A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Any vacation plans this year?

We were planning on going to Alaska in June, but Stephen's transfer orders came down earlier than expected and he lost this claim on the week and missed the vacation picks at the new facility by a week. So he claimed 4 days at the end of June that are next to a weekend that is already scheduled and we are taking the kids to Creation Festival. It's a 4 day long Christian music festival here in PA...the largest one of it's kind in the states. We'll be camping for the duration of the festival (along with about 90,000 other people) and the kids are crazy excited.

Stephen's brother is shipping his 8 man (2 bedroom) tent down to us and I've been yard sale-ing the kids' outgrown toys for money for things we'll need...like new, more comfortable camping chairs for us and the kids, and fabric to make the kids some sleeping bags.

What are you guys planning for a vacation this year??

None for us---I do not think the wallet will alow any such things this year.
Your vacation sounds like a great time, though....
So you all enjoy your vaca's for me too

What's a vacation?

Good Point !!!!

I have never been on a vacation in my life...as a kid and as a grown-up.
I have no idea what a vacation would be like.

Gee I thought I was the only one who didn't vacation.

I went on my first vacation a few years ago...just a weekend trip to a neighboring province for a farm show. It was nice though...it was the first time I didn't have to cook breakfast, lunch and supper

No plans for any in the next while though...

Cindy what did you call it when you traveled out to Bills? Wasnt that a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG vacation?

Gas went up to $4.00 a gallon here in Pennsylvania......Not many will go on vacation here. Need money just to go to work. An school.. Guess taxes go up for school on account of money.

An everything else.......Go for groceries an see how much the boxes shrunk an prices raise here.. Better plant gardens an try to live better.. My seeds are growing well indoors.

Good luck everyone..
PS......Where is Mr Bill going on vacation?

...the bar?
Gas is up to $4.25 here

Good choice bar.
Mine will be candy bar..LOL

That is too bad you won't make it to Alaska this year, maybe next???

My DH is such a gypsy we have to go, a lot! The mototcycles help with the gas, but at these prices we will have to stay closer to home But if he has his way we will do the Red Lodge, Montana motorcycle rally then head up through Glacier National park and into Canada. It is going to be tougher to hold him down after he retires in June! We have a tiny camper he pulls behind his bike so we camp and cook most of our food, we really couldn't afford it otherwise.

Safe travels to all and maybe the price of gas will go down?

Retirement brings less $$$$$$$$$$
Good luck tho

I doubt we'll get to go next year. The way my hubby's new facility does their vacation picks is crazy stupid.

Don't be fooled by how much our vacation *might* cost. The kids are free for the festival and we caught the tickets when they were still $99/person. The place that the festival is held is about 2 1/2 hours from us and once we are there, we don't leave. We take our own food and cook our own meals. I budget our meals, so we won't be spending any more than we usually do on food. In fact, we'll probably spend less because I'll make a big container of granola and that'll be most of what the kids eat for breakfasts. We'll do sandwiches for lunches and easy things like burgers and such for dinners.

I will be going to Ks in November for my vacation,, My Youngest wedding,, I don't know how much of a vacation it will be I'll be busy the entire week I'm there,,

just got back from spring break in texas

Wow suzy
We envy that .. The only breaks I get in my vehicles.LOL
Glad you had some swimming

That's too bad, Jenn, guess it will have to stay on your bucket list? We hope to go to Alaska next summer...my DH wants to ride the bikes up all the way. We'll have to look at the money situation. We can go pretty frugally also. We cook most all our meals and try and stay in cheap campgrounds. In the US we go to national forest campgrounds because with his "senior card" he got from forest service it only cost 7-8 dollars. But that card doesn't work in Canada! Well, next year we'll have to sit down with finances and be realistic on how much it would cost. This is my DH's dream retirement trip so I am hoping we can make it work!

Enjoy your festival

Depending on where you enter Canada, you should be able to get through it in 2 days...thing, there isn't much on the Al-Can highway once you get into Alaska! LOL!!

What all would you see if you got to Alaska? We were there for our honeymoon 10 years ago and saw alot. My hubby is from there. :)

We are clueless as to what, when or where! But I can't see getting through Canada in 2 days. We've figured it was about 2500 miles from Kalispell, Montana to Anchorage. Realisticly 500 is max on the bikes. But if we did go we could take at least 2 months next summer. I would not want to rush this once in a life-time trip! We had already figured we would need to take gas cans for at least one stretch of the highway, as it is farther than 175 miles between gas stations! Any suggestions you would care to give us on where we should go or what we should definately see would be greatly appreciated!

The 2 days through Canada was based on our driving plans 5 years ago with driving about 14 hours a day. We were going to make the trip from Philadelphia, PA to Anchorage. :)

What to see....definitely take a few days and go to Denali National Park. It's where Mt. McKinley is. They only let soo many people into the park each day, so call ahead and book your 'tickets' ahead of time. Also, they don't allow alot of people to actually drive on the road that goes into the park (which only goes something like 14 miles in and that is it). Tho, if you are planning on camping, you'd be an exception. We took the shuttle bus that goes to the different visitor stations along that one road. We went all the way to the last one and I believe our round trip was something like 10 hours. You go really really slowly and every time they see wild life, they stop and let you watch it for a while. We saw caribou, sheep, bald eagles, a golden eagle, grizzly bear, and ptarmigan (state bird). It was well worth it.

