You Call That A Vacation?

Irv saw a big travel trailer in a neighbor's driveway this week. He mentioned how great it would be to vacation in one of those....just us and "the girls". He said it would be cheap because we wouldn't need a hotel. We could just go to campsites. Maybe we could go to Minnesota. It also wouldn't cost much for food, because we would be able to cook our own in the travel trailer. We wouldn't have to get anyone to watch the dogs. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

I explained that I LOVE eating at restaurants on vacation. I LOVE staying at hotels on vacation. I LOVE not having to let dogs out when I'm on vacation. I LOVE not worrying about what the dogs might be chewing up when I'm on vacation.

I really don't want to cook, or clean up or walk dogs if I'm on vacation....that wouldn't be a vacation at all. In fact, I would NEED a vacation after that vacation. :)

In all honesty, one of my dreams is to own a travel trailer...not a gigantic one, but a big enough one that I could still drive....and take a couple of months and just drive all over this wonderful country of ours. No real plan....just drive and stop wherever we want to. We could visit places we've never been, and visit our favorite places. We could stop and visit people or not visit people if we don't feel like it. Just drive and sight see. Wouldn't that be just awesome? I might even consider taking the dogs with on that kind of trip.

How about you? What kind of vacation are you dreaming of?

Kayaking the Crystal River

We had a wonderful three hour paddle down the Crystal River on vacation last week. The river was so clear that even when it was 4 or 5 feet deep...you could see every little pebble on the bottom.
The beginning of the trip was very narrow and very winding. Irv laughed until he cried as I tried to get my bearings. I would crash into branches on one side, over compensate and crash into branches on the other side. I had to duck under things and put my paddle up to keep myself from smacking into other things while Irv paddled along gracefully behind me laughing his butt off.

It was actually a bit frustrating. Granted, we only kayak once a year, and we are normally on a big straight river where you don't have to worry about crashing into things...but I am pretty good at this and I was having a hell of a time.

Then I realized what the problem was. I just wasn't paying attention to the kayaking, because I was so in awe of the water and my surroundings. Once I reminded myself that I had to paddle and pay attention to the winding river, I was fine.

The website for Crystal River Outfitters didn't say that we were going to have to portage (carry our kayaks across roads) three times during our trip. We really try to avoid that when we kayak because Irv has a very bad hip, and it is very difficult for him to get in and out of the kayak to start and finish...much less three more times....but we managed and still had a wonderful time.

This dam was the reason for the first portage.

Irv just cruisin' along.....

Can you see how clear the water is in this picture? So beautiful. Our rivers here are muddy and pretty dirty for the most part. This was such a treat!

I think the best part of the trip was when Irv went around a bend and I hung back trying to take some pictures. It's hard taking pictures on a river. You want to stop, but the current keeps you moving. Anyway, I had pulled toward the shore to take a picture when I heard a big splash! I looked across to the other side and there was a deer leaping to and fro in the tall grass along the shore. It seems that Irv had pulled his kayak over to shore when he got around the bend, and startled the deer. He never got to see it, but I sure did. It was so awesome!






I had so many dragonflies hitch a ride on my bright yellow kayak. Every time I would try to grab my camera to take a picture, they would fly away. It took a while to get this shot. Most of them were this smaller black and blue variety.


The current zoomed me past this dead stump, but I managed to paddle myself back so I could get this picture. I thought it was so awesome!

At the beginning of our trip, we let this couple pass us. I really didn't want company on my journey and I really like to go slow and look for wildlife...so anyway...we let them pass. Toward the end of the trip we came upon them again. It seems at one of the portages, they attempted to pull out in the wrong spot. The husband tipped and got caught in a small whirlpool near a drainage pipe. He wasn't able to flip his kayak back over needless to say because it was filled with water, so he walked it the rest of the way.

When we met up with them, there were other kayakers and they helped him pull his kayak up onto a pier and tip it to get the water out. I talked to his wife and she said it was pretty scary. She said he seemed okay, but they were going to find a doctor to have him checked out. I felt so bad for them. Irv and I both noticed that when he was walking his kayak over to the pier he seemed very frightened when the water got deep....we are thinking maybe he didn't know how to swim. The river was probably 5 feet at it's deepest, but if you can't swim....even that would be terrifying.

The people at Crystal River Outfitters were just awesome. Such great service! They even had a nice little shop where I bought a darling little t-shirt type dress. They recommended the sandwich shop next door where we had fabulous subs...one of the best I've ever had.

