I’ve made too much fun of the Disney Paris vacation to not say what kind of vacation I would like. I’m hoping everyone else shares their dream vacation too.
I would like to go to a private country mountain lake or river where there are no people and no sounds of civilization. There needs to be adequate accomodations (bed, bathroom, shower). I would like to be able to watch DVD movies in the evening but I would like there to be no direct contact with the outside world. No phone, no TV, no internet, no nothing. (In the case of an emergency, family would know our location and contact the police.)
The water would need to be good for canoeing, swimming, snorkeling, and fishing. No motorboats, no noise, just nature.
My wife and dog would be there with me and maybe for a couple of days, good pre-screened friends could drop by for an overnight.
We would spend the week canoeing, swimming, floating, eating, relaxing, reading, and watching movies. We would see no people unless we chose. This was the type of vacation that I took as a child and a few times as an adult. My favorite place is now underwater because a dam was built. The getting away to somewhere without people is the hard part.
I just finished a vacation that involved Amtraking with bedroom compartments from Washington DC to Flagstaff Arizona. I would do it again and more in a minute if I had the a)time, and b)capable travel companion. Only we would include stints on the Empire Builder (Chicago to Seattle,) Coast Starlight (Seattle to L.A.,) the Sunset Limited (L.A. to New Orleans,) and maybe the Crescent (New Orleans to N.Y.) Then, the Adirondack from N.Y. to Montreal.
Then, I would take one all the way across Canada.
I went to Jackman, Maine with the in-laws once. We canoed Moose Lake and did some sight seeing on Lake Katadin and Quebec City, Quebec. We went during some heat wave in August. Temps reached 80. The waters were still freakin cold. Had a good time. I would never want to see Maine in the winter.
I would never want to vacation with Idiot either. The train sounded like a fun adventure.
My dream vacation is to go hiking ( with someone who doesn’t talk too much ) in northern Scotland and stop on a hill looking out to the ocean and play whistles/flute and listen to someone else play ( ITM ) and just stare at the sky.
We used to canoe on Cheat Lake a lot. Back in the 70’s it was pretty quiet but after that there were more speed boaters that liked to torment canoeists. One time there was a speed boat that liked to make a sharp turn and get us with it’s wake/spray. All we had to turn was turn perpendicular and the problem was solved but they took great sport in this. At one point in the day, we were pulled over at a rock to dive and swim. The speedboat was back to tormet us. They must have been new to the lake because they didn’t know about the submerged rock that was out a bit in front of our diving rock. On their last attempt to spray us, they hit that rock head on with their bow. Boom! There were shavings of metal left on the rock. That was the last we were tormented. Go ahead and have your sport with canoeists. See what it gets you.
Our spot is the Eau Claire River in Wisconsin, three miles of dirt road, nearest neighbor one mile up river. Wolves, coyotes, bears, bobcats, deer, beaver, porcupine, spinysoft shells the size of flying saucers, muskie 40+", walleye, smallmouth bass,orchids, lupine, columbine, lead-plant, prairie smoke, butterfly-weed, orioles, hummers, rosebrested grosbeaks, eagles, ospreys, cedar waxwings, warblers more than could be counted. A hammock, a small fleet of canoes, flyrods, birdfeeders, whitewater, mostly rock gardens. Whippoorwills at night with the wolves and coyotes, 20 billion ticks, 400 billion mosquitoes. Paradise.
I’d like to take a month off, get in the car early one morning with my wife and just start driving. Stop when we get somewhere interesting. No schedule, no agenda, no set destination. Two weeks out, turn roughly around and head homewards via a different route.
Charlene has other plans-- she’d like a month spent touring the Orient (if it’s not politically incorrect to say that these days), going from country to country by boat. OK, if she insists…
West coast of Ireland from Cork to Derry, in the off-season, poking around everywhere interesting and going to lots of pub sessions. Maybe go in April and be part of the Flute Meeting in Ballyvourney. I’d go with a girlfriend, or a man friend if I had one, or meet an Irishman while I was there . Natural wonders, historic places, and music, music, music. Top of Coom, Custy’s, Matt Molloy’s… No deadlines and stay as long as we wanted, maybe forever.
My other dream place I discovered this summer 3 hours from home - a cottage on the Bay of Fundy in Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia. Nothing to hear but birds and the waves, way off the beaten track, but a gourmet restaurant to visit every night.
I take it, Emmline, that you like train travel. I enjoyed following the reports of your recent train journey. Many of the places that you mentioned were familiar to me, as I lived and taught high school in northern Arizona. I might add the Alaskan Railroad and the Eurostar Express from London to Paris as other railroad journeys that I can personally recommend.
My wife is Polish-American, and for our 35th wedding anniversary, we decided to travel to the small town her family came from.
We went in May, and the terrible flooding prevented us from reaching the town (out in low-lying farm country), but we had an outstanding time. We spent two weeks, and visited Warsaw, Krakow, Zakopane and Gdansk. Such a beautiful country! I wouldn’t have guessed as much, but it was incredible!
This year there was no ferry to Yarmouth at all, but there’s a lot of talk of something starting up for next season. Check it out in the spring if anyone is interested. The north shore of the Bay of Fundy is my favourite spot - Cape Breton is beautiful, and I adore Lunenburg, but they’re crowded. No one seems to know how beautiful the Advocate-Joggins area is, and it’s full of fossils too. Joggins Fossil Cliffs are a Unesco World Heritage site. There, that’s my little ad.
I’ve never been particularly impressed with the Canadian Maritimes, I try to discourage people from wasting their vacation time there. As an example I think there is only one Starbucks in Charlottetown on the whole of PEI and some of the roads aren’t even paved as is the case in much of of the Maritimes. There is no decent canoing, the rivers are disturbingly clear, or kayaking to had anywhere and someplaces have Gannet poop all over the rocks and selkies are always popping up by your boat sticking their noses in your business.
. Natural wonders, historic places, and music, music, music. Top of Coom, Custy’s, Matt Molloy’s… No deadlines and stay as long as we wanted, maybe forever.
