the cruise from Miami to the Mediterranean when the cruise lines are repositioning their ships around May each year......its around $1500 for a 17 day cruise, then travel around Europe by train....need to fly back from London though.
This sounds interesting 49er. How come you need to fly back? This won't work....lol but the rest sounds good.
SD...I'm really not afraid of flying.....I love the sensation of take off and landing......it's the clausterphobic atmosphere and the abrupt unscheduled 'landings'.[/DIV]
ah, I see. I've never had any abrupt landings. Then again my family did when I was a toddler flying TWA, but that was like the worst airline on the planet. Engines fell from the sky a few times and landed in Forest Park once. lol
They're long gone anyway. phew.
I like road trips. We went to Barkerville a few years ago. That was a hoot.
I also like car camping, as long as we're stopped in one place for a couple days at a time.
Never been backpack camping with Heckyl and Jeckyl yet. They could probably manage now.
I haven't travelled off the continent for years. Just interior BC, Island, Seattle and Cali.
I've always wanted to go back and see Barkerville. I wonder how much it's changed. Haven't been there since I was a kid. But I remember thinking it was pretty cool back then. I think we camped somewhere called Inkameep or Imkaneep or something like that.
what's Barkerville?
Hmmm. There's an "Inkameep" (currently spelled Nk'Mip) campground on the lake in Osoyoos. Owned by the Nk'Mip band. They also have desert tours and a winery.
Barkerville is EXACTLY the same. The kids loved it. I thought it was the GREATEST PLACE EVER as a kid, but it was ho hum as an adult. (in the same way that Xmas and BDays are so much more when you're a kid...)
[a href="vny!://www.barkerville.ca/"]vny!://www.barkerville.ca/[/a]
oh cool ghost town
P.C.- some of the old "hotels" in Barkerville are now open as historic B&Bs. You might like that- with all the antique furnishings. Personally, I found the idea of sleeping in a ghost town museum a little spooky- we stayed in a normal hotel in Quesnel.
After that, we stayed on a buffalo ranch in Clearwater before going home. THAT was awesome. There are B&B rooms and a campground.
[a href="vny!://www.buffaloranch.ca/"]vny!://www.buffaloranch.ca/[/a]
Barkerville! I think I was 5 or 6 when we took that trip... I vaguely remember standing at the 'gold trough?' panning... I think I still have that pan...
I'm thinking BC Tourism needs to get on the ball with their websites.
I just spent half an hour looking up maps to various places, and found the results to be pretty useless. You shouldn't need to hit page 3 on a google search to find a map of the place you're searching. This is the map of Barkerville after a half hour search.
[INPUT id=multimap title="Click map to zoom" style="WIDTH: 494px; HEIGHT: 257px" type=image alt=Map src="vny!://mc.multimap.com/cs/mi30//M-5/Y27/M-54108Y27856S25W700H400.gif?pdel_id=20070613202449769&service_seq=2585" size=12 name=multimap]
Then there's the informative 'Map' called Mile by Mile......which I though would be perfect. It basically is a list in text of how to get somewhere. This is not a map ! There were 'helpful' links to expand the 'map' for various points along the way. This is an example of the highway to Barkerville. I don't know about anybody else, but I know for me personally, I would probably get lost using this 'map'.
[img alt="Highway Photo: View from highway" src="vny!://www.milebymile.com/hwy_item_images/photo_CA_BC_26_39819_7348.jpg" width=400 align=center]
My best vacation was spending a few weeks with my relatives in Scotland. They taught me how to drink, so I was prepared for university!
I guess the next best holiday would have been Cancun at Spring Break during university. Oh I fell in love with a girl that first night of the week...then a different girl the second night...etc...I love Cancun's sandy beaches. omg that was nice!!
That sounds wonderful Devil.
You know, I wonder if we 'romanticize' vacations we had as kids, because we're seeing everything through fresh eyes.....without the jaded opinions we develop as we get older.
Things never seem to be the same when we revisit. (aside from the normal growth and 'progress')
Guess it just goes to show you, we need to appreciate everything the first time around.....as it will never be the same again.
OMG! P.C.!
That is so true. Went back to Cancun a few years later...a little older...and it was a different vibe, and universe. Was more interested in venturing out to see the Mayan Ruins and quiet beaches. Wasn't sucking tequila out of a "girl I never met before"'s naval!
Most places I've revisited have never felt the same......they ARE the same for the most part.....but WE don't stay the same. I guess that's why they say 'Life's not a dress rehearsal'. Pay attention and enjoy the first times in everything.
That's true P.C. I used to love going down to Florida when I was a kid. Now I can't stand the place. I only see everything that's wrong with it and not the good. In Florida that's really easy to do though.
Looks like Florida is where Canada is heading, socially. Middle class will be something taught in history class.
I can tell you a lot of bad things about Canada too, but I think overall, you will love the Island, and you will discover the good and bad for yourself. Some things about Canada make me want to gouge my eyes out, but there is a ton of good too!
Best of luck holmes!