Flashback Friday - Summer Vacations

Last Monday Hubby, the Munchkin and I went on a "staycation" - to the Seneca Park Zoo. Actually we became zoo members - so return trips are planned (it is only about 20 minutes away).

This got me reminiscing about summer vacations as a child...

Jones Beach on Long Island with the cousins during our summer visit to the grandparents (yes, that's me in the orange suit with my cousin Liz, who I idolized. I always thought she was so gorgeous and glamorous!!!)

Camping in the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon (with the ginormous Daddy Long Legs in the bathrooms)

Cooperstown

Cape Cod

...I think I had the advantage being the youngest, because as the older siblings married and moved out and went to far flung states, our vacations became longer as we journeyed to see them, and took in the sites along the way...

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and other assorted Civil War sites.

Washington, DC

Cherokee, NC

just to name a few.

So many of these photos are in boxes here, there and everywhere - but there are still images that I remember even without the photos.

• Cindy with a Life Saver shaped frisbee full of Hermit Crabs in Cape Cod.
• Getting a hole in one at mini-golf in Cape Cod and winning a free game (yup, me - the non-golfer!)
• Eating fudge in Harper's Ferry and looking for old fashioned buttons for my brother's button up "braces" (suspenders)
• The country store near Shenandoah Caverns in Virginia.
• Stubbing my toe badly on the way from the parking lot TO Jones Beach and having to wear my sneakers the entire time to protect it.
• Hunting Island, SC with the sand dollars under your toes, the fish tickling your legs, and the long long shallow surf to walk out before it ever dropped off or got over your head.

...I can't wait to take the Munchkin along to some of these same places - knowing that they will be different but still looking for that little bit of familiar - and I am looking forward to mapping out some new destinations, too.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

To start off the summer, I managed to schedule three glorious vacation days to myself - Hubby at work, the Munchkin at daycare - to get some big projects done around the house and to recharge my batteries. Don't get me wrong - the Munchkin is getting to be very helpful, and Hubby is a great help, too - but sometimes there is a lot to be said for working at your own pace and not having to worry about anyone else. Hubby sometimes says he gets "in the zone" - I think I was in the zone the past few days.

The first two days were glorious weather wise. I spent the majority of both days outside - mowing, trimming, weeding, installing an arbor (found one of the last ones in stock in the area - gotta love seasonal merchandise), mulching, planting, watering... I know it sounds like work - but to me it was divine - I had my hands in the dirt, the sound of the birds and squirrels, the wind in the trees. Ahhh. I don't have any pictures of my new flower bed (yes, I dug up sod, too) or anything else as it is hard to handle the camera with dirty grubby hands, but here is one of my two new arbors. This is the one we got a few weeks ago that the Munchkin calls the "plant playground." No plants are playing on it just yet, but I have a climbing rose all ready to be transplanted there in my next chunk of free time.

The second arbor has replaced the old cheapo wire one that is in the background of this photo between the arborvitae and the blue spruce. It matches the first one. Hubby assembled the first one a few weeks ago, then told me I should get another one (yeah!) - I assembled that one. Our plan is to use some edging to create a grass path between the front yard and back yard through the arbors, and extend the garden to the path on the one side and add more beds and an ornamental tree on the other side (where you see lawn now). It is a long term project but we grabbed the arbors while we had the chance.

Today is the third and last day of my "vacation" although I am off until next Tuesday and will have a great 4 day weekend with Hubby and the Munchkin. The weather today is cloudy and rainy, and we have 35 people expected here tomorrow for a picnic so I am working on cooking the pulled pork, cleaning the bathrooms, and doing laundry. Not as fun as the past two days, but necessary...

I hope to get the bulk of that done this morning and do some sewing on the wedding quilt this afternoon. I am back to the point at which everything came crashing down last time, and am glad to say that it looks like we are on track this time around.

Wishing all my fellow Americans a Happy Fourth of July.