Friday, May 3, 2013

My favorite vacation spot (LBC topic)

If ever a topic could render me speechless, or nearly so, oddly enough it is this one. In my 64 years, I have been on a grand total of 3 real vacations. The kind wherein you pack your bags and head off to a destination for a week or two of fun and frivolity, hiking, camping - whatever.

To celebrate our collective 40th birthdays my core group of HS friends celebrated by taking a cruise to the Caribbean.  It was a one week tour of the southern Caribbean via NCL. Our cruise ship was smallish - less than 1000 cruisers - and we quickly made ourselves known as "The Old Gang".  We set sail from San Juan Puerto Rico on a Sunday and returned there the following Saturday, after visiting Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, St Maarten, St Thomas and again San Juan. That's a lot of island hopping in a relatively;y short period of time, [packed with the obligatory sight seeing, scuba diving, shopping, drinking, more shopping, more drinking, and other on board festivities. It was on these shore based excursions that we became widely known as The Old Gang  and we were having off-the -charts fun, especially on the booze cruise in Antigua. You know the type - unlimited quantities of rum punch freely available.  Rope swinging off the boat into the water.  More drinking.  Upon our return to the cruise ship, all 9 of us descended upon Lynn and my cabin and began ordering rounds of  Corona.  We'd call room service for each successive round until we had a 10-ft. row of empty bottles in the hall against the wall..  Oh - and that was formal dinner night  too.

Upon exiting the room heading to the aforementioned formal dinner with tie askew, eyes glazed over and squinted tight and barely able to stand straight our porter - a tooth challenged Jamaican gent named Bailey - looked at me, grinned and said with his thick accent "I see we had a good time today sir". to which I replied his powers of observation were most astute. I'd been purchasing local rum from each island and upon taste-testing them, if not pleased I presented Bailey with the bottle. (we got excellent service BTW) I handed him his Antigua bottle - interestingly enough apparently my drinking history was so focused on Bacardi all others paled in comparison. I only later discovered the pleasures of Capt Morgan.  Ahem.  And the entire week we heard this song played over and over....


At any rate, the next day marked our return to San Juan and the end of the adventure.  Our flight home deposited us at SF airport Sunday and I was at work at 8AM on Monday.  Big mistake.

Other than that rip, my vacation time is usually taken over holiday weekends, giving myself -4 day weekends and travel has not been possible.  The last trip was to College Station Texas to meet the family and watch my niece Sammy play in a national softball tournament at which she blew away college teams (Sammy was a high school sophomore at the time).  Incidentally she graduates from college in a few weeks - leaving as her teams MVP and the school's female athlete of the year.  She got the pitching genes so coveted by guys like Fos and I. Those of you on Facebook can see Sammy and pics ofthat trip in my photos / And, perhaps not evident is the fact that Sammy is 6-ft. tall and drop-dead gorgeous.  She got my brothers size and her mom's looks - LOL

I do recall the typical driving vacations when I was a kid in Colorado and my fave of those had to be the one that took us to the spectacular views of Bryce Canyon/

And I now see that my natural propensity to extensive verbosity has generated  a long post about very little - LOL.  I will close by saying that I now vacation vicariously  with friends, a prime example being my great and good friends Dave & Pat Hitchcock.  Please check out my last vicarious trip via Patty's blog about the adventures on the MV Lillian Belle - it's listed over there under blogs I follow.  And while you're a it please check how my LBC pals spend their vacation time.  And I have 5 weeks of vacation yet to take this year.  Sigh.  If it's not one thing it's another.

12 comments:

  1. I mentioned a cruise in my piece, but left out the day spent at sea with about eight of us playing cards while setting the world to rights and lubricating our vocal cords with Bacardi!

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  2. On our day at sea we shot skeet off the fantail of the ship, engaged in some silly shipboard olympic stuff and then set the world right - I was drinking Norwegian beer for most of that exercise - along with some good single malt

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  3. This post reminded me of the character in "Out of Africa" who says, "I have been a mental traveler". I have a friend whose hobby is planning trips. She's never stepped foot outside of the U.S., but she has planned many trips, including where to stay, and what to see. If she ever has the time and money to go, she has it all planned out in advance. :)

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  4. Man, do you or don't you bring back memories of some rummy holidays that I have had with some glorious friends, alas all of them on permanent high now a days. Our poison was a lethal brand called Old Monk made by an Indian company and believe me it was and I am told it still is a potent spirit. I had the glorious experience of spending a night in the can too.

    I think that when we do get to meet face to face and sit down to talk we will find a great deal in common for the two of us. Just some minor tweeting here and there.

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    1. Your term is I believe synchronicity - and appropriate it seems

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  5. Omg Shackman, I had such a good time on your vacation. It oozed through each and every word. I even smile as I type this message.
    blessings to you ~ maxi

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  6. Chuck, the cruise is a wonderful memory for all of us. I missed the beer party in your room but I remember when all of you poured into our room afterward. We were all a bit buzzed at dinner...the photo says it all.

    I remember our trip to New Orleans when you first moved to Texas. We went to K-Pauls for dinner...great blackened catfish. It was my 47th birthday and Dave had a street artist draw my portrait. I still have it...dark circles under the eyes and all.

    Good times!

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    1. Oh to be 47 again Patty. Sad to think we've been in Texas almost 20 years. Medicare next year - LOLLOL Sigh. Those were fun times - as was the vist to College Station.

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  7. Our family loves to travel also. Our favorite place is Pigeon Forge, TN. It is such a family-friendly place to visit. We went to Dollywood at Christmastime last year and loved the fact that all of the Christmas shows were Christ-centered. There are so many wonderful things to do there---Smoky Mountains, hiking, horseback riding, zip lining,etc.
    Vacation

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  8. i had a very good spending a lot of time in bandipur resorts 2 days I had so many memoriable movements and br hills resorts too

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  9. Keep more updated in tourist destinations for this year. Maybe we can use it on our next planned vacation. Keep informed and find the best place for your next travel to ensure that you and your family will enjoy.

    http://travel-buff.com/travel-guides

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