Guest Post: Five Ways to Make the Most of Your Vacation

I'm on vacation! Currently, I'm relaxing at some exotic undisclosed location (okay, it's the couch) but I'm working hard at avoiding work, or fixing things, or basically moving. I know. It's awesome! Today's guest post comes to us from Jules, who you can find at Michon Michon and also at Sprocket Ink (she's one of the co-founders of SI, after all!). You'll notice in this post there's a theme-- summer vacation-- which will carry on throughout the guest posts this week!  

Happy reading!

Let me begin by saying that I am a traveler. I love to go on vacations. I have excellent luck with plane flights (as in running to make them and boarding at the last possible moment, no lines at check in, hardly any flight delays, etc.) And yes, I am knocking on wood right now. I'd hate to jinx the flight luck. But I love to see what is out in this great big world of ours. I enjoy going to historical sites and if there is some place to go hiking, I will definitely be there. Hubby does not enjoy vacationing so much. To him, it seems like "same stuff, different city." To make vacations a little more fun, we have some rules that we've set for ourselves. 

1. If possible, stay at a historical inn, bed and breakfast, or any place other than a chain hotel. On the first two nights of our honeymoon out west, we stayed at a hostel. Granted, it wasn't the most romantic place, but we met some interesting travelers from different countries, we saw some amazing sunsets, and we were very close to the Grand Canyon for dirt cheap. We were out west for two weeks. We never stayed at a chain hotel. We got to know the area and people a lot better than if we had. And we went to places they recommended. Tubing down the Rio Grande outside of Taos? Absolutely!

2. Eat at locally owned restaurants. We do this most of the time even when we are home but it is a must when we are traveling. We generally ask the people at the front desk, other restaurants, and friends where we should eat. We've never been disappointed. And we've found some hidden gems. We once stayed at La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona. This is one of my favorite hotels ever. Gorgeous, historical and with an amazing staff, we really loved the time we spent there. We asked them where we should eat. They told us to go to the Winslow airport. The Winslow airport is a small airport. Inside, there is a restaurant that serves extremely good food. We'd never had known about this place if we stopped at the first place we recognized. 

3. Get to know the history of the place you are visiting. Many people go to places to just lie on the beach. That's a great way to relax. Hubby and I get bored after about an hour of doing that though. We've made it a mission to get to know the history of the places we're visiting. Yes, we are the people reading all of the signs in the museum. One of the most special places I've ever been to is in New Mexico. I fell in love with Santa Fe instantly. We were told that we had to take the drive from Santa Fe to Taos, where we were staying, using the back roads. I'm definitely glad that we did. Along the way is a little town called Chimayo. In this town is a church known as El Santuario de Chimayo. Not only is it a gorgeous place, but people come from all over to get the Holy Dirt that is found there. On the side of the church is a little sanctuary. People leave pictures and items of their loved ones in need of healing. Then they get a baggie of the Healing Dirt to take with them. We still have ours upstairs in our bedroom. Across the way from the church is a little store and restaurant. It's called Leona's Restaurant de Chimayo. If you go there, you have to get the tamales! DELICIOUS!  

4. Do something you don't normally do. When we went to Mackinac Island in Michigan a few years ago, we rented bikes and spent the day biking all over the island. We exercise, but we don't usually bike. So this was a new and fun way for us to spend the day. When we went to San Antonio and Austin in 2010, we made sure we were on Congress Bridge for the bats. If you've never heard of this or seen this, it's quite a site. I'm not that fond of bats, but with the warm weather, beautiful colors in the sky, and excitement in the air, the emergence of the bats was definitely worth seeing.  

5. Don't cram every minute with things to do. When I was a kid, we took a vacation every year. The trips were always packed full with no downtime to breathe and enjoy each other's company. Hubby and I make sure that when we travel, we leave ourselves time to nap, sit outside with a cup of coffee, or spend an evening with a bottle of wine and each other. Not only does this make the trip less stressful, but it gives us a time to reconnect. Wherever you are going this summer, I hope that your trip is fun, relaxing, and adventurous!

Thanks Jules, for guest posting! I love all of your recommendations for having a wonderful vacation.  Now, readers, tell us what makes a memorable vacation for you in the comments!

