2010 Vacation Trips

Vacations have not been the easiest things to coordinate in our family in recent years. Between business meetings I have, periods when Evie must be in the office, other than for those real special trips it not being best for Evie to take more than one week at a time, and Josh’s Crossmen and academic calendar, finding weeks to take Evie’s four weeks is a rather cumbersome process.

This year has been no different. The last part of July is out for Evie due to reports that have to be at THQ by the end of the first week of August. ARC employees, including Evie, are not allowed to take any weeks after October 1.

The week of July 26 is off due to a business conference I must attend…fortunately it is one of the week that Evie needs to be in the office. The first week of August is out as the Crossmen are performing in the area, and so is the week going into June 26 for the same reason. The second and third week of August are out as that is when Josh returns from the Crossmen and then heads back to LSU. With taking July 17 to 25 as a vacation week, and not wanting to come back for a week and go out again, suddenly the rest of July and August are off the table.

With taking a week in a week in April we are left with two weeks to schedule, one in June and one in September. We are looking at taking the week going into July 4th and either the second or third week of September. While we have booked our July campground at a park we have wanted to visit for years, we are still settling on where to go at the end of June and in September. In September we are considering Boston for a day or two and then moving on to Acadia National Park for three or so nights. In June we may go to West Virginia or possibly to Annapolis.

Over the summer we will need to work in a few weekend camping trips in the area. My other five days will be taken here and there over the fall, mainly added to weekends to make create a few extra long weekends.

For those that are interested her is our basic itinerary for Italy starting on 9 April.
Leave Friday afternoon with a connection via Boston
Sat change planes in Rome for Venice and arrive in Venice around noon
Venice, staying in a hotel three blocks from St. Marks Square
Sunday, booked a gondola serenade trip in the evening
Tuesday morning – train trip down to Rome (about 5 hrs)
Rome hotel in the heart of ancient Rome - four blocks from the Coliseum
Wednesday – tour of the Coliseum and other ancient Rome sites
Thursday – tour the Vatican and Vatican’s art museum
Saturday – late morning, return to Washington via JFK

Report From the Road

We are now on the road. We had hoped to be on the road by 4:15 and just ahead to the heavy beltway traffic. Though she was in the office by 7 AM we left later than desired as Evie had items to look after at the office before she could leave. Hence we did the beltway crawl and crawled a good way up I 270 to Frederick MD a 40 minute trip that took 2.5 hours….driving a RV in heavy traffic is a pain.

Last night we stayed the night at a Super WalMart in southeast Harrisburg (just off Paxton and Mushroom). By the time we finished our groceries and making a minor repair there were 14 rigs camping in the back of parking lot.

We awoke to discover Josh sent us a text message….he needs a new cheep watch and new fanny pack. We picked those items up just before we stopped at Pocono Downs to take in sixteen harness races. Admission was free. We spent the afternoon trying to handicap the races, each picking a horse and cheering for it. None of mine ever finished in first, nor did Evie’s picks…sometimes our choices came second or third though. All told, if we had bet our choices for real we both would have lost big time. That said, I was a little comforted that the two handicappers whose notes were in the program we bought did not do much better than us. All told, it was an enjoyable afternoon of free entertainment. Watch for some photos in the near future of some pictures Evie took of the action.

Tonight we are staying in a little campground on the Delaware River. It is one of the poorest campgrounds in which we have stayed, but it is for one night and we are not interested in doing much other than doing some reading and turning in. That said...we were pleased to discover that the campground does have wireless.