Went to an Aunt's 100 birthday, I guess you could call it a vacation. However, I was in a lot of pain, by the time I got to the airport to come home I had to use a wheel chair, unable to take more than a few steps at a time. Yes, I would call it a vacation of sorts.
Actually, I don't have any desire to go anywhere. I'd rather stay home, traveling is too much a hassle, just not up to it any longer. At home I have everything I need, that makes me happy. Anyway, I have pets that need care. A pet hotel would be nice but again the darn people charge you money for that, lol. Just discovered a couple of days ago that I have another bulging disk, if that thing completely goes out I need to be close to my back doctor.
This post was edited by Honey Dew at July 17, 2023 4:54 PM MDT
I hope and pray I have many years before physical condition quashes my desire and ability to travel. My grandfather and his older brother took a cross-country road trip when they were both over 90, so I have every reason to be hopeful! Another consideration for me is ability to bring my dogs. There's a website called "Bring Fido" that's very helpful.
Being able to take your dogs is a big plus. I told my honey years ago we needed to make hay while the sun was sill shining, now it's too late for many, many things, it isn't like I didn't warn him. Now it's a struggle just to walk from my house to my vehicle. I held on to the dream of being together, it wasn't my decision to wait so darn long. As time goes on it won't get any better without God's intervention.
This post was edited by Honey Dew at July 26, 2023 4:11 PM MDT
When I was a kid, it was my parents who decided on the location. While very young, it was a kids' home while they went off on their own. In primary school years, holidays occurred whenever the stock market was high & yielding good dividends. They took my younger sister and I to Fiji and New Caledonia. In highschool years, after Dad had died, Mum took us to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Bali.
In my tertiary years in London, UK, I went on camping trips in Europe during the long summer holidays: France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Netherlands and Denmark.
Since returning to Australia at 23, have never been overseas and rarely been on a holiday.
Bus trip camping with 15 friends to Uluru and several other sacred sites in the central desert.
Ari and I had our honeymoon in the Daintree National Park.
As time passed, income dropped, making holidays unaffordable.
Ari and I will make a major sacrifice to attend his niece's wedding in Melbourne this coming December. That's probably the last holiday we'll ever have.
I think of holidays as a luxury - totally unnecessary.
But there are real benefits to travel if one gets off the tourist routes and meets people on their own terms, learning their customs and beliefs, and discovering how they live. It opens the mind, shows us the limitations of our own views, and helps to develop a deeper understanding of how the world works. No amount of travel docos on TV can prepare a person for the abject poverty of tribespeople during a drought, or people living with chronic malnutrition, or untreated leprosy, cancers or other ills. No doco can give us smell and feel the air of a foreign country. Without immersion, our understanding and empathy is blind. There are countless things we take for granted - which are simply not so in many other places.
This post was edited by inky at July 2, 2023 1:16 AM MDT
Thanks, Savvy. If I had heaps of money, I'd probably spend most of it on environmental &/or social justice issues. But there's a part of me that would love to travel the world by sailboat, bicycle, on horse, donkey, camel or elephant backs, or on foot. Natural environments count high for me, but so also do people and cultures. I guess it's what makes the world what it is - and we're lucky to be alive to experience it. Even though there are times when it can be sad, distressing, brutal or painful, there is also so much beauty, wonder, awe and goodness. It's true about Daintree. Try looking up the spiders that look like 1960s jewellery. There are details in the flora and fauna that are amazing.
One of the best was a trip to the mountains with my dogs and adult sons a few years ago. We played board games, explored and watched movies. It was pretty magical.
* Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA -- May 31, 1889 Flood Earthen dam fails and 2,200 people perish (have gone there numerous times) -- though I know much about the event, I still think I know nothing -- impossible for me to comprehend the intricacies of the pre-event, the event itself, and post-event
* Hinckley, Minnesota, USA -- September 1894 Wildfires I read a couple of books about it and had to visit and learn more; incredibly powerful experience for me
Did a famous murder happen there?
Fall River, Massachusetts, USA August 4, 1892 Murders After studying the event for countless years, I was compelled to stand in the house where Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered. Lizzie Borden was accused and acquitted in a trial. The home is now a Bed and Breakfast and I was the sole guest and I spent a night in the house alone.
Are there great roller coasters there?
Holiday World Amusement Park, Santa Claus, Indiana, USA Amusement parks Offhand, I'm unsure of how many places I've traveled to just ride coasters and visit amusement parks. I've ridden all kinds of coasters but my Favorite Number One Coaster is at this park:
"The Voyage"
This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at July 17, 2023 3:49 PM MDT
Some of my travels have centered around places where the son of my best friend was stationed when he was in the Air Force - South Carolina, Las Vegas, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador. Other vacations were to places where a travel companion and I decided we wanted go - Cape Cod, Italy, Germany, San Francisco, Montana, Alaska, New Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, Amish Country in PA.
It sounds like he had some great duty stations! Wonderful that you were able to go with your friend on those adventures. From your list, it sounds like natural scenery and culture are some of your influences.
Honey Dew 