[NancyBrooke]

In the face of today's forecasted 100+ degrees, I was wondering: what are y'all doing for vacation this season? I realize it's not summer everywhere, and it's not get-away time for everybody, but I know some of you have been off on interesting adventures. Go ahead, give the rest of us a vicarious thrill and tell all about it ...

My little family along with three others families, close friends, will be heading for the North Carolina beach but not until September and the 'off season' (less expensive, fewer people) - assuming no destructive hurricaines. We've been going for 9 years now and only been evacuated once so, depending on how you look at it, the odds are in our favor or we're due!

Despite the inevitable dramas and kid squabbles, it's a very relaxing time. Most every day goes like this - breakfast, beach, lunch, pool, coctails, kid dinner, kid movie, grup dinner, kid bed, grup hang-out and drinking fest on the deck. We're already counting the days ...

Okay, so what about you?

[SpaceWeavil]

I got back from Egypt just over a week ago. Spent two weeks in Luxor with my mum and her friend. She stayed out there for four weeks and is coming home next Monday, the lucky thing. So basically divided the time between swanning about the hotel and swimming pool, getting pampered by the staff (since mum's been going to the same hotel for 10+ years now), and going sightseeing.

Now that the Scottish Premiere League's started up again, I'm back doing football shows at work, and saving up to go away again in September or late August, hoping to go to London to see Evita and the Lord of the Rings stage show.

SW

[dolarabee]

Love the title, Nancy!

Not going anywhere again for a while. A) It's cold here. B) Just got back from a 'round the globe trek so, C) the bank account is empty. D) Maternity leave ends with October rolling in.

And totally unrelated, Lily got her first tooth last night.

You guys enjoy your summer. Ours is coming, I can feel it.

do.

[Sulriel]

great topic Nancy.

Normally spring and fall are the busiest time here, with the horses, and things slow down a little through the winter and a lot through the summer - but we didn't have a real winter ... I've never realized how much I needed that little bit of downtime to recharge so I went into the spring already a little tired. ... and things haven't slowed down any for the heat either. Business has been good (lessons, training, sales) which is good, but it also makes it hard to juggle the schedule, between the writing and the riding - - At least I can write during the worst of the heat of the afternoons. ... and it's fun when something good comes of it. ...Last month I won a regional flash fiction contest sponsored by Barnes and Noble. They had an in-store 'event', all the winners were announced and presented with their awards and then got to read their stories aloud It was well attended and a lot of fun.

In addition to the AERC Endurance we've also done, I'm still dabbling in dressage and now working with another trainer and looking at some low level eventing. We've started CMSA (Cowboy Mounted Shooting), and I'm a co-owner of a stallion that's currently standing 1st nationally (AHA-OEIP) in Combined Driving. - so you can see it's been non-stop, in spite of the local news keeping count of the days of triple digits. Through the spring and into the summer I was gone nearly every weekend, to some type of convention of competition, but I've had to pull back quite a bit. It's just too much to maintain and destructive to the family life.

We nixed a big family vacation this summer but have made some day trips - and we do a lot of little fun stuff - like yesterday I took the kids up the road to a stand of wild bamboo and let them cut a bunch of poles to play with.

We have another couple of months of real heat here, but it should settle down so we don't have too many more days in the triple digits past the end of August, so we're seeing some relief on the way.

//looks up// ... *blush* ... that got long ... no more coffee for me this morning.

Becky

[Rhapsody]

Not much I am afraid, neither are we going away, just enjoying the time at home with nothing planned and a very inventful 6 month old to entertain you (who is also starting on solid food). We just had our 3rd heat wave and now we have rain and thunder showers after another which is incredibly nice which makes me want to write a lot, now the time

So yeah, it might not sound interesting, but we all are enjoying these hermit days a lot before my husband plunges back into the stress of work.

[NeumeIndil]

I've been to the south eastern part of Pennsylvania twice to meet my boyfriend's family and friends, though nothing terribly exciting or touristy happened there. In theory we're going to Cleveland soon so I can see some old friends and he can see that there is more to the Buckeye State than farmland and cattle. For the most part, though, I'm spending this summer within arm's distance of a keyboard waiting for job applications to go through... or be rejected.

North Carolina sounds amazing right now, storms or no storms. It's been forever since I've been to the beach!

[vladazhael]

Already done the family vacation thing (i.e. me as adult child tagging along with my family because they still let me and it's free), which is an increasingly dubious endeavor and usually results in my feeling an even greater need for a vacation after it's done. Just my luck - I come from a family of black sheep and end up being the zebra-striped one. Still, I shouldn't complain - they tolerate me to the best of their ability, and it was a good week spent with my nose in several books, most of which were about Dracula / Vlad Tepes, which somehow resulted in my coming home with a Romanian copy of Dante's Inferno. Go me. Oh, and there was an air show, with the Blue Angels, and being the unlikely military aircraft geek that I am, I nearly plotzed.

No major plans for the remainder of the season, except to survive the heat and decide whether to go back to school (and into debt) as loosely planned or get a new job or do both or who knows what else. You know, three weeks to decide what to do with the rest of my life... no big deal...

I think now would be a good time to work on my drinking skills.