Travel is fun.
Or it can be.
I am at the tail end of a three-day stay in New York City. It remains the most exciting city in the country -- okay, maybe in the world --- and although I probably could not handle more than three or four days of this pace at a time, I love it.
I worked in New York one summer when I was in college, but at this point in my life a short stay suffices. I didn't get to visit any of the museums I usually try to get to, but did spend a couple of hours at thed Rock "n" Roll Hall of Fame Annex in SoHo. It was terrific and a special John Lennon in New York exit is spectacular!
This trip I stayed at the Hotel ELYSEE on E. 54th St., a hotel originally built in the 1920s but newly redone with wireless computer access throughout and a club lounge with complimentary breakfast and coffee, tea, cookies and fruit through the day. I've visited with friends and family, seen two shows and had great weather (although New Yorkers are complaining about the heat.)
Tomorrow a friend and I begin a road trip, heading home to Florida, but stopping enroute to visit with mutual friends in North Carolina. It will be about eight days before we get home. It's an adventure, but it's worth taking. Why not?
I don't know what I'd rather be doing, or where, or when, or with whom, but for now I'm looking forward to keeping moving. You can't hit a moving target.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Travel is
Travel is being flexible.
When the lines for security are long, when flights are late, no rental cars are available despite your reservation, or the upgrade fails to come through, you can't get upset. Well you can, but it usually won't end well.
You've seen the shouting matches, the resolute ticket agent and agitated passenger. It requires patience and it's a mind field.
I've never been patient, but traveling has taught me a few lessons.
While I began this blog as a daily thing, my nine-year-old grandson came to visit and between back-to-school shopping, work on copy due yesterday and some other challenges, I skipped two days. I was upset, I'm not now. And I loved being with my grandson.
I know the only schedule that's imnportant is to keep busy. Whether it is my work, my volunteer work or time with my kids -- whether it is going to the gym, spending time with friends or family or running household errands, I am driven to keep on going.
And I try to be flexible.
But the down side is this. You know what can happen, so it's always there.
For example I am scheduled to fly to New York City Wed. AM. A friend in New York with whom I'm having dinner Wed. night said "we've had a bad summer, lots of planes are late," so of course, that played on my mind. Now South Florida is in the cone for a tropical storm Wed. or Thurs.
I admit, I'm anxious. But, hey, I'm flexible.
When the lines for security are long, when flights are late, no rental cars are available despite your reservation, or the upgrade fails to come through, you can't get upset. Well you can, but it usually won't end well.
You've seen the shouting matches, the resolute ticket agent and agitated passenger. It requires patience and it's a mind field.
I've never been patient, but traveling has taught me a few lessons.
While I began this blog as a daily thing, my nine-year-old grandson came to visit and between back-to-school shopping, work on copy due yesterday and some other challenges, I skipped two days. I was upset, I'm not now. And I loved being with my grandson.
I know the only schedule that's imnportant is to keep busy. Whether it is my work, my volunteer work or time with my kids -- whether it is going to the gym, spending time with friends or family or running household errands, I am driven to keep on going.
And I try to be flexible.
But the down side is this. You know what can happen, so it's always there.
For example I am scheduled to fly to New York City Wed. AM. A friend in New York with whom I'm having dinner Wed. night said "we've had a bad summer, lots of planes are late," so of course, that played on my mind. Now South Florida is in the cone for a tropical storm Wed. or Thurs.
I admit, I'm anxious. But, hey, I'm flexible.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Travel is...
Memorable.
It's funny the things we remember.
I recall my first train ride, first cruise and my first flight.
I was a teenager, and although I was flying from Miami to Chicago in early summer, my mother insisted I wear gloves. White ones. Last week I flew home from Las Vegas with a kid wearing boxer shorts and an undershirt. How times change!
I also remember that a year ago today I sailed from Copenhagen about Holland America Line's brand new and quite beautiful Eurodam. It was the ship's first crossing to the U.S., and a friend had flown to Denmark to sail back with me to the U.S. We called at three Norwegian ports, on to Reykavik, Iceland, around Greenland, to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and back to New York. Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland were new vistas for me, and I loved them all. While I enjoy all cruise ships, that itinerary was very special.
