Totally beautiful and crazy - couple of city slickers who knew nothing about boats, etc. has several harrowing experiences!
We drove all the way up from Chicago to rent this moderately priced boat that we saw in an advertisement but when we got there - holy cow! It looked like something from the turn of the century!
Naturally, we opted for the next one up the line and it cost like $300.00 a day and that was 20 years ago. We were both working, had gone all the way up there with our Lhasa Apso, Phoumi, and wanted to go on a cruise, so dammit, we signed on the dotted line.
We had just taken the boat out on the water and wondered what those buoys were doing in our path - turns out the water was low and they were marking off huge underwater boulders!! We knew we were in deep trouble when we called into the Command Post and they started screaming over the phone - "Stop" Turn the boat - NOW!!" Yikes.
Many other zany things happened but so much beauty and solitude!
Each night we (husband) pulled up the boat onto land by hoisting a rope over his shoulder and dragging it up to park it.
One day we cruised over to some land where we saw a building - turns out we were in Canada!
Sad thing was photo taking wasn't a "thing"then and we have very few photos from that trip.

Your description was so good that photos aren't really needed! Sounds like a wonderful vacation!

We aren't allowed to post personal photos though.
I think I read that they have to be from a regular website.
Thanks for the compliment.

See DFW's photos on this thread. Is that really a rule? I wasn't aware of it.

one winter I was stationed in Germany. Everything was incredibly cheap, from the train ride there and back, the warm, well-furnished room, the incredible northern Italian cuisine everywhere I went, the really good cheap red local wine, even the skiing was cheap, and my lift ticket along with my military ID was good to skiing on the other side of the mountain at St. Moritz. The people were wonderfully friendly, from the family who ran the guest house where i stayed, to the beautiful waitress at my favorite bar, who introduced me to her friends and family, to the legendary Toni Sailer, that I met by sheer chance while skiing on the Swiss side of the mountain.

As has been said so many times, "Those were the days..."

to travel again. Europe used to be so great when it was more affordable. Now everything is so expensive except for maybe parts of the Balkans and the Baltic states, also places I would love to visit! Thanks!

Loved visiting the ‘Stans.
About as cheap as you can get and absolutely fabulous.
Also Mongolia. Fascinating.

got to place the setting. Hubby and I had our first child, she was about 9 months old but we needed some down adult time. However, we didn't have a lot of money to spend, nor did we want to be gone too long because she was just a baby.

We lived in Tampa Florida, and this was so reasonable. We stayed at this location and saw the Maya ruins. I haven't been back in awhile now, but it was magical in 1991.

I always thought I would be afraid because it looks so steep. Also, in the last few years I have developed a fear of heights and vertigo, but it is something I definitely would have done years ago. If you did, what was it like?

I'm kind of short and those stairs to me, are steep. It was just pretty and had an amazing breeze that day. You could imagine what type of city it must have been.

Fascinating place, I climbed all the way to the top (I was in better shape then). Also visited Tulum and Valladolid, an interesting city with some fine colonial architecture, and saw the nearby cenotes. This was about 30 years ago, so it might be a lot more overrun by tourists now, but it was pretty manageable then.

My husband was very ill and had never expected to make the voyage, it was just a dream to keep him going. We had trip insurance so I figured we would cancel before the trip started.
This was a Christmas/New Years sailing.
He died the beginning of November. The funeral and other obsequies took minimal time. I worried about how it would look but decided that I really, really wanted to do the trip.
It was three weeks of going to Buenos Aires, then Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego and then getting on board an expedition vessel.
Went to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Islands - fabulous! Largest penguin colonies in the world. I was enchanted.
Onward to Antarctica and more penguins, geothermal bays and icebergs everywhere one looked.
It is still the most fabulous trip of my life! I have been to over 65 countries and this is still the most special of them all.

I am sure he would have wanted you to take the trip for the both of you. I am glad you had such an amazing experience. It sounds incredible!

