Time Travel Tuesday--Vacations

Well, I'm late but I'm sure that's no surprise to any of you. That's just the way I'm made :-o) I can never seem to get a post done on time (translation: I can never get it posted when I WANT it to be posted). Such is life. Anyway, today Annie asked us to travel back to our most memorable or favorite vacation. This is only my second TTT and I hate to be a rule breaker but I think I'm gonna have to! I have so many wonderful vacation memories that it's hard to share only one. I hope you'll forgive me.

The most recent vacation that comes to mind is the trip Jeff and I took to NY last December. I had always wanted to visit Manhattan and I was not disappointed. So many things to do and see. Jeff had to go on business and I begged to go along. This vacation was probably the most memorable one to date for a few reasons. This was our first vacation alone. No kids. They stayed behind with Jeff's parents. For 6 days it was just me and Jeff. We saw Queens, Times Square, The Statue of Liberty, The Ed Sullivan Theatre, Rupert Gee's Deli, Soho, Chinatown, Ground Zero, United Nations, took a cruise around Manhattan, rode the subway (ALOT!), Central Park, took my first airplane ride, got lost and Jeff called NYPD and filed a missing persons report (insert record scratching noise).......Yep, you heard me right. Let me back up for a second. We arrived in Newark on Sunday evening. We dropped our things at our hotel in Queens and hit the subway toward Manhattan. Spent that night walking around Times Square together. Monday morning was a work day for Jeff. He was to be in meetings all day. Being the brave soul that I am, I reassured him I would be fine walking around Manhattan alone all day, shopping and stuff. That's exactly what I did too. I rode the subway into Manhattan with him early Monday morning and I started my foot race through Manhattan. About 4pm, I was pretty tired and since I have a wacky thyroid, I decided I'd subway back to Queens and take a nap until he called. 6:30pm rolled around and I started to worry because he hadn't called my cell or the hotel. Shortly after 6:30, the hotel phone rang and I answered. It was Jeff and he was in a state of shock. Turns out he had been calling me since 4:30 but my cell phone (for whatever reason.....PROVIDENCE) wasn't picking up. He had called the hotel but apparently it was just before I got into the room. This poor man had been searching Times Square for me since 4:30 with no success. He called his parents back in TN to get advice and finally decided to call NYPD. He honestly thought someone had kidnapped me, hurt me, and left me laying on a side street somewhere. Well, after he reached me on the phone, he quickly took the subway back to Queens and into my arms. He cried for an hour and couldn't speak more than a few words. If I ever in my life doubted his love for me, that was all erased in that moment. After we returned home and recounted that story to friends, I started thinking that if Jeff loves me that much, how much more does God love me? I am thankful that God providentially orchestrated that whole day from start to finish because not only did I see Jeff's love for me, I saw the love of my Heavenly Father.

Another vacation that comes to mind is our family vacation to Panama City Beach, FL. I think that was in September 2003. It was a long drive but worth every minute. It was beautiful, lots of stuff to do, and not very crowded. We took a two hour cruise on a "pirate ship" and got to see dolphins swimming around the ocean. That was really cool! The kids met a nice little girl from Kentucky and they were pals the whole time we were there. They enjoyed the pool and loved going to Gulf World. Jeff talked me into snorkeling for the first time and it was unbelievable. We went out into the ocean where it was about six feet deep and put our goggles on and man the things I saw! It was beautiful and scary! There were schools of fish swimming everywhere and little crabs walking (and digging themselves down) in the sand. Did you know that we step all over them when we go swimming in the ocean? They just kind of laid there until I got off them! LOL! We stayed in a hotel right on the beach that was cheap (about $60 a night) but had a nice pool, was clean, and even had a little kitchen in it! Because we homeschool, we always take our vacations the week after Labor Day so we miss all the crowds and this proved to be to our benefit. Low rates + no crowds = great vacation!!! That's a vacation we still talk about to this day!

This is what I enjoyed every evening...the beautiful sunset of Panama City Beach:

This is Caroline and her new KY friend:

I'll stop with these two vacations but I have alot of the same childhood memories that many of you have. It seems like when I was a kid, our family went to Myrtle Beach, SC every summer. Along the way, we'd play slug bug (my fav because I could hit my brother!) and the alphabet game (look around trying to find things that started with each letter of the alphabet). Being a kid was fun and I had a great time but it doesn't even begin to compare to the joy and fun I experience on vacations with my own husband and children!

Thanks to Annie for hosting Time Travel Tuesdays! To join the fun, visit her blog!