Leasa, I was hoping someone had found this side of the board. :)

You are very adventurous! I love to travel, too (but the more exotic spots are still waiting for us). My son has been on quite a few cruises with friends, and loved every minute.

We have always loved New Orleans, but haven't made it back yet (I have missed it). We also love the Outer Banks area (relatives on my mother's side lived there as far back as the American Revolution), Charleston and Savannah, and St Augustine, FL. I loved Pleasant Hill, KY (Shaker area) and Williamsburg, VA as a child.

My son is currently doing summer internships each summer in Turf Agronomy, so we have been vacationing wherever he is each summer. He is with a golf course here at home (Memphis) this year, so we are going to go to Seaside, FL this summer, at the end of his internship.

I also fell in love with Oregon a few years ago...have you been there? It was absolutely lovely, and such a different landscape than I have been used to in the South.

Andrea

I've been to all the places you mentioned except the Pleasant Hill area in KY does not sound familiar, will have to look it up and see if I have been there. We've spent a lot of time in KY love every part of it! Got turned around in Frankfort on several trips thru there, but we always love to go back and sorta made a joke out of it when we have to turn around that we are doing a Frankfort!

I've been to OR many times my hubby has not but I will get him there one day!

It sure is different up there from the south. What areas did you visit? I did the whole coast a couple of times once back in 1979, 1994 and again in 1997 in 1979 we hung around for days waiting for the sun to come out, ended up in Yosemite in CA to dry out. I just love Coos Bay area!

What is Turf Agronomy?

Leasa

Good Morning, Leasa and Andrea. : ) I am now yearning to see some of the places you've both mentioned. Leasa, your vacation pics are always inspiring and fun to look at. Lucky you to get away every winter!

DH and I are both native CA. kids so we've seen most of our great state and quite a bit of the western states. Our favorite place to vacation is the Sierras. We love to hike and explore the old trails, and are both history buffs so books on the local history of the places we visit are always on our list.

Our oldest married an Indiana girl and that's where they've decided to call home. So 6 years ago we took a road trip there, via the Rocky Mtn. route and had such a wonderful time. Even got to see a Cubs game - whoo hoo!!! We really liked the Midwest but the humidity did me in. Then we had a near miss with a tornado in Nebraska on the way to visit DH's relatives. That was scary, way more than our earthquakes. You folks who live in tornado country are brave souls!

No visiting of real exotic places here unless you include Mexico and Hawaii. We are planning a trip to Alaska next summer for our 25th anniversary. Anyone who has tips or advice, please feel free to pass them along. We are thinking of skipping the usual cruise that so many do and instead fly in to a more central location, rent a jeep/4-wheel drive and do our own thing. Does that sound crazy for a first trip there?

Diana

I agree! Those tornados and not for me!
I've never been to Hawaii, that is the only State I'm missing.

your AK adventure sounds like fun to me! I spent a week there one April and then that summer I spent there on a fishing boat in Bristol Bay. What fun that was! I can say from what I saw from the air, land and sea everyplace is beautiful!!!!!
I'm not too fond of fires but I sure loved living in AZ. Sedona where the fires have been recently is where I live. right on Oak Creek. We traded labor for rent and had chores like taking out the perfectly good sliding doors and putting in French doors! Some folks just live right, it would be nice to be so well off...

Diana, I would consider Mexico and Hawaii to be exotic! (I haven't been there yet...) :) Your area of the country is gorgeous! I'm glad that you enjoyed your trip to the Midwest...yes, the humidity can be a bit daunting. In August, you just wilt. I'm glad you were able to take in a Cubs game---Wrigley is pretty, isn't it? I like the entire Chicago area. I used to not be too bothered by tornados, but they seem to have intensified in recent years, like so many of the storms have.

We have put off the "bigger trips" for the same types of reasons...home repairs and improvements, and college costs. This is just an expensive time in our lives...in a few years, I will hopefully be able to go some places outside of our "usual".

