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| Vacation, All I Ever Wanted |
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I love being a teacher. Truly. It is the best job in the whole world. Not only do I get to work with and around children all day, shape and form the future of our beautiful country, and affect the lives of those around me, I get to have summers off.
Having summers off is, without a doubt, becoming my favorite thing--well, besides mashed potatoes, cantaloupe, pedicures, and free IMAX viewings. Heh!
This year is the first year since I have been teaching that I didn’t apply for and teach summer school. At first I was a bit, shall we say, nervous about the lack of income. I usually use that money for all of my summer playing. Well, this year I decided to not do it (cuz. let’s face it, summer school is so NOT regular school--it’s a whole different ‘clientele’, so to speak). and at first I wondered if it was a mistake.
Days after the deadline for application, I decided to join Patsy and Katy in Hawai’i. I didn’t go to Hawai’i at that time (in April), but I decided to do it. That means, not only was I not going to be doing summer school and earning an extra income, I would be traveling and spending the income that I already had. Hah! What a brilliant plan! I didn’t regret my decision at all. I’d make it work, dagnabit!
This is not a summer to be sitting back and enjoying the Sol-ful rays. (Get it? “Sol”-ful? Sol=Sun. Brilliant!) Before my plans for Hawai’i were but a figment of someone’s imagination, my friend Stacey and I had already made plans for a road-trip back to Wisconsin. We would drive from California to Wisconsin in six days. It’s true, it doesn’t take six days, but we wanted to enjoy the trip and make a little vacation out of it. We were also going to bring my dog, Lucky.
Well, we did it! I just got back from that trip. Taking six days to drive across the country is expensive! I mean, really expensive! My dear, sweet friend made all the reservations for our hotels. However, the cheapest one we stayed at was $79.99. The most expensive one was $109.99. Granted, we could have paid more, but... but... but... I could have done without the grandeur of those hotel rooms. On the other hand, it *was* our vacation, and it should be done with some kind of comfort, right? Yep! So, all in all, she did a fine job in getting us lodging! Go, Stace, go!
The first place that we went to was the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had ever been to the big Wonder of the World, so we were excited to see it! It didn’t start out so well, though. The first day that we were there, it rained. Buckets. To our great delight, it cleared up and became a very nice day! No matter how much rain (and it was cold!), we were going to stay and view the Canyon. It was lovely--absolutely stunning. No picture could ever capture the entire beauty, depth, and just awesome-ness of the Canyon. Wow!
We had discussed the possibility of leaving the next day (instead of staying a third night, which was what we had planned). We wanted to get to Santa Fe and spend more than a night there. If we cut our Grand Canyon stay to two nights, it would give us an extra night in Sant Fe, which meant that we would be in Santa Fe for a whole day. We could have spent another day at the Canyon, but really, we’d seen the magnificent canyon.
We headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The drive was spectacular. We were excited to go shopping the next day. This is what Stacey had *really* been looking forward to--silver shopping. Heh! So, when I dared to say (at the Grand Canyon) if we should leave for Santa Fe a day earlier and spend an entire day shopping, she was quick to agree. If we hadn’t done that, we would have arrived in Santa Fe in the early evening and had only that time to experience the city.
Oh my gosh! Santa Fe has got to be one of the cutest little cities! All of the adobe houses and shops and churches and wow! Too cute!
Stacey was truly in her element in Santa Fe. It seems all of the people around me are Olympic shoppers. Truly. We walked around the square and must have stopped in every single store. She was looking for silver jewelry--the perfect silver bracelet, something for her mom, and a gift for another friend of ours who had given her a ride to the airport. We were shopping for ourselves, too, of course!
I am not much of a silver person. I prefer gold jewelry over silver, but after seeing all the stunningly gorgeous creations, I was really re-thinking this. I ended up buying a beaded necklace and a bracelet to match. The beads are yellow, blue, green, and purple. I am unsure of what the stones are called, but it’s really fun! I’m all for fun. ;-) I also bought myself a nice little tee-shirt. I’m glad I’m not an avid shopper. Good golly! Imagine if I were. Heheh!
The rest of our trip was mainly spent traveling. The Grand Canyon and Santa Fe were the two places that we stayed long enough to enjoy them. We also stayed in Sand Springs (near Tulsa, Oklahoma) and St. Charles (near St. Louis, Missouri).
I absolutely loved driving with Stacey. She and I have been friends since 1989. She is such a good person. She reminds me of me before I became a bitter wench! Heh! We talked and talked in the car. We sang to my collection of Monkees songs. We ducked our heads every time we went under a bridge. (Really, no one wants to lose their head!) It was just really nice to spend some quality time together. She has stuck beside me through a lot of my family squabbles/problems. She’s a true blue friend, that’s for sure.
I made it home safely. There were no incidents on the road at all, which is sooooo nice! One of the nights I had a horrific dream about how we got a flat tire, and evil things just kept happening from there. To my delight, none of those things ever happened.
I’ll be here in Wisconsin until the first or second week of August. I plan on making this a good vacation.
Speaking of vacations (after all that’s what this is all about, right?), I will be taking a few days within this vacation to fly down to Tennessee to visit a friend. I’m very excited! What a great summer I’m going to have (and am having)! Hawai’i--road trip--Tennessee. It is GOOD to be a teacher!
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