I’m on the road from Salem to northern Washington as most of you are reading this. I pre-wrote it and scheduled it while sitting in Pep Boys on Monday. I’ll have someone *coughcoughcoughBethAnnecoughcoughcough* link it up at Kelly’s when the link-up for this week’s Quick Takes goes live.

**UPDATE** I got waylaid by car troubles in central Oregon and will be heading the rest of the way to northern Washington tomorrow. In the meantime, I get to enjoy a lovely motel room and a few more days of Internet access. (I’m trying to look for the positives in wondering if my engine had died yesterday.)

Meanwhile, enjoy some vacation stories from my past.

— 1 —

Canada 1996. My grandparents used to own a cabin in the wilds of British Columbia and every year from the time I was 5 until I was 20, I spent a week or more up there. Power was done by a generator and gas/oil. We’re talking so remote that our only communication with the outside world was a radio.

Anyway, my mom and grandmother had seen a bear the night before while walking through the woods to the garden and we were a little on edge about that. The next morning, I was out walking to the Point with my mom and as we walked into a clearing, a teenaged bear appeared. (It was easily twice my size.) I looked at it. It looked at me. I quickly fled the scene and it ran off in the other direction. My nickname was Goldilocks for the rest of the trip.

— 2 —

Ireland 1998. I kissed the Blarney Stone. (Nobody who knows me is incredibly surprised.) To do this, you’re walking around the periphery of the top of Blarney Castle… and there’s a very thin boundary that is protecting you from falling down several floors into the center of the castle. Did I mention that I’m afraid of heights?

— 3 —

London 1998. We had a 24-hour layover in London on our way to Ireland so we got hotel rooms and spent the next day exploring. We were the last people allowed in Westminster Abbey that day (it was Holy Saturday and they were prepping for 2000 people that would be attending Easter worship the next day) because my mom claimed I was a pilgrim. (It wasn’t a lie. I *WAS* Episcopalian and Westminster Abbey is part of my spiritual heritage.) It was simply amazing to see all the tombs of the kings and queens, take in the quiet, and see Poet’s Corner. I was also completely gobsmacked at how BIG it was. I mean, my jaw was hitting the floor when we saw it. My mom leaned over and informed me that the cathedral in Cologne, Germany (where she had just been on a business trip) was 4-5 times larger.

— 4 —

Del Norte Redwoods. We camped up the coast a lot when I was younger because it was cheaper than staying in motels. One of my favorites places is Del Norte Redwoods. It’s peaceful and just looks like a fairy kingdom belongs in the park. It’s meditative to sit and watch the sunbeams streaming through these huge trees and fun to climb on trunks of trees that are hundreds of years old and were felled by natural disasters.

— 5 —

Vancouver 1996. We took the train from Mt. Vernon, WA to Vancouver, British Columbia to see “Showboat” and stayed in the Georgian Court Hotel. The show was fabulous and exploring Vancouver the next day was awesome. It’s one of my favorite cities and I look forward to visiting it after the move.

— 6 —

Eel River 1991. This was another one of those “camping up the coast” trips and we stayed at a campground near the Eel River. I have good memories of swimming and trying to float the river.

— 7 —

Sunset Beach 2016. Not really a vacation as much of a day trip. It’s bloody hot in San Jose right now so we decamped to the beach after Daniel’s psych appointment on Friday. (I would post pictures but WordPress is being spazzy. *kicks it*) Daniel loved the water and I wish I could have gotten a picture of me holding him before chucking him into the waist-deep water. (My cell phone was up on the beach because it doesn’t like salt water very much.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.