The Adventure Continues
This week was my annual Summer Vacation/get the hell out of the office for at least one week a year/avoid office celebrations of my birthday (which really doesn't work anymore). The last few years, this has been a week to get stuff done around the house, work on various projects, read a lot and generally loaf. This year was a little different...
Earlier this year there was a conversation:
Shar: "So...where are we going on your vacation this year?"
Me: "I...uh...*sputter* *put brain back together* We're going somewhere? *hopeful tone*"
Discussion followed in which we agreed that my first impulses - Grand Canyon, somewhere tropical, etc. - should probably be shelved for a later date, rather than burn out (possibly literally) Shar's enthusiasm for traveling in one trip. Other ideas were scrapped as well, largely due to laziness on getting Shar's passport. Finally we settled on Tahoe as somewhere neither of us has been previously and reasonably temperate in summer. It's also a place that has been repeatedly suggested for possible group vacationing.
The plan was to arrange lodging for a few days, drive up, see the area, make our own assessment of viability for a group trip and then, if we liked it enough, find further lodging while we were there and extend the trip.
We didn't wind up extending - instead we drove up Saturday and then came back Tuesday afternoon. (I proceeded to indulge in the fantasy that I still wasn't home for a couple days though, which is why no one heard from me.)
It's not that we didn't like the area. In fact, we both agree that it's utterly beautiful and would be a fabulous place for a group vacation (especially if we could find a rental house on the beach or got a camping space along the north shore - we both _loved_ Sand Harbor and agreed it would be good to be near there on a future trip). It's just that we didn't really anticipate the local activity options properly and so weren't really prepared to keep ourselves entertained for the rest of the week.
Shar was a very good sport though - he indulged me with several walks and more time in the sun than he usually appreciates.
And we learned some very important things...like you get what you pay for in hotel rooms (and god do we love our own bed at home) and we are very out of practice at doing things that aren't group focused.
But it was a worthy experiment. This was a first for us. We've done a few short trips with groups or family, but thus far, Shar and I have never taken a trip together that was just the two of us. So I guess we'll need some practice.
Earlier this year there was a conversation:
Shar: "So...where are we going on your vacation this year?"
Me: "I...uh...*sputter* *put brain back together* We're going somewhere? *hopeful tone*"
Discussion followed in which we agreed that my first impulses - Grand Canyon, somewhere tropical, etc. - should probably be shelved for a later date, rather than burn out (possibly literally) Shar's enthusiasm for traveling in one trip. Other ideas were scrapped as well, largely due to laziness on getting Shar's passport. Finally we settled on Tahoe as somewhere neither of us has been previously and reasonably temperate in summer. It's also a place that has been repeatedly suggested for possible group vacationing.
The plan was to arrange lodging for a few days, drive up, see the area, make our own assessment of viability for a group trip and then, if we liked it enough, find further lodging while we were there and extend the trip.
We didn't wind up extending - instead we drove up Saturday and then came back Tuesday afternoon. (I proceeded to indulge in the fantasy that I still wasn't home for a couple days though, which is why no one heard from me.)
It's not that we didn't like the area. In fact, we both agree that it's utterly beautiful and would be a fabulous place for a group vacation (especially if we could find a rental house on the beach or got a camping space along the north shore - we both _loved_ Sand Harbor and agreed it would be good to be near there on a future trip). It's just that we didn't really anticipate the local activity options properly and so weren't really prepared to keep ourselves entertained for the rest of the week.
Shar was a very good sport though - he indulged me with several walks and more time in the sun than he usually appreciates.
And we learned some very important things...like you get what you pay for in hotel rooms (and god do we love our own bed at home) and we are very out of practice at doing things that aren't group focused.
But it was a worthy experiment. This was a first for us. We've done a few short trips with groups or family, but thus far, Shar and I have never taken a trip together that was just the two of us. So I guess we'll need some practice.