BIRB!!!!1

And they were ADORABLE!

My husband and I were going to go on a river cruise in Europe to celebrate his retirement. Sadly, he never made it, but two years after his death, I decided to take the cruise by myself. As it turns out, I didn’t much care for the experience, mainly because it was a very American experience—hanging out with Americans, eating American-style food, even American TV—interspersed with visits to quaint architecture in American tour groups. I think my husband would have loved it for precisely the same reason. There are sights I’m glad I saw, but overall, I’m not one for cruising or tour groups.

What cruise line was it? Remind me never to take it.

I was very happy that the majority of people on my trip were Brits (still friends with one couple), Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis. It was a very congenial group.
I try to book with foreign tour groups when I go. Brits, Aussies, etc.

Barcelona. Sagrada Familia is just amazing. Someday I will go there! Thank you so much for the pics! I just get so inspired by them!

Went to a place out in Brookline called La Morra(sp?). Excellent food. Plus, all of the other cool stuff in Boston!

I have also lived in NYC and San Fran, but I think Boston is going to be home for me for the foreseeable future. I could only ever live in NY again if I suddenly became fantastically wealthy and didn't have to work.

It was too much of a grind to do the work-a-day thing there. Boston is much more easy going. I like it here and it's close to other family members in Maine and Vermont so it's easy for me to get away. The great thing about Boston is that it is so easy to get away in only an hour or two and you are in a quaint little town or by the seashore.

I liked SF for a little while, but I am just too much of an east coaster to ever spend much time out there. I knew it would only be temporary. It kind of bummed me out after a while.

Brookline is very nice. A very upscale suburb with lovely older, larger homes. A lot of great restaurants out there as well. Where do you live now?

My eldest daughter went to Med School in Philly, and she invited me to come back and spend a month with her during her last few weeks finishing up her degree. I returned to university after I retired, and I was just then finishing up the reading for comprehensive exams for a MA in History, so I jumped on the chance to spend time in the area.

We spent three days in Boston and the surrounding area (walked the Freedom Trail, and drove the road out to Lexington and Concord). I had just finished reading Washington's Crossing and Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer, and I was just amazed to be in the middle of it!

My wife and I have spent a fair amount of time in the east. We did a 14-day road trip through the Southeast a few years ago. Did a few trips to tour Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields over the years, as well as several trips to D.C. and its surrounds. Not as much time in the Northeast (outside of my trip to stay with my daughter and an earlier road trip I took with her from D.C. to Dartmouth for an admissions interview).

We really, really like it back there, but I think we have been spoiled by our California weather. The humidity in the east really slays me; although, everything is so green and beautiful that we've been tempted more than once to give it a try. In any case, our next big road trip is planned for next spring when we'll make the drive from Boston to Maine and back.

Were you the one posting about your move to a new place in Boston?

How nice of you to remember! I lived here before I moved to San Francisco and loved it and now I am back again. It's so quaint and there are brick sidewalks, old oil lamposts (now electric), tons of trees and and beautiful old brick /brownstown old homes. It's so cozy and serene here compared to where I was in the West End, which was mostly modern high rises. It really feels like a neighborhood.

I lived in San Francisco for six years and it was very beautiful, but I missed my family and friends and the seasons. You are right about the humidity though, it is awful. I spend half the summer inside in the AC because I just can't bear the heat and high dew points. It's oppressive. The weather out west was much easier to cope with, but there is nothing like fall in New England! It's my favorite season!

Have you been to Maine before? It's really beautiful. I go up a lot since my sister lives in Kennebunk and I take the Amtrak Downeaster up there (Wells). It's such a beautiful state, especially along the coastline. Anyway, if you want any suggestions for the southern Maine coast or Boston, let me know. I love introducing people to my neck of the woods!