Occasionally people ask me which is my favorite ship or itinerary. I generally answer, "the one I'm on."
It's funny the things we remember.
I recall my first train ride, first cruise and my first flight.
I was a teenager, and although I was flying from Miami to Chicago in early summer, my mother insisted I wear gloves. White ones. Last week I flew home from Las Vegas with a kid wearing boxer shorts and an undershirt. How times change!
I also remember that a year ago today I sailed from Copenhagen about Holland America Line's brand new and quite beautiful Eurodam. It was the ship's first crossing to the U.S., and a friend had flown to Denmark to sail back with me to the U.S. We called at three Norwegian ports, on to Reykavik, Iceland, around Greenland, to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and back to New York. Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland were new vistas for me, and I loved them all. While I enjoy all cruise ships, that itinerary was very special.
Occasionally people ask me which is my favorite ship or itinerary. I generally answer, "the one I'm on."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Travel is
Travel is like a giant mental scrapbook - a collage of picture postcards amassed during a lifetime of travel.
There are oh-so-many.
Consider an anniversary cruise we took with all our kids and grandkids, (at the time we numbered 14, another daughter-in-law and three more grandsons appeared in the last dozen years.) We had multiple cabins in a row, but Carnival obliged me and gave us a cabin at the end of the hall. It was fine until we let the kids know our cabin number, then we had an absolute parade of children of all ages, seemingly all the time, but it was fun. It was a wonderful weekend and one of the many snapshots I will always treasure.
More recently we rented a home in the Cotswolds and our oldest son, his wife and three sons joined us. We were settled into an old stone house in Chipping Camden and each morning everyone had a task.
I went to the fruit store (green grocer's, I believe.) My son bought a couple of daily papers and cheeses, our oldest grandson selected bread and rolls from the bakery, and the younger two helped out. My husband made coffee (because he was the only one who knew how to handle the French Press) and my daughter-in-law did cleanup.
Each day we set out in our van to visit another spot in the area. We saw MACBETH at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, visited one of Churchill's homes and, when we returned to London did many of the sightseeing things we'd been doing for 30 years -- this time with the kids.
One day we opted to go our separate ways and meet in the evening for the theater. My husband and I needed a little alone time.
After walking for a while we suddenly, on Regent Street, heard voices we knew quite well yelling "grandma," "grandpa." Yes - in this city of millions - our family had found us and although we'd had breakfast together some six hours earlier, loved having another lunch as a group.
Those are some of the pictures in my scrapbook that I treasure. And there are many more souvenirs of a lifetime of travel.
There are oh-so-many.
Consider an anniversary cruise we took with all our kids and grandkids, (at the time we numbered 14, another daughter-in-law and three more grandsons appeared in the last dozen years.) We had multiple cabins in a row, but Carnival obliged me and gave us a cabin at the end of the hall. It was fine until we let the kids know our cabin number, then we had an absolute parade of children of all ages, seemingly all the time, but it was fun. It was a wonderful weekend and one of the many snapshots I will always treasure.
More recently we rented a home in the Cotswolds and our oldest son, his wife and three sons joined us. We were settled into an old stone house in Chipping Camden and each morning everyone had a task.
I went to the fruit store (green grocer's, I believe.) My son bought a couple of daily papers and cheeses, our oldest grandson selected bread and rolls from the bakery, and the younger two helped out. My husband made coffee (because he was the only one who knew how to handle the French Press) and my daughter-in-law did cleanup.
Each day we set out in our van to visit another spot in the area. We saw MACBETH at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, visited one of Churchill's homes and, when we returned to London did many of the sightseeing things we'd been doing for 30 years -- this time with the kids.
One day we opted to go our separate ways and meet in the evening for the theater. My husband and I needed a little alone time.
After walking for a while we suddenly, on Regent Street, heard voices we knew quite well yelling "grandma," "grandpa." Yes - in this city of millions - our family had found us and although we'd had breakfast together some six hours earlier, loved having another lunch as a group.