I even bought a couple of stickers in their shop that say, "Life Is Good"....because it sure is!

Traverse City Here We Come

Everything is packed.....even a swimsuit! HAHA! I can't tell you the last time I had it on, but you never know. There is a pool at the hotel.....I don't think the lake will be even remotely close to being warm enough for me!

The snacks are all in the fridge waiting to be thrown in the cooler in the morning. The dogs got baths. The dog/house sitters are all set. The camera batteries are all charged up and ready to go. The alarm is set for 4:00 a.m........yes, 4:00 a.m......we want to get through Chicago before everyone else wants to get through Chicago and our reservations are made for a two hour cruise on the Manitou and our 3 hour kayak trip down the Crystal River! Vacation time is here and I am so excited.

The weather is suppose to be nasty tomorrow for the drive, but we really aren't in any hurry and hopefully it won't be crappy all day. The next three days look wonderful!

I told Irv I was leaving the computer home and get this........he said to bring it in case we want to look something up! So, the laptop will be coming with, but I don't anticipate being on it much.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and I will be back soon with pictures and stories to share.

It's Time!!

I'm making a list and checking it twice......gonna make sure I don't forget anything when we leave on our mini vacation to Traverse City on Wednesday. Irv is running some last minute errands, laundry is just about done, house/dog sitter is lined up and we are counting the hours.

I've been weather watching and right now it looks like a stormy day Wednesday for the drive up, but then a couple days of partial sun and cooler temps which is exactly how I like it.

Tomorrow I will call and make our kayaking reservations and also the ones for our ride on the tall ship. I think there will be enough nice weather for that....and probably the dunes and the scenic drive up the peninsula. I am so excited!

I haven't decided whether the laptop is joining us on our little trip. If you don't hear from me for a number of days.....you will know it decided to stay home!

Have a great rest of the day and I'll chat with you soon!

Visions of Vacation Danced In Her Head

Uncle Sam is giving us back some of our hard earned money this year. We are getting a tax refund. Chee Hoo! It isn't as much as we usually get, but it is better than nothing and even better than giving him more! I'm glad we had already decided to do a mini-vacation this year. We were thinking a long weekend would be great. Nothing too far away...just a chance to get away and relax for a few days.....by the water....somewhere. Maybe a day off here and there to just go some place and have some fun. A day at the zoo, a day by the lake, a day kayaking.....Then the rest of the money could be used to help pay for my treadmill or the computer.

Now I can start really looking around for a place. Nothing extravagant...just something where we could spend some time walking, kayaking, enjoying nature and some precious time together. I am really excited. I look forward to vacation so much. I love hopping in the car and just driving off to wherever. I don't think the "where" even matters very much...I just like the change of scene. Where I live there isn't a whole lot to look at. Sure we have our parks and conservation areas, but it isn't the same.

We also won't be staying at some darling little place on the beach. We will probably look for a nice inexpensive hotel where we can just get up, go have breakfast and head out to explore. Man, this is really giving me spring fever....visions of sun and grass and flowers and water....those of you that are still ankle deep in snow....can you feel it?

Summertime and The Livin' Is Easy......

It has been SOOOO freakin' cold here again that I thought today would be a great day to talk about VACATIONS!!

Those of you that have followed my blog for a while know that 1) I LOVE my vacations 2) We usually vacation in Colorado because we LOVE it there and our youngest son, Matt lives there and 3) We only get to take a vacation if we get a refund on our income taxes.

Our taxes went to our tax guy yesterday. If all goes well, he will call me in a week or so and say, "Kathy, you get to go on vacation this year!" and that is what makes this time of year tolerable. I can sit on the internet and figure out where I want to go spend my well earned days off.

This year instead of going to the mountains of Colorado, I think we might take a couple of long weekends and spend some time by the lake....the big lake....as in Michigan. Matt will be coming home for a few days in October to run the Chicago Marathon, so we thought this would be a good year to try something different. If he wasn't coming home....I would be headed to Colorado!

We have looked at a couple of places including the New Buffalo area of Michigan. Lots of cute restaurants, parks, beaches, kayaking and antique shops.

We also LOVE Door County in Wisconsin and have been there a couple of times. It's also on the water, really cute little towns, very artsy craftsy, good food, nice hiking and beautiful scenery.

Closer to home is Starved Rock. We've never stayed overnight there, but have gone there to see the Bald Eagles that hang out along the shores of the Illinois River. We've also kayaked down there a couple of times.