Nine years ago Dh and I flew our two sons and our tandem bicycles to Ireland for a several week trip. We landed in Shannon, had a prearranged pickup for us and the bikes to get to Tralee. Spent a few days there in a campground and biked for five days to Doolin, enjoying every moment of the countryside. Took a train to Dublin, spent a few nights at the Hilton (free thanks to my brother’s air miles) and then took a ferry to Wales.

More trains from there to Oxford, ended up biking into our horrible fleabag hotel (perhaps literally) around midnight, and we quickly checked out the next day and found the campground just out of town. Spent a few days there and met a lovely couple living in campground. He was a grad student at Oxford and they had a toddler and they were all living in a tent.

We then biked the wrong way along the Thames (but was super fun) and took five days through the Cotswolds to Bath, where we’d rented a very old house for a week that backed up to a local (provincial?) park with a Palladian bridge in full view.

We celebrated our son’s 11th birthday there, just after the 4th of July. Different sort of 4th in England. Much quieter.

Ireland is so beautiful! I have been to Tralee and it is lovely. Dublin is a very nice city as well, so filled with history and so mystical.

Anyway, it sounds like it was a great trip all around. The British Isles are one of my favorite places in the world. I am not sure why I am so drawn to them, but it's almost an obsession with me. I almost feel like I belong there.

I love traveling to other parts of the world as well, but there is something about the British Isles that haunts me. I am glad you had such a great opportunity to explore that part of the world. I envy you. Not in a bad way, just that I wish I could have a similar experience.

It was the best part of my trip to Italy. Became a fan of St. Frances.
And I’m an Atheist.

Only if you would like to. I am an atheist as well, but I have kind of a soft spot for St. Francis.

Always had the concept of Francis of Assisi, but until I stood in front of that huge stone crypt I didn't accept he was more than a bible tale.

So young and carefree. We are also best friends and we hadn't seen each other for six months. My father was there on business so he put us up in a wonderful hotel and we had the time of our lives, mostly just the two of us. We rode all over on the city on buses and out to the Catacombs. We kept getting lost and we couldn't stop laughing at ourselves. It was so hot, we ate Italian ices all day. Gosh, they tasted great. Every now and then we'd touch base with our folks and they'd buy us a good meal. There was also ample vino. Sigh. Wish I could do it all again.

Sometimes it is who you travel with that makes the trip most memorable. I can almost imagine what a great time you had!

I spent a year of high school there. Courses were in Castilian, but life was lived in Catalan, so I learned to speak both. I still run down there every 6 to 8 weeks, so it's almost routine for me. Less than a 2 hour flight. I'm a one hour flight from London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Switzerland, Denmark, Prague, Vienna, so I live quite centrally for much of Europe. In 2 hours or so, we can be in Stockholm, Oslo, Rome, Dubrovnik, Madrid, Dublin, Marseille, etc. Belgium and the Netherlands are so close, we just take trains.

Europe is so full of interesting places, we haven't seen anywhere close to all of them. Kraków in Poland, Edinburgh in Scotland, Rome, Ireland, the Baltic countries--all within 1-2 hours' flight. Plus some places one of us has been, but not the other (mainland Greece, Turkey, Iceland, Finland). Our daughters have been to Israel where we have not. We have been to Russia, where they have not.

One of our best vacations was when we all went halfway around the world for our younger daughter's high school graduation. We stayed an extra ten days.
Kaua'i's Waimea Canyon:
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The Na Pali coast from a helicopter:
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A bamboo forest on the Hilo side of the Big Island:
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Some bay along the road:
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Graduation, Hawaiian style:
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But these days, we just look for some peace and quiet, so we make the trip every year from Germany to Cape Cod. We fly into, and out of Boston. Our favorite beach is Longnook Beach on the National Seashore side in Truro:
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And the sunsets from the porch of the house we rent are by themselves worth the trip
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Of course, at home, we have this in back of our house in Germany, so some tell us we don't deserve a vacation to begin with!
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Last edited Fri Aug 9, 2019, 07:43 AM - Edit history (1)

I envy you! Your backyard in Germany is just beautiful, and I really loved travelling in Germany (and all of Europe). I had no idea it was such a beautiful country until I travelled with my brother and his wife when they lived there. I had been to Munich before when I was a student, but it was nice to see the country by car. To see all the little towns and villages. It's such a clean, charming place.

