Travel

Where have I been? Where am I going? Wait, that’s for the God page. This page is about travel and travel adventures and probably travel plans, too.

September, 2005:

Dave and I just returned from a weekend visit to Washington Island, Wisconsin, which is the northern tip of the Peninsula that most of us think of as “Door County.” We traveled with our sailing friends to visit another couple of sailing friends who have a cottage there. Cottage hardly describes their beautiful acreage complete with log cabin and detached garage/art studio. They are both artistic souls and their home fully reflects that.

The six of us spent Saturday out on the water in their 22′ skiff. Even though Fall was definately in the air, we bundled up and took off to explore. The first stop was Rock Island, which is historical and interesting. It’s also beautiful in a minimalist kind of way. We took multiple pictures that all turned out to be two types. Candid photos of our group horsing around and postcard-type scenary shots of the water and the carved rocks.

This trip was the first time I’ve been to Washington Island. The rest of the group has been multiple times, especially boating trips. I enjoyed it very much and encouraged the guys when they started dreaming about getting our sailboat up that far for a week or so next year. The women in our group are not big on “passages”, but the guys live for the trips when they can sail nonstop for hours with a real destination in mind.

I’m pretty sure that next summer will include a week of day sails in and out of these little islands, plenty of turkey sandwiches and gorp eaten on the deck, with plenty of opportunities to stop and sample wine and other goodies in the harbor shops. Maybe we’ll see you there!

August, 2005:

We traveled to Fort Collins, Colorado this month for a family reunion. I posted about the great campground we used for the reunion and also about the horrible meal we had in the Amanas on the way. This was a driving trip for us, convoy of three cars full of children and grandchildren.

Reunion post
Wonderful campground post
Horrible Meal post

The best part of heading West is the beautiful scenery once you get to the Rockies. The combination of mountains and moving water do something to my soul and I crave it when I’m here in the Midwestern flat lands. If it weren’t for the Mississippi River, the Rock River and Lake Michigan, I don’t think I could live here in Illinois.

July, 2005:
Here’s a start. I got this from Tony’s site
and thought it looked like fun. It’s also a good place to begin this page (July 19, 2005)

bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

I was editing this page for the August reunion posts and I got to thinking about all the places we’ve been and how I might never find time to write about them all. I think I’ll list them here for awhile and if you’re interested in hearing about one or two in particular, leave me a comment so I know where to start.

Going in reverse:

Winter, 2005: Driving trip (10 days) through Southeast US, looking for an area to retire to. Left from Rockford IL, through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky (especially Louisville for the boat show), back into Tennessee, brief stop in Mississippi to gamble a little, Arkansas, Missouri (Branson area) and back home through Southern IL

Previous winters, in reverse order, I think:

Hawaii – Oahu for 5 days and Maui for 5 days. Beyond belief wonderful.

Kalispell, Montana for Thanksgiving. Beautiful country. This is the region where we met originally and we have a tremendous love for Glacier National Park just up the road. The weather was iffy, but we flew in and rented a car for the week. If you ever get the chance, stay at Grouse Mountain Lodge. It was wonderful, even though we don’t ski.
Trinidad – a memorable week. Beautiful country and a stopover for boaters who need to winter somewhere before coming North through the Caribbean

Key West, Florida – we sailed with friends from Miami area down through Key Largo, Marathon, Islamorada, etc. and then after 4 days docked in Key West and enjoying the rest, we drove back to Miami to fly home. Worth repeating!

Bimini, Bahamas – again, we sailed with friends from Miami, across the Gulf Stream, to Bimini. This is a very small island, very much a make-your-own-fun kind of place. We had a blast for a week doing exactly the opposite of what we planned. We were going to snorkle and explore various small keys in the area. Instead, a storm caused us to tie up and stay for a week, waiting for a window to sail back across. The food boat, the mail boat, everything was grounded and so it got pretty interesting before the week was over. Hemingways favorite bar was open and we made good use of it. Would we do it again? Sure.

Montego Bay, Jamaica – Loved it, but because we were told to stay on the resort and not wander off, it was a little scary. We did wander off and were sorry, but it turned out OK. Don’t miss a chance to ride the pirate ship Calico, which is a sunset cruise with rum punch. I want to do that again, and again and again.

Freeport, Bahamas – way back in 1985 and we were so broke we had to be careful to preserve food money from one day to the next. It was a memorable trip, though and we want to go again just to see if it’s still as much fun when you have time and money to shop!

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Leave me a note if you want any of these topics expanded on and I’ll come back and add when I can.