Photo from the Starved Rock Website

All great options and just the thought of sunshine, blue skies and sparkling water warms my heart and will help me get throught this miserably cold weather. So, be kind Mr. Tax Man....and give me some of my money back. I need a break! :)

What kind of vacations do you like?

It's Tax Time

Oh joy! See this mess.....this is the exact reason I am trying to get more organized this year. I refuse to do this again. I already have my new checking account with debit cards for me and Irv so all of my business expenses will be in one place. Well, they were in one place this year...

See that nice blue book that says Monthly Bookkeeping on the front. I bought that book in January of 2009. I bought it so I could keep a nice record of my spending for my business.

See the blank pages? Yep! I never entered a single thing!

Well, my expenses were all in one place though. The receipts were shoved in between the pages of the nice blue book. No, not in the proper month....all just shoved in there so I wouldn't lose them!

So now I get to sit and sort all of the receipts into little piles for Joann's, Hancock Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, Menards, the resale shops and the Post Office. Then I get to sit and tally it all up. Once I have the totals, I will put it all on a spreadsheet of sorts and it will go to our tax guy with our personal tax stuff. Then we sit and wait for the news.

Why am I in such a hurry to do my taxes? Because IF we get any money back...that determines IF we get to go on vacation this summer....and I love vacation and I want to know ASAP if we get to go so I can start planning.

Last year we were out shopping when our tax guy called. He said, "Well, you are going on vacation." I asked, "Are we going to Hawaii, Colorado or Wisconsin?" He said, "Colorado," and that was just fine with me!

This Girl Just Wants to Have Fun

Irv and I were on our way home from the grocery store this weekend and I asked him so innocently, "Where do you want to go on vacation next year?"

He looked at me like I had a big extra eye on my forehead or something and yelled "Are you crazy? Can't we get through the craft shows first before we start worrying about vacation?"

"I just like to think about it," I answered in my cutest little girl voice.

"Well, I'm not ready to think about it yet!" he bellowed, rattling the windows in my little Prius.

Maybe that isn't exactly how the conversation went, but it was something like that. :)

I LOVE planning vacations. I love researching different areas on line and trying to find cool things to do. We only get to go on vacation if we get a tax refund, so I try not to get too excited about it until I know it's a go.

Our tax guy knows that is what we do, so when he finished our taxes last year and called us, he said, "Well, you are going on vacation." I asked, "In Illinois, Colorado or Hawaii?" He said, "Colorado." That was fine with me!

We have vacationed in Colorado a couple of times now, and I do love it there and I love seeing Matt, but I am thinking it's time for a little change next year. I'm thinking we should try the northeast! We've never been there.

I looked up a lot of stuff about it a few years ago and then we didn't go, but I remember wanting to venture into Canada, see Niagara Falls and go whale watching....but I think that was as far as I got.

Do you live out east? Have you vacationed out east? Any suggestions as to where we should go and what we should see? We would go in late June or early July. I don't eat fish and I don't lay on the beach....any other suggestions would be great!!

OH HAPPY DAY!!!

Well, the dermatologist's office called late this afternoon to tell me that my biopsy was normal. I can't even begin to tell you how awesome I feel right now! Even a big CHEE HOO doesn't seem like enough. Thank you everyone for all of the positive thoughts and kind words. It was so appreciated. Now on to today's post.....

My 26 year old son, Matt, is on a six week road trip with his friend Chris. (They are both teachers) They are on the final leg of their adventure and will be back in Telluride later this week. They drove out to California, up the coast and are currently in Oregon. They took Matt's SUV and it was jam packed with camping equipment, climbing gear, bicycles, a surf board, kayaks, clothes, food and three large dogs. No, I am NOT kidding. Chris's sister even joined them last week for the rest of the trip!

They had no set schedule, just people they wanted to stop and visit and places they wanted to go. I will share pictures and videos with you as soon as I get some.

So, my question is this.....if you had six weeks and a car...where would you go? And no, you cannot say that you would drive to the airport and fly off to some exotic destination. You have to drive!

I know that I would head west. I would take the southern route through New Mexico and Arizona, drive up the California coast to Washington and then take the northern route home. I would stop wherever and whenever I wanted to. I would take side roads and just drive. How awesome would that be.....oh, and MY dogs would stay home.

Now it's your turn....six weeks and a car....where do you go?