Leasa, we visited Salem (where our friend lives), Portland, and also the Neskowin/Pacific City area. It was fun to see a different type of coast, as we have been used to the Gulf Coast. It was gorgeous there; I found that I like the rocky coastline very much.

Turf Agronomy is an agriculture major involving all kinds of grasses. I hadn't heard of it either (and my first question to my son was "can you make a living doing that"...he rolled his eyes and sighed. :) He is at MS State, which has a very good, respected program. He started out playing baseball and loved it, but had bad knees. I could tell that he wanted to stay in sports in some fashion, so I suggested that he find something related to that...to find "his fit" in that field. He took Turf as an elective in high school, and fell in love with it. Most Turf Ag majors go on to be golf course superintendents or baseball field managers, or have turf farms. He did an internship last summer with the St Louis Cardinals Spring Training/A facility in Florida, and this summer is with our Jack Nicklaus course here (I'm enjoying having him here this year). Next summer, he is hoping to be with a major league baseball facility, so we have our fingers crossed. He still seems to love the baseball more than golf, but I'm glad he will have had training in both.

Here is a good link about the Pleasant Hill area. I went with my parents when I was a teen, and I remember thinking that it would be the most boring trip of my life...it ended up being one of the most memorable. You can stay in the actual homes where the Shakers lived, and the food was marvelous...very fresh. I hope to go back there someday.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pleasant Hill/Shakertown, KY

This year DH and I are going to Highlands, N.C. compliments of my boss in appreciation for my working for him for 9+ years. We will be there a week, hiking, seeing waterfalls, and just enjoying being in the mountains, and the deep earthy scents of ancient grounds. We live in flat, swampy s.e. FL so this vacation is going to be a real treat. The last vacation we took was to NY state near the PA border and we loved that area as that's where DH lived when he was born until about 10 years of age. We've both lived here since '57 for him and '60 for me, although I had lived here for awhile as a toddler. We lived in Spain for a little over 3 years while DH was in the US Navy (Dec-69 - Mar-73)and we traveled a LOT all over sounthern Spain, where we lived. Plus we went on vacation to Switzerland/Germany one year, going through France. We saw the Disney castle for real. Another year we went to Lisbon, Portugal over Valentine's day in a VW bus and that was quite a trip. I have a lovely vase from there sitting on my computer desk. When DH was discharged we grabbed our backpacks, train passes, cameras and toured 11 countries in a little less that 60 days. Quite the experience, one we've never forgotten. We've not done much vacationing since we've been home for several different reasons. We basically are a couple of home bodies and are always puttering around our place.

We are looking forward to our week in the mountains, cool air, different scenery, a time away from our every day life. It will make our little cottage and compound look so good when we come home. Hopefully no hurricanes will hit here or there at that time, or at all for that matter. We went through Frances and Jeanne in 2004 and Wilma passed right over us last year. We're still not done getting things back into order after that, but we are blessed that we weren't destroyed like so many were from the horrific storms over the past few years.

Happy vacationing to all. Look forward to seeing pictures from wherever you visit. DH and I are taking our digital camera and lots of floppies (we don't have a new camera yet, as this one is still cranking out the pictures.)

FlowerLady

FlowerLady, the trips you have taken sound delightful, and your upcoming trip sounds like quite a treat! I can't wait to see photos of yours as well.

Doesn't home look wonderful after being away? It always looks different, somehow. Where in FL do you live? We love the southern part of FL. We honeymooned in Sanibel, and have been back to that area quite a few times. The last waves of storms have been so horrific. I'm glad that you all are ok, and I hope that this year will be an easier one.

Andrea

Andrea, that for the link we missed that spot by just a very short distance. We will have to get it on another trip it sure looks like it is worth the trip.
I did a Google Earth and could see how close we were. Thanks for the turf education also!!!!

We visited some wonderful rose gardens in Portland, I forget the name of the place but the pictures are pretty.

We make a mustard for the Canterbury Shackers in NH, it is called Maple Sugar Mustard--tastey!

Flowerlady, I always wanted to do one of those urail trips, just haven't gotten to it yet! It sure will be nice in the mountains, have a ball and do take pix to share!!!!!

