• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

So ... who's doing anything notable this summer?

jeffbear

jeffbear

Mod Squad
Staff member
I know I'm not.

We're in the doldrums after the Free Agent frenzy and ahead of camps opening. Watching the arbitration parade isn't exactly compelling when your own club has no skin in the game. So ....

Summer time stuff. Anybody doing anything interesting this summer? I took our crowd to Disney back in May but otherwise have been slaving away trying to complete a couple of school projects this summer. Nose to the grindstone stuff to be sure. Otherwise I've just moved my youngest into his first off campus housing up in Asheville ... a typical college guy's rental house with an ancient kitchen, 5 foot tall weeds in the yard and the pervasive smell of damp basement. Standard stuff, really.

Anybody else got anything?
 
Lucked into going to both the US Opens as my wife's company had a sponsor's tent. Otherwise, not much. Maybe a trip to Quebec at the end of the month just to get away.
 
We had to push a return trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton to next summer, so I don't have anything too exciting.

But one cool thing we did was to hike up to Leconte Lodge in the Smokies for an overnight. It's difficult to get reservations (they book on Oct for the following season) so I was kind of stalking cancellations in June, finally gave up, and ended up snagging a very last minute cancellation with less than 24 hours notice (they tweet out the last minute cancels).

Anyway, there are 5 different trails (we went up Alum Cave, around 5 miles up) that lead up to the "lodge" (which is really just a collections of cabins and 2 common buildings). They provide you with dinner and breakfast (eaten in the dining hall, family style , so you meet people from all over) and clean bedding in your cabin, leaving you with just packing up some lunch, rain gear (in case) and an extra layer of clothes. No tv, phones, or electricity (water from a well/pump), they provide you an oil lamp in your cabin. We went at the end of June and the temps were in the 50s-60s.

Really cool experience. Highly recommended.
 
Drove to Michigan and back for college orientation, Florida and back for a 7 day family Harry Potter(Universal)+Disney pilgrimage, and (in 2 weeks) Michigan and back again to deliver daughter to CMU, all in the span of 9 weeks, with 2 long-weekend trips mixed in to Ashe/Alleghany County up near NC/TN border for inlaw family reunions.

Wishing I got frequent flyer mileage points for my car.
 
Y'all pretty lucky to get vacations and time off.
We, retirees, don't get vacation, holidays or even weekends off. So, it's been golf, golf, and more golf plus sold my house and bought a town house and GF is selling her house and buying a house in Colorado. Summers here and winters in Colorado. Hmm, seems almost backwards.
 
This summer went to the Philippines for three weeks - scuba diving. Diving was great: travel was brutal.
Have rented a villa in Provence for two weeks next summer - just outside of Avignon.

Have done the Yellowstone/Tetons trip several times - I would highly recommend to any who has not gone there.
Another visually spectacular place to go is the Moab area of Utah. Think of Sedona, Arizona on steroid overload!
 
Last edited:
Emerald Isle last week for in-laws reunion. God those people are loud!

Old farts beat young Turks at golf however.

Otherwise, trying to earn a paycheck!
 
Biding my time until I get an air cast off my foot and hoping my Achilles is healed. Yippee.
 
It's been a very busy summer, between business and leisure. Started the summer with Memorial Day weekend in Atlantic Beach. I spent 2 weeks in the GTA in June on business. I was home for a week and then did 8 days in Napa/Sonoma/SF with both daughters, my father and sister. I'm on my way back from Evanston, IL after an apartment hunting trip for my youngest, who starts an internship there next month. Labor Day weekend back at the beach, move my daughter to Evanston the weekend after and then leave from Chicago for a 2 week business trip to Barcelona. With any luck, I'll be able to see FC Barcelona play Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou.

I need a vacation to recover from my summer..
 
It's been a pretty busy--if not necessarily notable--summer for me, filled with a lot of mini-vacations and trips. Up to Massachusetts to see my daughter graduate from high school (she did her junior and senior years at a boarding school in Williamstown) and bring her home for the summer, up and back to Burlington for my daughter's freshman orientation at the University of Vermont, up and back to Maryland for my son's four weeks of sleep-away camp, a day trip to Wrightsville Beach with my daughter, and an overnight trip with my family to Carolina Beach...all during a period when I've had less business travel than I usually do. Still to come: an overnight trip with my wife to the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary and then the big, emotional trip back up to Burlington to drop off my daughter for her freshman year at UVM. GO CATS GO!
 
I have been traveling for work, so my wife joined me for a great weekend in Toronto. In a couple of weeks, we head to Scotland and Ireland for two weeks, in front of a 10 day business trip for me to London, Paris, and Munich.

While on the Ireland trip, we'll be attending the semi-finals of the All-Ireland Gaelic Football tournament. My bartender friends at Connolly's on 5th in Charlotte are very jealous.
 
Playa Del Carmen for a week with a crew I've been kicking it with for 20+ years. No scuba though :( just drankin!

Currently at a family reunion down in the muerrells inlet/garden city area. More drankin!

I want to get down to Austin for the F1 race but that doesn't appear likely now that I'm running low on vacation hours.

Back to the grind soon....
 
Flew to New Orleans July 4th weekend to see the family and check in on a very elderly aunt. I am flying to Ottawa on Thursday to start a week in a cottage in Quebec. The house was built circa 1850 on an island in the Ottawa River and was just brought into the 20th century in the 21st century (got electricity, indoor plumbing and running water in 2001). No internet or cable where I am going although it's available on the island. I won't have cell reception either-- land line only. I plan to hike, sleep, do some chores around the property, drink some smooth bourbon, float on the river, and read, read, read... In October I will be in Colorado.
 
HeyKurtz said:
Still to come: an overnight trip with my wife to the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary
Click to expand...

That's about a 10 minute drive from my family's house up there. I love being in that area in the summer. I sure hope you enjoy the anniversary trip and some nice cool mornings on a deck with a cup of coffee.
 
DeputyDan said:
This summer went to the Philippines for three weeks - scuba diving. Diving was great: travel was brutal.
Have rented a villa in Provence for two weeks next summer - just outside of Avignon.
Click to expand...

Thus far you win the furthest traveled award.

I've always wanted to go to Australia but my body simply isn't built for spending that bloody long cooped up in a plane. So I envy your dedication to leisure.
 
Boardwork said:
I have been traveling for work, so my wife joined me for a great weekend in Toronto. In a couple of weeks, we head to Scotland and Ireland for two weeks, in front of a 10 day business trip for me to London, Paris, and Munich.

While on the Ireland trip, we'll be attending the semi-finals of the All-Ireland Gaelic Football tournament. My bartender friends at Connolly's on 5th in Charlotte are very jealous.
Click to expand...

Where are you going in Scotland? My ancestral home and a place I've visited quite a few times.
 
My wife and I are expecting our first child in late December...a baby boy! So needless to say no big trips planned anytime soon for us other than to Rex Hospital!!!
 
jeffbear said:
I've always wanted to go to Australia but my body simply isn't built for spending that bloody long cooped up in a plane.
Click to expand...

You need to do it...it's worth the journey. I went once about six or seven years ago and can't wait to go back.
 
Very low key, low budget summer. Tried to entertain the kids during trackout. Get some stuff done around the house. Spent a week at Carolina Beach in June...we usually go in September but I will be in school and won't be able to go then. School starts for me in 2 weeks. The next two years are going to be all school for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top