Guess Where I Am, or Will Be, or Whatever… Nevermind. It’s Too Much Work

That’s right. I’m at Cheesy Bloggers today! Go forth and read (or re-read) my post on the Summer of Non-fiction.

Or you can read the articles I wrote for Sprocket Ink this week. I wrote about Adele saving the life of a child, and also how you can survive when Summer attacks you or the month of June wants you dead.

Given that the month of June seems to want ME dead, I am taking the rest of the month off (with my boss’s blessing. I think she’s afraid it may spill over to my co-workers). That’s right. No work. No writing. No housecleaning, even. Me: parking my butt and enjoying a week of summer, the way it should be; the way it was when I was a kid. I’m sure you understand, right? Or perhaps insanely jealous.

I’ll be reading. Because it’s summer. And there may be some pool time. And I’m sure they’ll be stories and pictures once I return.

In the interim, however (aka, next week) I will have guest posters, thanks to my lovely fellow Sprocket Ink writers! The theme is summer vacation, and I think you’ll like what they have to say. I know I’m looking forward to your responses to their posts!

Weekend Wrap-up: The Half-assed Edition

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you’ve had a great holiday weekend thus far. I know I have.

On Saturday I finally caved, treated myself, and got the iPhone 4S. I KNOW! Siri is now managing my life for me, and I am fully expecting to be more productive, more relaxed, and always with a cup of coffee in my hand. Wait. What? Siri won’t make my coffee for me? Are you sure? Then what was all the hype about?

In all seriousness, the fact that I can speak my text messages and listen to my Pandora whenever I want has changed my life. Just. Like. That.

This slide's awesomeness has been confirmed by Ant.

Yesterday Ant and I had an exceptional time at the pool. Now, I’ve never been one to go to the pool on opening weekend (with five million other pool patrons wanting to dip their toes in freezing water), but this time it was well over 90 degrees and we were desperately bored. Ant is part fish, and loves nothing more than swimming and diving, so, we scrounged up 13 dollars and some suspect sunscreen from last summer, hit the pool, and snacked on concession stand nachos (is there anything better?). Three of his close friends were there, and I had three hours of talking-with-likeminded-adults while he had three hours of playing around with the 4^th grade guy crowd. Oh, and the water wasn’t cold.

Which I think might tell us something about how hot this summer is going to be…

Today we’re lying around, and maybe, MAYBE doing some laundry. More importantly, we’re celebrating the fact that we don’t have anything to do today for the first time in forever, and that school is out. There really is no better feeling.

All of this to say that this weekend wrap-up is being half-assed, due to the enjoyment of our holiday weekend.

So, what did I do in the past week when I wasn’t here?

Last week at Sprocket Ink I remembered my hometown, one year after the tornado. I also told you that Indians do not wear crows on their heads, and today I am warning you about the zombie outbreak in Miami. Get your zombie apocalypse kit together, and get Carl in the house!

What did I find elsewhere?

Not much. Not because it’s not out there. Because I’ve been too busy trying to get Siri to tell me a joke. She’s stubborn, though.

And what was going on last year?

The cicadas were attacking. And I do mean attacking. I am so glad that's over. For now. 

Well, now I'm off to answer zombie questions in the comments of my Sprocket Ink post for the day, and watch the thunderstorms roll in! I love storm watching, and I have a free day to do it! I hope you enjoy what you have planned for the day as well.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Spring Break Edition

I’m wrapping up early again this week, as I plan on squeezing every last moment of relaxation out of Spring Break (only two more days) with the boys. After Spring Break, I have six more weeks of chaos at work, and the boys have nine more weeks of chaos at school. And then summer school starts. The very next week.

Next thing you know, it will be the Fourth of July. *Sigh.*

Spring Break, in our house, means the park, fishing, naps, and mindless TV. Like Lost Girl. Which I’ve been watching WAY too much of this week. Zombies and fairies and advertising executives in the 1960s don’t seem like they would mix, but they do. They SO do.

Spring Break also means actual cooking. So we’ll start with what didn’t hit the blog this week, and that is another cooking post. It didn’t hit this week, or last week, or for several weeks, for that matter. But, I did make the Twitterverse jealous with my tales of homemade (but not by me) cannelloni in my oven.