We like Crystal River, FL and Carrabelle, FL the most. Santibel is nice, I have a big jug of shells from there from about 1985, last couple of times there the shells have been skimpy and the traffic awful. Speaking about change, I recall Key West from the 70s an when we visited a couple of years ago I could hardly recognize it!

Southernheart ~ Yes, home does look good after you've been away. It just always feels good to be home sweet home again.

We live in s.e. FL. Never have been to Sanibel. (We honeymooned in Gatlinburg, TN in 1969). We did go to Sarasota area a few years back and went to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. There is some 'old' FL for you. We really enjoyed that.

Leasa ~ Eurail ~ I couldn't remember the name of that when I posted earlier, I thought tri-rail, but that wasn't it, that's local. : -) It definitely was quite the experience.

FL has changed tremendously over the years. More condos, townhouses, etc. keep going up all over the place and I just don't see how the state can support everyone that is moving here. The traffic is awful, especially during the winter months when all the 'snowbirds' come down. They just did a beach restoration project, dredging up sand from the ocean depths aways out, and a lot of pretty shells have now been deposited. DH and I went one Sunday morning and collected quite a few. Need to go back again.

Below are a couple of pictures of some of the shells and coral. Jewels from the sea, just lying on the beach.

FlowerLady {{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

WOW! Nice shell collection!

I love spending time walking the beach and collecting shells.

Some of my favorite spots are FL, TX and NC for shells.

FlowerLady, I love your shells! They remind me a lot of the ones we found on one of the main Sanibel beaches, and the area where Sanibel and Captiva meet. We were there the week after a hurricane, which brought in a lot of great, larger shells.

We made a small mirror out of ours (which brought a lot of laughs from our friends, being our honeymoon :) ...but it was fun, and a nice memory). We had seen ones in the gift shops which were quite expensive, and thought "hey, we could do that, and we have the shells, too." I will try to take a picture for you.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Andrea ~ Where's that picture of your shell mirror? I am the manager of an antique shop and the owner has found some wonderful shell mirrors that don't last very long. We've got a wonderful one that he just got recently. Speaking of shells, I just saw a child's cast iron bathtub that was decorated with shells on the outside. It was fantastic. We have a 'free' cast iron tub out behind our cottage in the secret garden, and after seeing this little tub decorated with shells, that's what I want to do to ours. Our cottage is way too small to have the tub indoors, so outdoors it is, right near the jacuzzi. The secret garden area is a work in progress. We have several projects going on at once. It is so nice when each one comes together and we can sit back and enjoy.

A couple of years ago DH thought of turning an old satellite dish we were no longer using into a birdbath/reflecting pool. He painted the inside black, then we went to the beach to gather a certain shell, which is what was mostly there anyway, before they dredged the ocean giving us some beauties now. I love how the piece turned out and it has a statue of 'a weeping woman' in it and I can see her and some of the secret garden when I wash dishes.

We are getting ready to head to NC two weeks from today, and I can hardly wait.

Leasa ~ Traveling eurail was the way to go, although our backpacks were not light enough. : -) We have bought 80 floppies so I'm hoping they will be enough for this trip. Guess we'll find out.

FlowerLady

Last year DH and I went to Ashville, NC. It was just a short weekend, but we rarely get to go away together without family. So it was very nice even though most of the town was shut down because of a flood.
We enjoy staying in weird hotels. We stayed in the Hillbilly motel in Ashville.
A few years ago we went to Kentucky to stay in the Wigwam Village.
This year we stayed in a very normal hotel and went to Memphis for the Ponderosa Stomp which is a celebration of New Orleans rock 'n roll. It was fantastic!! Only in Memphis because of Katrina, of course, but so many amazing blues, rockabilly, soul, rock 'n roll bands played (also some not from New Orleans). Loads of killer session players too. WOW! We went to the Stax museum and Sun records and ate at the local diner...that's our idea of a good time. Lots of driving around just to see what we can see. Go to a few thrift stores, meet some local folks who will tell us other unusual places to visit. We drove by Graceland but didn't go in.