Scenes of Telluride

I still have quite a few Telluride vacation pictures to share with you. So here is another batch!

Telluride is a "wee bit" Liberal

This sign is on an old run down building in town.

I thought this one was kind of funny.

This shop owner wants her store to look like every other one, so she has her own "dog" complete with water bowl outside her front door.

I loved this one! (I think there was only one door)

The grade school where Matt teaches. Isn't it beautiful?

The staircase when you walk into Matt's school. So old and so awesome!

Matt's classroom door. Can you tell how proud we are? :)
Popular coffee shop....in a trailer right in town

There was an "open air" art festival going on when we were there. You would see artists with their easels all over the streets and sidewalks, painting the shops, the mountains, the houses....whatever they felt like painting. One of them painted a picture of Matt's house. The paintings were then sold at the Farmer's Market the next weekend. It was awesome to see their work.

This is the river that runs through the town. It's really pretty and is used for water activities like tubing and kayaking.

The little "fast food" type restaurants have laminated menus where you just use a dry erase marker the check what you want. You hand it to them and they fix it up for you. I actually had one of the best salads I've ever had at this little place.

This is the house that Matt and his friends rent. It's been sold and will be torn down so a new house can be built. It looks so cute from the outside, but oh my.....tearing it down is the right thing to do. The bathroom ceiling looks like it's about to fall in any minute and there is a big hole....no lie...in the living room floor!

Here are some of the houses I liked in Telluride. Now, the house Matt lives in just sold for $1.5 million dollars. Yes, that is correct. It's the property that is so valuable. Can you imagine what some of these go for?

This is such a cute block

Isn't this something? Matt hates it...I thought it was charming.Well, that's it for now. It's 1:30 and I haven't made it to my workshop yet. I went to about 7 garage sales and found some neat stuff and then hit the jackpot at one of my favorite resale shops because everything was 50% off! Went to Joann Fabrics and bought 12 yards of fabric that I use to make skirting for some of the low shelves in my craft show booth, and now it is really time to get to work.

Have an awesome day everyone!

Adam's Adventure

We were cruising along on our first leg of our trip to Telluride. Adam was doing a fine job. We were constantly watching the little MPG graph to see what kind of gas mileage we were getting. We hadn't had Adam very long so we were still in the "get acquainted" stage.

We were in a nasty construction area when a little alarm went "ding"! It was telling us that it was time to start thinking about getting some gas. The manual said that when the alarm goes "ding" you have about 3 gallons of gas left. In a car that was getting 45 mpg, we figured we would stop at the next big town.

About 20 minutes later Adam started slowing down. He wasn't accelerating properly at all. We were losing all of our power! Construction area....one lane each way....no shoulder.....a long line of cars behind me...UH OH! We saw an exit and signaled to get off. My speed kept decreasing no matter how hard I stepped on the gas. 50-40-30-crap the exit is a ramp...an up hill ramp!

Putt, putt....20-10....we're OFF!! We glided over to the shoulder. Now alarms were going off all over the place and lights were flashing! What the hell was going on with my brand new car?

The sweat was pouring off of me. All I could see is us sitting out in the middle of nowhere waiting for our cute little hybrid to be repaired. So much for our vacation!

Irv pulled out the manual only to read all of the horrible things that might be wrong with Adam. He checked the part again about the gas gauge alarm and yep...it says you have three gallons of gas left so there was no way it could be that. We hadn't even gone 40 miles!

I tried staring Adam again and the sweet boy started right up. We could see a gas station and decided to make a "run" for it. It would be safer than where we were pulled over and then we could call the Toyota dealer and ask him WTF might be wrong.

I started up the hill to the intersection and of course the light turned red. Oh, hurry up...I do NOT want to get stuck here!

Okay...green light....we went through the intersection and pulled into the gas station. Irv had me pull up to the pump since we were going to need gas anyway. He filled Adam up and I pulled him over to a parking place alarms still sounding....then one by one....they all stopped!

Are you kidding me? Could we have really run out of GAS????

We let Adam run for a while as we gathered our composure. My stomach was in a big knot. Adam seemed to be a happy little hybrid again, so we decided to get on the road and see what happened. Irv drove because I was too upset. I was mad at the gas tank, mad at the alarms, mad at the manual, mad at Adam, mad at the the dealer, mad at Toyota and I was mad that I was mad.

Not another problem the entire trip!

Yep, we had run out of gas...even though the gauge said we had plenty of gas left. We now fill Adam up LONG before the little three gallon alarm goes off because we now know that the alarm really means...fooled you!!