Also, take the time to go on a glacier. We went on the Matanuska (not sure of the spelling on that one) glacier. You pay a fee to get to it and park and you can either just go onto it (super slippery) or you can pay for a guided tour that includes special spikey shoes, poles, guide, clothes, etc. I'd go that route. We didn't and I enjoyed it, but we couldn't go very far on the glacier because of how slippery it is. It looks like it's snowy on the top, but it's really ice.

If you are there during Salmon season, definitely go fishing!!! Since the sun barely sets and it's pretty much light all the time in the summer, alot of people do their fishing starting about 10PM, they do their one day's quota of fish and then do the next day's quota starting just after midnight.

Take the road down to Whittier from Anchorage. It's an experience!!! It's a tunnel and the cars literally share the road with the train that goes back and forth! LOL!! The cars straddle the tracks. You have to wait until you get the all clear to drive through the tunnel and only one direction goes through the tunnel at a time.

there are lots of neat little shops in Anchorage and of course all you can eat crab (yum!!!) places. In Achorage there is this neat little movie theatre where you go in and order your dinner and they give you a cone with a number. You go in and get your seat and in front of you is a table (they've taken out every other row of seats and replaced them with long skinny tables). They bring your food just before the movie starts....it's literally a dinner and a movie. That was one of my favorite experiences there. LOL

There is SOOO much to see in Alaska. I can only begin to tell you! :)

WOW, Jenn, I would love to just sit and pick your brain for a day or two!! I also know someone who lives in Anchorage....although we have never met! She is a quilt customer....she heard about me from another customer when she lived in Montana. She then moved to Alaska and even though she hasn't quilted in a few years we talk on the phone a few times a year. Thank you so much for the tips you gave us. I've started a notebook! For us on the bikes it is just as much the journey as it is the destination. That is why we would be taking a few months to make this trip. My business is such that I already take a lot of the summer off and with DH retiring in June of this year...it will be more of a matter of finances! I can hear your passion about Alaska and know that you will make it back up there sometime.

Ashley swim, I'm way too fat to show that much skin lmao

YOur pullin our chain on that one.

Glad you went skinny dippin tho.LOL

Be careful! My brain is full of sooo much random knowledge, it's dangerous! But you can pick it anytime!! Definitely get ahold of me when you are finally planning your trip. I'll have my hubby pull out our plans from when we were going to make the drive (we were planning on moving to AK). We had points of interest mapped out both in the US and in Canada.

Looking at your username, do you dye fabric then?? Like batiks??? I'm a quilter, actually, so I'm curious. My mother-in-law is a partner with someone who owns a shop nearby. I just loaded up on Moda's Frolic series and am making a new picnic quilt. I started 'chopping' it up last night and should have the top completed tomorrow evening. I'll be posting a picture of the top down in the hobbies section once it's totally pieced.

Alaska, quilting and gardening...a match made in heaven! Yes I dye fabric, and I have a long-arm quilting business. I haven't been working on much of anything of my own lately. The quilting I get done this time of year is for business as the outdoors grabs at my heart, so my spare time is spent in my green house or seedling room! My seedling room transforms itself to a dyeing room in the winter! I did post a series of pictures of loading a quilt and a quilt I quilted some time ago.....not sure if you can still find it our not! Now that I have a showcase I am hoping to get something of my own done and get a picture posted. I don't have a web page or anything, I have business enough and don't want to advertise! Plus computer time is not my favorite time....except now that I have found this forum I am on a lot more often as I love the chatting with other of like interests! We'll keep chatting about Alaska and come next year...Jan of 2013 we will know whether we will be able to do our dream trip!

That is our thinking for our trip as well.....wait until Hubby's next vacation picks come around and pray he gets a summer week...even better if he can snag 2 back to back picks. Hubby works for the state and right now they do their picks twice a year, but the union members are trying to change that and some other vacation pick oriented things around. He's got 4 weeks of vacation time next year...more if he ends up rolling some over to next year (which is always nice).

I do alot on the computer...always have. I have a digital scrap booking business. I don't have the space or the money to do regular paper scrap booking, but doing it digitally works just fine for me. I've had quite a few people approach me to do some small quilts, so I'm thinking of just adding that service to the business as well. Someone from church just asked if I would be willing to do 2 doll sized quilts for her daughter's American Girl dolls. Told her I'd do them both for $30 dollars...which is cheap when you look at what those are going for online.

BUT ANYWAYS... I love long arm quilting machines! I've never had the opportunity to try one out, but I love watching people do them. I toured a local state prison (women's prison) 2 years ago and they have one. There was a girl working on a quilt while we were there and I could have watched her all day long.

Well apparently we might take a 'day vacation' this summer. DH wants to take our grand daughter to a zoo and it's a 4 hr drive away. Sounds good to me

Oh my--it will be so much fun to see the Zoo thru her eyes----Thanks for making me smile..

A zoo and a child is a match made in heaven.