Vacations, Staycations and Travel

Not all vacations involve travel. Not all travel involves vacations. I guess it's a matter of perspective in who is defining those words.

When I was three, Mom took my baby brother and me on our first airplane trip. Of course, I have no memory of that journey, but Mom sure does. Dad had to join us later, because he only had one week paid vacation at that time. The rest of us flew back to Missouri to visit her family, then later flew to Minnesota to see Dad's family and meet up with him.

From my parents' point of view, the entire trip was to visit family and show off the kids. For me, it meant having different places to play. I got tired of that about the third week out, and decided to walk home. Unfortunately, home was in Los Angeles, and we were staying at the family farm in Minnesota. I was found by anxious family members sitting in the swampy area off the road, crying and surrounded by mosquitoes. Time for everyone to go home!

Throughout my childhood, vacation meant anytime we were out of school, summer, Christmas or Easter breaks. Now it's summer, winter and spring breaks. Sign of the times for our culturally diverse, politically correct society. We mostly were home during Christmas and Easter vacations, although there were a few memorable camping trips during Easter break. It turned out that Death Valley is quite pleasant in early spring. Who knew?

We spent alternate summers staying close to home (many beach camping trips and local museams, amusement parks, etc.) one year and travelling to the Midwest by various routes the next. My parents had the idea that the actual travel should be part of the vacation for their growing family, so we saw much of the country West of the Mississippi River as we traveled between California, Missouri and Minnesota to visit our family. Those school and family reunions were the only time we got to see our cousins, something we didn't appreciate til much later.

In college, my travel became focused on academic activity rather than family trips. I went on choir tours to Europe and the Western U.S. My senior year I spent a semester on World Campus Afloat, going from LA around South America, across to West Africa, into the Mediterranean basin, and flying home from Florida. I attended class while we were at sea, then my time was my own when we were at port. I still view that time as the greatest educational experience of my life.

As an adult, I have traveled for both business and pleasure. I have gone solo, with family, friends and tour groups. I have enjoyed vacations at home or on day trips to a variety of places. I tend to view vacations as time off work, in which case I am now on permanent vacation since my retirement earlier this year. Vacation is, after all, a matter of perspective.

Celebrating Independence Day at Home

Mom and I stayed home today. We could have gone to the annual pancake breakfast put on by the police department. It will benefit Meals on Wheels this year. That's really good, but Mom didn't feel up to going out this morning, and I'm not a fan of pancakes or sausage. I ended up surprising Mom with homemade bread pudding with a holiday dash of red, white and blue sugar sprinkles, topped by whipped cream. Yummmm!

After breakfast, we watched Channel 7's coverage of the 113th annual parade in Huntington Beach. This year the theme was "United We Stand" for the largest parade West of the Mississippi (according to their mayor, among others). Estimated attendance this year was over five hundred thousand, so regardless of the actual size ranking, it's a huge affair. Yet this parade definitely has a small town feel. It's not the Rose Parade, but instead more of a family party celebration before, during and after the parade. That Minnesota marching band could just as easily been marching in the parade in Crosby. The floats were colorful, the equestrian covered the gamut from miniature horses to therapy horses, the band's played lots of patriotic music, and the big crowd just had fun. Huntington Beach sure can do a great event.

Later we watched that All American pastime, as the Dodgers held on to beat the Diamondbacks 4-3, followed by the fireworks at Dodger Stadium. Of course I could already see the fireworks outside even before it got dark around 8:30. It was typical semi-professional 360 show, meaning you could see the sky rockets going off no matter which way you faced. Oh, and the ground Safe and Same explosions were pretty colorful too, not to mention legal.

Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Corey Weaver and rookie phenom Cody Ballinger have been named to the National League All Star team for the game to be held next Tuesday July 11. That's pretty good representation for the Dodgers, who are arguably the best team in baseball headed into the All Star break. Houston fans might not agree, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. There is a big push to vote Justin Turner in to the final spot to be announced on Thursday --it would only be fair, since he should have been named to the team to start with. We'll see what happens...

I don't know how soon I'll get to sleep tonight. I'm normally an early-to-bed early-to-rise person, but the fireworks are still going strong out there. I'm switching back and forth between the Capital Fourth and Macy's shows. I'll probably end up falling asleep to the sounds of explosions all around me.

Before I head off to sleep, I just wanted to wish our northern neighbors a belated Happy Canada Day. This is their sesquicentennial anniversary. On July 1, 1867, Canada became a nation, part of the British Commonwealth, although it would be another century before we would see the maple leaf flag.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!!!