Chee hoo!!

:)

We're Back!!!

We made great time and got home a day early. What an AWESOME vacation! Right now I am unpacking, sorting through mail, taking all of my e-mails off vacation response, changing my etsy shop announcements and throwing in some laundry.

I have lots of pictures and wonderful stories for you. I'll post something tomorrow.

Right now, I still feel like I am in the car....we drove 24 hours in 2 days. I'm exhausted. I have the next two days off and I am SO glad I did that.

I hope everyone is well. I'll chat with you tomorrow!

CHEE HOO!!! (I'll explain that tomorrow too)

:)

The Time Has Come...Finally!!!

Well friends....this is it! I just got home from work and my "To Do" list reads as follows:

1) Blog...because I just can't help myself
2) Change the sheets in the spare bedroom for the house/dog sitters
3) Wash the last load of clothes....I'll never wear it all, but it's in the 40's at night there and in the 70's during the day. Not sure what to bring, so I'm bringing it ALL!
4) Iron the rest of my stuff...why do I iron things that I am just going to cram into a suitcase?
5) Bathe the dirty dogs....because they are, well, dirty!
6) Clean the house....because heaven forbid it should be messy for the house/dog sitters
7) Cut up some veggies so I can say that I ate healthy on the trip...no one needs to know about the chocolate twizzlers, the taffy apple suckers, the shoestring potatoes and the assorted chips!
8) Make some granola...Awesome recipe...it's healthy, but tastes like it's not. Love this stuff!
9) Find my Loveland map...need to mark the neighborhoods we drive through that we like...you just never know when you might win the Lottery and move!
10) Keep an eye on the weather in Telluride....today they have a flash flood watch because it's been raining for 12 hours straight and there is a chance of landslides! Oh Joy!
11) Wash my hair, and dry it and flat iron it so I don't have to do it in the morning at 4:30!
12) Pack...because we are leaving at 6:00 a.m. and I don't want to do it in the morning.

So there you have it my friends and as you can see, I have much to do. So ta-ta for now. Have an awesome week and a half. If I can get on the computer, I might pop in to say hello. If not, I'll chat with you when I get back!

Counting Down

Well THE LIST is on the kitchen table. Since you already know I am a majorly obsessive list making, post-it note kind of girl...you are probably asking, "Which list is that Kathy?"

It's the one that will help me to remember everything I need to buy and then pack for vacation! The countdown has truly begun. Actually, it started the day we decided to go, but the serious counting down is here. We will leave around 5:00 a.m. on the 27th. We have our house and pet sitters all lined up and I have that really nervous excited feeling I get before vacation.

Ouray Hot Springs and Pools

We plan to pack lots of snacks and water in the cooler, plus some basics for when we get there. Telluride is a resort town and everything is very expensive. I'll buy what I can here and take it along.

Silverton Mine TourI don't get rattled about stuff like this...in fact, I don't get rattled about much of anything, but we leave Saturday and I work full time, so I need to get some things done this weekend. Hence....THE LIST.

Bridal Veil Falls outside of TellurideIf you recall, a teacher friend of Matt's has offered us their home while we are there since they will be on vacation. So nice of them. Matt went there this week so they could fill him in on anything we might need to know. They told us to feel free to use the grill and the hot tub if we like. Matt said the view from the porch is amazing and the 20 minute ride to the house is gorgeous.

Black Canyon of Gunnison

The drive to Telluride is normally about 22 hours...longer for us. Irv has a very bad hip and he will need to get out and stretch quite often. If we make good time, we are going to take a little trip up to Loveland to just look around a bit. It seems I want to retire there, even though I've never been there. I've heard good things about it and it looks and sounds like our kind of town. We shall see.

Moab, Utah

Our agenda remains the same once we get there: Moab, Utah for kayaking, Black Canyon of Gunnison for sightseeing, Ouray for hot springs, Silverton for a mine tour, Telluride area for some very beginner rock climbing and to see Bridal Veil Falls as well as some horseback riding, and downtown Telluride for a parade and picnic on the 4th. Then we will be headed home.

Riding With Roudy

Matt and I were texting the other night about my rock climbing adventure. He said that the rock is only about 20 feet high. I asked him if I can climb barefoot because I thought I would feel better barefoot and he said, "No hippie, I'll get you some climbing shoes!"

I always feel better barefoot. Oh well, it was just a thought!