What you like to do
I have always been lucky in that for the most part I have been able to work doing things that I enjoy doing. Sometimes it meant getting paid for what I do, other times it meant doing it for fun. Back in the late 90’s I did a website based on vacationing at the Jersey Shore, purely as a project of love. As the world of blogging took over my focus, I had given up on the venture promising on day to return to it, and possibly reinvent it as a vaction blog of where to go and what to do when on vacation in New Jersey.
Imagine my surprise, when Whit provided me with the opportunity to do it as part of a project on a much grander scale. Anyway, due to some slip ups, I am only getting started, but I will be joining a band of most excellent bloggers (check out the About Us page for the list of stars I will be trying to live up to) , writing at UpTake.com.
Yesterday was actually the official launch, and you can check out the official launch of their Travel Network Blog. For those that like read such things, there is even an official press release of the launch event (that I missed), for everybody else, just go and check out everything they have to offer, because with real reviews and blogs written by real people and not, say… imaginary gnomes, UpTake is … Your first Step to a Great Trip.
Destined to return to Disney?
I made much to do and asked a lot of questions recently on Twitter trying to decide where to stay on our planned trip to Walt Disney World next year. But then things started to mount against us. LatteGirl’s skating expenses are mounting, and business for me has been hurt drastically by the banking downturn.
First step we took was downsizing our plans. Switching from a Premium to a moderate hotel. But as things progressed, it was starting to look more and more like Disney was just not going to be in the plans and that we would have to call the whole thing off.
Business is (seemingly) starting to stabilize, which is good, but we still weren’t sure we were going to be able to swing it. Then Disney had to come along and came out with a buy 4 nights get 3 free deal, and well, that as they say is that. Our trip has been saved. We will definitely be at the House of Mouse in June. Let the countdown commence.
Update: Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Disney Blog for keeping me up to date with all things Disney?
So needed
I can’t express how much I needed this years vacation. Plus, unlike last year, it didn’t rain, I didn’t wind up with a concussion, and I didn’t get sick. It has been a really stressful year, and it is amazing just how much of that tension can be melted away in a week.
For me, it was a week of volleyball, softball, Karaoke, playing with my new camera. For TheWife, it was lounging around reading and shoe shopping. For LatteGirl it was making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, spending too much money in the arcade, and lots of swimming.
I thought last year LatteGirl had really spread her wings, but it was nothing compared with this year. I guess I can thank the game room and her need for quarters, otherwise I am not sure I would have seen her all week (well other than meal time).
I covered how I thought that this was the perfect vacation, when I first found it, so I won’t repeat myself. (If you didn’t see it then, you can find it here.) The only thing I didn’t cover then was the friends you make. This was our third year going to Chestnut Grove, and what makes it special is the people. Not only do I look forward to being there, I look forward to seeing the same faces year after year. Its the friends you make, even more than the place itself that makes it such a great time. Most vacations…such as when we went to Disney last year… well, I need a vacation when I return from them. Not here.
I played a little too hard, drank a little too much, laughed a little too lound, and now I am actually ready to come back and face the world again as I count down to when we do it all again.
Call for Bloggers in Baltimore
Well, just as life is starting to get back to normal around here, I am being shipped off to a trade-show down in Baltimore for the weekend. (Yeah, I know…. poor me). But seriously, trade shows leave me busy during the day, and bored (other than finally getting back to blogging) at night.
I depart early tomorrow morning, for a show that starts… tomorrow. No pressure though.
So… any bloggers in the Baltimore, MD area want to meet up for a drink and tell me all the good things in the Inner Harbor area?
Ski-rrific
Nerves started to set in before we reached the mountain. Both for me and for LatteGirl. In the end she stood strong, got on the skis, went for it, and had a blast. The kids and the adult lessons were on separate areas, so I walked back and forth between the two of them, watching them progress through the lesson. However, I stopped checking on TheWife after a while, because every time I seemed to come back to LatteGirl, she was in the next stage of her lessons already. She blew threw her lessons so fast, she was out on the (bunny) slopes, while the other kids she was with in a group lesson were still 2 step back in the progression to the slopes.
Me on the other hand… well… I opted out. Not solely out of fear of another injury (but I will admit it was part… conditions, granular but icy, were just too similar for my comfort. I may have even had a flashback as I stood there looking up at the mountain.), but also so I could play a supporting role in ensuring that LatteGirl and TheWife’s first trip skiing 
was a pleasant experience. So, I played pack mule, and arranger, and of course photograher, so all they had to worry about was enjoying themselves. And they did.
I have to admit, by the end of the day, part of me (the part that was fearful earlier) was regretting not getting up the nerve to get back on those skis. The part of me that was exhausted just from trying to ensure everything went right with this excursion however, was glad that I didn’t try to do all of the little things that I had to do and try to ski on top of it.
So how much fun did the two of them have? Well, let me put it this way. Next Monday, while I am at work, and they are enjoying a day off (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) they are planning to hit the slopes again without me. I guess they don’t want me and my nerves dragging down their mood. But who knows, as enthusiatic as they are about it right now, they just might be able to get me back on the slopes yet.
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