Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Vacation AAR...

...or, It's Been A While, But I'm Still Alive...

Yeah.

With the recent happenings in the news, I really haven't been feeling it in the ol' blog department, sorry. I'm unhappy with the state of what passes for political discourse in this country; dumbfounded that the choice comes down to a reality TV star and someone who, in a just world, would be serving time for treason; and heartbroken that, yet again, we have a terrorist wreaking death and destruction that gets blamed on inanimate objects.

Plus I went on vacation.

One thing those of you that have moved away from home can appreciate is that it pretty much automatically cuts your vacation time down, dramatically. You still want to see family and friends from the old place, so a few times a year you make the trek back from whence you came. I actually had a "first" this trip - I managed to make the trip without GPS.

It's about 500 miles from the new house in Virginia to my old neighborhood in MA, give or take a few miles. It takes us through Maryland, Delaware and into New Jersey, where we break from the GPS directions and split off onto the Garden State Parkway to do *around* NYC rather than through it. It adds about 20 miles to the journey but probably saves a half-hour of sitting in traffic, plus the pucker factor of driving 95 through NYC. The trip typically takes anywhere from a little over 8 hours to as long as 13 (that was the Sunday after Thanksgiving the year I moved).

So, the schedule for the week looked like this:

Saturday: Up at dawn to drive North.
Sunday: Father's Day breakfast with my family, then the Red Sox game at Fenway with my wife's. Got to run the bases with my kids, which was pretty much the highlight of the trip.


Not too many more of these opportunities, I fear. Before long, TheBoy will most likely have a job, so we'll have to plan trips around his work schedule. I remember growing up, my vacations with my mom & dad pretty much ended after high school, so we might have 2-3 more years.

Monday: Beach day!


Tuesday we headed up to the cabin in Maine, and spent the next couple days on the lake:


Interestingly enough, both kids managed to get in touch with their MA BFFs, and we took a total of four kids up to the cabin. In years past, we've harped on the kids to contact their friends when we had a trip north planned. Typically we start nagging a couple months out, and it culminates in frantic calls and pleading texts on the ride up. This year, because things were so hectic, we didn't even mention it; yet both kids independently got in touch with their best friends in MA and arranged for them to come along. We have found that, counter-intuitively, having more kids actually makes life easier - the kids pair up and leave each other alone.

Friday we left Maine in the late morning, drove down to MA and dropped the friends off, then went to my folks for the afternoon. Stayed for dinner and conversation after, then headed back to VA around 9 PM. Other than a spot of construction-related traffic literally two towns over from where my folks live, it was a smooth, quick ride home and we pulled into our driveway around 5 AM. It was exhausting, but a great trip overall. We never seem to have enough time to see everyone we want to see, and this trip proved no exception...

Glad to be back home and sleeping in my own bed, that's for sure!

That is all.

6 comments:

doubletrouble said...

Happy to see you & family had a good, busy vacation.
Sorry you didn't stop by on the way.
'Course, you can't actually *stop by* here ;-)
Best, J&D

Glenn B said...

Sounds like it was a well deserved and nice vacation, good for you guys.

jetfxr69 said...

Jay,

When I was living in NoVA (Purcellville), and had to visit CT for work, I usually drove. You might want to try going North through Leesburg on 15, and continue out to Gettysburg and Harrisburg, PA. Then go North to Scranton and across on I-84 to White Plains, NY and on up to CT. That route has you in "not America" (NY, and MD) for far less time, and avoids NJ entirely. Google Maps says it's about 30 minutes longer, but it's also FAR less traffic-dependent...

Just a thought.

Jay G said...

I actually did that route in December when we moved some furniture out of my father-in-law's house. We had more than would fit in the wife's SUV, so we rented a U-Haul one-way, and since it was technically a truck, we couldn't take the GSP. It turned out to be about 9/9.5 hours, which is about smack-dab in the middle of time it has taken us going up the coast.

We find if we time the coastal route right, it can be quicker. Certainly costs more, that's for sure...

Lauren Ventosa said...

Wow, Maine looks gorgeous.

My husband's family vacation is next week. We're heading to the finger lakes in New York. Just a three hour trek, but I'm sure it will be a nice getaway. Cabin on the lake for us as well...I'm looking forward to it.

Old NFO said...

Glad you got some down time, and hope you get many more of them!!! :-)