Next year we are going to the northern coast of Florida simply because we can take our pets with us. We are also taking Mom's I think. My hubby's boss has a house we can stay in (I think it's Desden, FL).

Since hubby works a lot, I also go on trips without him sometimes...I go to California to see my friends, and Toronto to see friends and family...I'm thinking of going to NYC to see friends there soon too.

Our idea of a glorious retirement is to buy an airstream trailer and go off for a few weeks at a time to places we love. Rochester, NY...Niagra on the Lake, Tucson, AZ... not really typical vacation destinations but we have reasons why we luv those places!!

GGG

FlowerLady..I'm sorry, I didn't see this until today. Here is a photo of the mirror (my son is the one whose arm you see). It is a smaller one, but we would love to make a bigger one when we find the time. We saw some gorgeous ones in FL last year that were inspiring.

{{!gwi}}

GGG, are you going to Destin? It is a great area, with really pretty beaches and nice white sand. I haven't seen it this year (since the storms last year), but we are going to the Seaside/Seagrove area in a few weeks---it is just down from Destin. I hope that you all have fun!

FlowerLady...I moved the photo to a different album. Here is the photo:

{{!gwi}}

Southernheart ~ What a lovely mirror. I love the subdued colors. Shells are so wonderful to look at and work with. I want to cover the outside of our 'free' cast iron claw footed bathtub with them. It is too big for our bathroom and is outside behind our cottage in the 'secret garden' along with the jacuzzi and an outdoor shower. We need to collect some more shells for this project.

FlowerLady

Well, vacation time is here. We are heading out tomorrow morning early, plan to spend the night somewhere in mid GA, head up to Toccoa Fri morning, then head on up to the cabin that afternoon. I hope it rains here while we are gone to take care of the gardens. Have a great week everyone and I'll see you later.

FlowerLady

Have a great week, FlowerLady! Take lots of pics and share them with us. Are you going hiking? I've missed hiking this year with Abby. Well, I just miss her, period. : (

Will do a little rain dance for your gardens. : ) We've been getting thunderstorms all week and just enough rain to cool us off. Yeah! Hope your vacation weather is nice.

Take care and don't forget a souvenir or two.

Diana

Southernheart, yes. We are going to Destin. A friend of mine grew up (in Seagrove) there in the 50's and was telling me how incredible it was then, untouched, full of natural beauty. The water is still supposed to be gorgeous so I'm looking forward to that. We were told the house we will rent is right in the super busy part of town. We usually stay in the slightly derrelic part of town :) so this will be interesting.

GGG

We are back. Got back yesterday after a 14 hour trek in the van from mountain cabin to Plum Cottage. We are exhausted and just puttering today. I'll write more later. We had a wonderful, quiet time together. We did do some hiking, bought a couple of souvenirs, found some others. Took lots of pictures that I now have the fun of downloading to puter, editing etc. I did come home to 'toasted' plants. It looks like it didn't rain a drop while we were gone. Today is overcast and there has been some thundering in the distance, but no rain as of yet. I've had the sprinklers on today and also did some hand watering. I really feel for those in drought conditions. The sight of brown gardens is very depressing and sad.

FlowerLady

FlowerLady, I'm glad that you had a nice, safe trip! We did, too (just always too short). My son resodded my front yard the month before we left, and we had a neighbor watering it, but the edges still got a little crispy. He says he can replace that part, so all will be ok.

GGG, we were in Seagrove this past week, also (the pics below are where we stayed). I love that area, and would like to stay in Rosemary Beach sometime, too. The weather was nice, except for the usual afternoon storms which are often a welcome break, and one horrific storm the last night we were there, around midnight---it seemed to go on forever. I would love to hear about your trip, too!

Hi - just found the conversations side!

For our vacation we went on a retreat to a wonderful yoga ashram located a few hours from our house. It was fantastic to spend so much time outdoors, doing yoga, eating well, meditating, swimming - it was family week so the kids all had a great time as well. It is a very disciplined style of life, and some of that has been brought into our life at home (as well as getting dd and dh very enthused about hatha yoga!)