Yeah. You're jealous.

Then there is what I did when I wasn’t here:

I’m back to writing at the lovely Sprocket Ink, which has a pretty, new layout design and header. This made me want to match mine to theirs. You should go and check it out, if you’ve missed it, when you check out my posts on the Hunger Games Haters and what Stand Your Ground Actually Means.

Around the interwebs:

Alex of Late Enough scored another TWO mentions with her hilarious post on How Not to Write and for linking to the Craziest Wifi Names in her weekly wrap up post. My favorite is “You can haz internets.”

Scary Mommy gave me more hope that I can be an accomplished writer someday as well. Also, she wrote the best Momfinitions post ever.

Noa from Oh, Noa reminded me of my favorite post at The Oatmeal. Too bad J didn’t taking dishwasher loading in Home Ec.

And the Bloggess, yet again, confirmed (for me) that we are somehow related, because I’m fairly certain that my great-grandparents had done this at some point in time.

So, what was up this time last year?

I gave you some insight (PG-rated) on what it’s like to live with J.

Which leads me to beg the question: What weird and random witticisms does your spouse come up with that leaves you shaking your head?

What I learned on my summer vacation…

We had big plans for our summer vacation, originally, and those were pared down and pared down again. It ended up being a stay-cation of sorts, and I even use this term loosely, because while we did stay, we did much less of the traditional cationing. No matter!

I did learn quite a bit about myself during the past week, however, and any time that I have the chance to sit back, reflect a bit, and learn something about myself, I call that experience a success!

Let me tell you a little bit about what I learned:

1)     I’ve remembered that I must always trust my gut, and don’t let others push you forward when you feel as if you need to slow down. I won’t get into all the details here (mainly because I don’t believe that you care that terribly much), but after sitting down at home with all of the paperwork from purchasing the new car, I found where they hid the “service coverage”.  Oh, I had that feeling in my gut, and I ignored it, and now that I’ve found it, I promise you that it burns. I am coming to terms, however, and I know that this mistake, though it smarts, is small in the grand scheme of things. I’ve so very fortunate in my life—healthy children, wonderful husband, a job that I enjoy—and one little bit of misfortune shall not detract from the overall happiness of my life.

Now, on to more enjoyable things!

2)     I have learned that I can get excited about cleaning out our closets. I know! It’s crazy, isn’t it?

3)     I’ve learned that no matter how much time and attention I have available to dedicate to the laundry, I will never be done with it. Ever. I just need to get over it, or find better hiding places.

4)     I’ve come to more fully respect (and I didn’t even think it possible) my husband, the wonderful meals he cooks for our family, how hard he works, and even the large amount of things he gets done when he’s just puttering around the house (like switching out light bulbs I hadn’t even noticed had burned out)!

Keep in mind, he was puttering around the house because he refused to cave in to my closet-cleaning insanity.

5)     I’ve enjoyed watching my children be children—and for this week, they’ve been children who pitched in when asked, did not fight with one another, or even complain that they were bored.

6)     I’ve had the chance to share dreams, aspirations, and goals with my husband for the first time in a long time. The simple act of putting our heads together, listening to each other’s point of view, and ultimately realizing that we are both on the same page has been affirming.

7)     I’ve memorized the channel for HGTV, and have, for the first time, started watching it consistently.

8)     I’ve also learned how much Girl TV my guys can take before repeatedly changing the channel to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Star Trek whenever I walk out of the room (usually when I remembered that I was trying to do laundry).  

9)     I’ve been back in touch with my fun side; sliding down water slides and floating on lazy rivers at the pool, goofing around on the Fourth, and watching the fireworks with awe.

We also learned, by proxy, that those who combine alcohol, fire, and a rousing midnight game of “guess how short the fuse is” do get their just desserts in the end, if those just desserts involve taking a bottle rocket to the foot. Or small fires. Or truck damage.

And most importantly,

10) I’ve learned just how important it is to take a break, even if that break is filled with tasks and chores that usually don’t get done in the everyday routine. Despite the fact that we worked hard over the last several days, I feel revitalized, and ready to head back to my office, and tackle the next big project. It’s so very important to keep the balance, and while I’m by no means perfect at maintaining balance, I’m trying, and getting better at it every day.