I really love all of Europe, I can't get enough of it and I hope to go back again soon. Your photos of Hawaii are beautiful as well. I have only been to Maui, which was beautiful, especially the road to Hana, but I have never been to the big island.

Of everywhere, one of my favorite places is still Cape Cod. My family went to Chatham every year when I was growing up. There is just something about it that is like no other place. It's hard to describe the charm of it, but I am sure you know what I mean. Thank you for your beautiful photos! It is so nice to be reminded of it!

I hope you and your family are well!

We stayed in a villa in a small village outside of Valletta. It was about 500 years old & had been everything from an army barracks, hunting lodge & palace. It is as close to heaven as I'll ever get. The island itself is wonderful. We went to temples and monoliths that predated Stonehenge. The people were so kind and open.

It sounds amazing! The island has such an incredible history, and learning about history is one of my favorite things about traveling.

Which included a few days at one of my favourite places on the planet, Kangaroo Island.
We did see plenty along the way too, some that I was familiar with and lots that was new to me.
I think the why may of been more important than the places visited as great as they were, it was the first time my wife(not at the time) had visited Australia so everything was new to her and I was able to show her all those cool Aussie experiences like cuddling a Koala, feeding a Joey in her arms, Drop Bears and all that sort of stuff.
It was also my first real adult holiday where I was in charge, I was in my late 20's and aside from holidays with parents as a kid I had not gone anywhere. It was a revelation.

Crete comes in number 2, that was our first proper holiday as a family with both of the monsters in tow but it was an awesome place and would happily go there again and could see ourselves living there but probably never will.

I would love to cuddle a Koala and feed a baby Kangaroo. You make me want to go there!

Crete is wonderful too. I went there on vacation when I was studying abroad in Austria. We stayed there for a week in these apartments right on the ocean and it was so cheap at the time. I think we paid US $3.50 per night! The food was amazing too. We ordered up these feasts w/ drinks every night and never spent more than $5.00 per meal per person. We rented motor scooters and traveled around the island to these incredible little villages that were like going back in time. Everything was just so beautiful and amazing. I will never forget it!

...next to my future wife.

I have relived that moment for 35 years, pretty much every day, sometimes multiple times a day.

I never saw someone so beautiful at anytime before that.

getting down to Big Sur. I had always wanted to go there. I got down as far as Carmel and went to LA and San Diego, but somehow missed Big Sur. I am glad you have such wonderful memories of that place.

...that morning I was constantly engaged in a conversation with myself about whether life was worth living and often felt it wasn't, but forever after that morning, I have understood that life is very much is worth living.

All the pain I'd ever known was meaningless because she was asleep beside me, and rolled over, without really waking and gave me a kiss. That kiss was the exact moment that saved my life.

Everything good was possible thereafter.

You got to keep it as well...not everyone's quite so...fated.
😊

It was million miles from anything. This was a while ago, before social media, mobile phones, and pretty much even the internet. There were no landlines or room TVs. It was just you, the islands, and whatever activities you brought along or partook in. For me it was lots of good fiction, a travel scrabble game, fun crosswords, snorkeling, photography, and island exploring.

Maybe the best thing about it was the length -- 12 nights! That really relaxes a person.

I swam out to that little spit of sand to the right of the middle island.

New York to Chicago to LA to Seattle to Vancouver to Toronto and home by train in sleepers. Stayed in a corner room at the Vancouver Waterfront Fairmont Hotel.

I was in Siesta Key for less than 24 hours, and was looking for job prospects!
Its stunning. I'm from missouri.
My first adult view of the ocean was at night, watching what seemed like the Whitecaps eating themselves into black oblivion.