We are going away for another week to our shared family vacation ranch in Colorado. More swimming, hiking. I'm just a little concerned about the flight - the phrase "historic delays" is being bandied about.

Postum,

Where in CO are you heading? We finally have warm weather and relief from pouring rain.

My son works for TSA (security/search). He told me yesterday that they are down to a wallet and book for carry on. This may not be at yours, he is international, but suggest scaling down to save time.

And, yes the lines are long, wait is tough....primarily due to the many passengers who aren't paying attention to what can and can't be on board. Security is going through everything. They are spending a lot of time in "discussions" with passengers when taking stuff away from them.

I hadn't thought of asking him if there is a way to find info on each airport and what the security requirements are. But may be available and save some anquish for you.

He has been doing this for quite awhile, got into it when high tech went downhill. I always thought it was a good solid job without pressure. One day he was really grumpy and told me that few realize the intensity involved everyday....one mistake and he could responsible for a terrible disaster. He is responsible every moment for the lives of people and they take their jobs very seriously.

Will be worth it...patience is the key. Get to CO and enjoy.

Sandy

Oh, stinkers. Someone just offered my hubbies boss a bunch o' money for the house we were going to rent in Florida in Feburary...so he's selling. That was the only place we could go with pets. I guess no vacation next year...poor DH!

GGG

Just checked back to this thread - emagineer, we're going to Beulah (outside of Pueblo.) Leaving tonight, in fact! I've heard there was a pretty bad drought earlier this summer but there has been some rain since then.

I'm trying to minimize my carry-ons - going through my bag and thinking about what I don't need - but we're going to get to the airport 3 hours early and have dinner there, just to be on the safe side.

I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be waking up in the country!

Leasa, Crystal River Fla., I like it there too, if I had to pick a place in Fla.
DS #2 has been a member of the "Save a Manatee Club" since he was in second grade (he's 18 now) so when we go to Fla. to visit Grandma, we always have to go to Crystal River to visit his 'adopted' manatees. We also have to see "Lucifer'the hippo in the nature preserve. When in Fla., I like to seek out local architecture (got to check out Seaside and Coral Gables) and stay away from the tourist traps.
Grandma lives in Ocala (horse country), right across the road from Silver Springs with it's wonderful nature preserves(and waterpark) She likes to take the boys to Daytona for a few days of skim boarding and swimming (AARP discounts!)
I discovered Asheville NC before it got 'discovered'
The Grove Park is a 'mecca of mission' for me. I actually assumed the lotus position in the hotel's lobby and 'absorbed the aura' And Biltmore - I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy! Fortunatlly, I have cousins living there now, so instant tour guides!
While I was growing up,I loved St.Joe Michigan and Warren Dunes. I have friends that live there now so it is just that much more fun.
My Grandparents would take me to Ludington Michigan when I was a child. It is still very non commercial and a nice walking, camping, fishing, antiqueing area on the lake.
Travel north and another favorite place is Mackinac Island.
The town is a tourist trap but the Grand Hotel has another 'lotus position' lobby and sitting porch.
My brother lived in San Diego for ten years and wants to go back and visit his friends. My sister in law was born there and still has friends and family. I don't know why, but a bunch of his 'Indiana University' buddies ended up in San Diego in the early 80's and have never returned. My parents used to visit my brother there every year and revisit the places they enjoyed while my dad was stationed out of there while in the navy. I want to see Balboa Park and the "Del' My SIL had her prom there and said it is a must see for any architectural fanatic. I'll have to grab one of my brother's 'hoodlum friends' to be my tour guide.
I like to go where I can vist old friends and have them show me the places they enjoy.
Anywhere the is a lake, patio, fireplace, nature, places to walk to, no congestion or tourists, and an old friend is where I like to be.

Just thought I'd share a link to a website I've done, showing some of Eastport, Maine. It really is a pretty area if you ever get a chance to visit or are looking for a quiet place to relocate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eastport, Maine