Those are some of the pictures in my scrapbook that I treasure. And there are many more souvenirs of a lifetime of travel.
Monday, August 10, 2009
travel is ...
Travel is essentially what I do.
I make plans for one trip while working out the details for two or more upcoming journeys in my mind. I can drive my near and dear crazy - I know - but it seems I need that next travel experience much like a junkie needs another hit.
It's often an assignment which dictates my travels, or a professional meeting with other travel journalists, but occasionally I hop a plane to visit a son, daughter-in-law and grandkids in Orlando or Houston. I just returned from a four-day trip to Las Vegas with one son, his wife and their 12-year-old son. It was a great few days and taking my grandson to see Terry Fator at the Mirage, (it was family fare,) was great fun.
Now I'm planning a quick trip to New York then a car trip home with a friend, stopping along the way to visit other friends in North Carolina. I have one deadline this Friday, another the 24th so my trusty laptop travels with me.
As I said once before, I'm a travel junkie. It's tiring, but someone has to do it........
I make plans for one trip while working out the details for two or more upcoming journeys in my mind. I can drive my near and dear crazy - I know - but it seems I need that next travel experience much like a junkie needs another hit.
It's often an assignment which dictates my travels, or a professional meeting with other travel journalists, but occasionally I hop a plane to visit a son, daughter-in-law and grandkids in Orlando or Houston. I just returned from a four-day trip to Las Vegas with one son, his wife and their 12-year-old son. It was a great few days and taking my grandson to see Terry Fator at the Mirage, (it was family fare,) was great fun.
Now I'm planning a quick trip to New York then a car trip home with a friend, stopping along the way to visit other friends in North Carolina. I have one deadline this Friday, another the 24th so my trusty laptop travels with me.
As I said once before, I'm a travel junkie. It's tiring, but someone has to do it........
Sunday, August 9, 2009
travel is...
Travel is a getaway, a profession and a way of life. For me it has also become a salvation.
I have been a travel writer for more than 20 years. About six weeks after my husband died in December of 2007 an editor sent me out on assignment. She asked me to cover refurbishments recently made to an older Carnival cruise ship. The cruise line said I could bring a guest and I did.
It wasn't easy. My husband had accompanied me on dozens of cruises out of Port of Miami and while my friend was with me, it was all quite comfortable and familiar, and other writers were aboard the ship for the same "story," there was more than a tinge of self-pity in my travel gear.
But I did it. I did it with the help of friends - many of the travel writers I have been with on cruises and land trips over some 25 years of covering the industry - and with the support of my family and friends. And I have continued to travel and write.
I was lucky to have had a long marriage and a husband who always encouraged my work.
And now, 20 months later, I am still writing away. I've begun this blog because writing has become a part of me and while I can't necessarily dance, I gotta write.
Travel has also become an integral part of my life. I encourage any newly single men or women out there to take any opportunity to travel. Whether it's a short drive to visit aunt Mary or a cross-country trek to see your grandchildren, don't give in to self pity. Travel safely,
I have been a travel writer for more than 20 years. About six weeks after my husband died in December of 2007 an editor sent me out on assignment. She asked me to cover refurbishments recently made to an older Carnival cruise ship. The cruise line said I could bring a guest and I did.
It wasn't easy. My husband had accompanied me on dozens of cruises out of Port of Miami and while my friend was with me, it was all quite comfortable and familiar, and other writers were aboard the ship for the same "story," there was more than a tinge of self-pity in my travel gear.
But I did it. I did it with the help of friends - many of the travel writers I have been with on cruises and land trips over some 25 years of covering the industry - and with the support of my family and friends. And I have continued to travel and write.
I was lucky to have had a long marriage and a husband who always encouraged my work.
And now, 20 months later, I am still writing away. I've begun this blog because writing has become a part of me and while I can't necessarily dance, I gotta write.
Travel has also become an integral part of my life. I encourage any newly single men or women out there to take any opportunity to travel. Whether it's a short drive to visit aunt Mary or a cross-country trek to see your grandchildren, don't give in to self pity. Travel safely,
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