Very primal, very dark-soul stuff .

I very rarely take time off work or class on a willing basis. I'm glad I did for that trip.

Every locale was drop dead gorgeous. We just clicked with everyone we met. We enjoyed the bentos. We felt welcomed and at home everywhere we went. We had such a good time we returned six months later for another week. And my wife and I enjoyed that so much, that we returned for a third week four months after that and brought our daughter with us. Oddly enough, she was not impressed. It was too quiet and peaceful for her taste.

I was 14 and my older brother grown and gone so parents let me bring my friend Valerie. And I was finally old enough that they let us be on our own all day and we stayed in the Disney Hotel and rode the monorail to the Hotel. That was 1970. Back when the lines weren’t bad.

When I first read your post I thought I would pick the summer of the fires in Glacier National Park and how last minute our plans got changed and we ended up in Banff and Lake Louise staying at the Fairmont because I was working in travel and got a good deal.

But looking back over my life that trip with my parents and Valerie meant the most to me.

Some wacky people kissed in the tee vee lounge. On a chair. Right in front of God and everybody.

This was about 1989.

Because it was the South of France

I didn't take a camera with me, but I was in the South of France.

I was trying to think of what has been my best vacation and it just brought back so many good memories. And I simply cannot name just one. I have traveled alone and with different people at different stages of my life and there's been something special about all of them.

Five years ago, I went to visit a friend who lived in the Japanese countryside and stayed in her house. It was an amazing experience. There are so many little details of life that are so different.

Like, damn, it's a miracle we weren't killed or maimed or left to rot in a foreign prison.

Years later, after the terror has worn off, and providing there's no lingering PTSD, those make the best stories.

I have scars on my body recalling those vacations.

I've previously posted one of my better vacations here:

Hunter goes hunting wild animals with a rake...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/112721453

On one of my terrible vacations I jumped out of a moving car and ended up riding the bus more than 300 miles home wearing shredded clothes covered in blood. Not surprisingly, nobody sat anywhere near me, nobody talked to me, except one brave soul who asked if I wanted the police called.

Two of my favorite ordinary vacations, no blood, no great misadventures, have been to Mexico City and Chicago. Both are wonderful. I might add San Francisco to the list, but maybe it's too familiar, my wife and I visit several times a year.

I used to regularly camp out in the desert, deserts are magnificently peaceful places wherever guns and off-road vehicles are banned, but my wife would rather be at the beach or in the forests.

it is a no brainer for me..






Koz

Not a lot to see. Mt. Rushmore was what my dad wanted to see. I became more familiar with the native American culture which has stayed with me.

But what made it great was that I was 11 years old in the summer of '65. The sixties were just taking off and Beatlemania was at its height. The world was beginning to change, and even as a kid I could sense it.

about six or seven years ago.

I had been turned down by a writing workshop, and my original impulse was to simply do my own writing retreat: book a cabin in the woods, spend all day writing. Instead, it evolved into a very self-indulgent vacation. I booked a suite at the Hilton. Took a pink jeep tour. Another day a helicopter tour. Did spa services several times. Drank margaritas.

After four days I drove to Williams, Arizona, then took the Grand Canyon train to the Grand Canyon and overnighted there. I got up early the next morning an took the free tour bus to the easternmost stop on its run, just after sunrise. I was completely alone for an hour. Wandered around various points along the rim and took the train back to Williams that afternoon, had another night at the hotel there, then drove back home (Santa Fe) the next day.

For the train trip, I booked the luxury parlor car, keeping with the theme of being completely self-indulgent.

Originally a friend was supposed to join me which was why I'd booked the suite in the first place. When she had to cancel, I at first thought I'd rebook to a regular room and decided I deserved the luxury. It was well worth it.

Several years ago I gook my first cruise, in the Caribbean. Next year I'm doing a 17 day cruise to Hawaii. I can hardly wait.