Getting Ready to Go (Friday Five)

 

Denver Botanic Gardens

I haven't played a Friday Five in a long time, but today's is a fun one from Stephanie for those of us who love to travel:

Here in the Northern Hemisphere summer is upon us which for many means a season of more going and coming. As I child when my family was planning for vacation we knew we were getting close when my mom stopped by the bookstore to buy the Frommer’s and Fodor’s guides for our destination. It was how she got ready to go.  Today I’m in the final countdown to my sabbatical that begins in less than 48 hours.  My preparation has included lists, lists, and few more lists. Around the RevGals community some are planning for vacations, others continuing education, still others are changing appointments or seeking new calls.

Whatever your going may be, physical travel or taking a mental break, how will you get ready to for it? Are you a list maker, a blog reader, a book gatherer, a house cleaner? On your blog or in the comments tell us about five things you do to get ready to go. What do you do to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually to be away? Or what unique preparations have  you made for five different kinds of leave-taking, such as vacation, continuing education, changing calls, retirement, death of a loved one?

1. The cats -- the most important task.  Glinda could pretty much take care of herself, but now that we have Marti, a special-needs cat, the situation has grown more complicated.  We hired a fabulous pet sitter team for our last trip, but what with the bird who flew into the house, the raccoon who dug into the trash, and the gas that leaked into the house, I'm not sure they'll come back!  (The cats did great, though.)

2.  The church -- now that I'm the pastor, any absence requires me to arrange for back-up pastoral care, and Sunday preaching, if I'm gone for Sunday.  I've been really blessed by wonderful colleagues, so no worries there, once the recruiting is accomplished.  If I go away when I'm teaching, it's a lot harder to find someone.

3. The stuff -- I'm getting much better at packing for almost anything using nothing more than a carry-on suitcase and some sort of bag.  That ipad makes reading and writing such compact endeavors!

4. The guides and maps -- vacation or conference, I love to see something of my surroundings, and I try always to plan with that in mind.   I've been to Martin Luther King, Jr. sites and Olympic Park in Atlanta, thanks to the Older Adult Ministries Conference a couple of years ago; to a bit of St. Louis with friends, thanks to the Interim Ministry Training last fall; and to a few great places in Denver, thanks to the Festival of Homiletics.

5. I am an inveterate list maker, so all of the above is accomplished via detailed lists.

Next planned trip: Washington, D.C. in another ten days, to lobby for suicide prevention legislation.

Trips! (Friday Five)

Today's Friday Five, from Jan:

 

"Last week and this week, I am driving long distances in Texas, first to Houston and today to Austin from Corpus Christi: both times to meet relatives from Canada flying here. This makes me think of trips taken in my life: vacation, moving, visiting relatives, visiting friends, seeking a new home, going away to school, and probably many more.

 

For today’s Friday Five, tell about five different trips you have made in your life due to different reasons, modes of travel, or whatever category you choose!

 

Happy and safe travels!"

 

 

So many trips . . .

 

Five favorites:

 

My grandmother always wanted to travel.  My grandfather would not board planes or boats.  Eventually, my grandmother found a solution: she would travel with her grandchildren.  As the eldest, I received the first invitation: five days in Williamsburg, when I was in fifth grade, reached by overnight train from Cincinnati.  Over the next several years, she would take me out west and to Europe, my brother to Africa, and various cousins to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  But honestly, much as I love to travel, one of my favorite travel memories involves standing in my grandmother's dining room and opening the elegant envelope which contained her handwritten note requesting the pleasure of my company in Williamsburg!

 

One or my favorite family trips was our own jaunt out west, to the Tetons and Yellowstone, a near-replica of the journey I had made with my grandmother decades earlier.  We went with another family; the son was Josh's best friend.  Upsides: the scenery, the nights in grand lodges,  the hikes and the horseback riding.  Downside: a couple of days of freezing drizzle, days we spent on horses and in a raft ~ weather which I was assured they had not seen in Yellowstone in August for 25 years!  Great success: I introduced a curious Ben, age 12, to birding.  Today he is finishing his Ph.D. in ecology at Chicago, has traveled the world himself as an ornithologist, and has, with a group of colleagues, published a finding of a new Peruvian species!  I take full credit for his career, which began on a trail on a sunny morning in the Grand Tetons.

 

In 2000, we took a family trip to Italy.  We thought we might have one international trip in us, and Italy was our children's choice of destination.  Among favorite moments: standing outside the Colosseum in Rome, trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel, and Matt saying, "How can we possibly be lost?  We are standing in one of the best-known places on the globe!"  The entire week was marvelous, but we especially loved the Cinque Terre.  And Pompeii, which had held a major spot in my imagination since the National Geographic article when I was a child, and is the setting for the stories in the kids' middle school Latin textbook.

 

It turned out that we were to spend another ten family days in Europe ~ Christmas in France when the boys were in 11th grade and Josh spent the year there.  In Rennes, we got to know his French family a bit; in Paris, we made it to a concert of Gregorian chant in Notre Dame.  The joy of that trip was watching Josh, by that time reasonably fluent in conversational French and entirely comfortable with life in a new country.

 

Only one more?  I think I'll choose Prince Edward Island, where my daughter and I went for her high school graduation trip.  A dream destination: home to Anne of Green Gables, lovely little harbor towns, beautiful beaches and dunes, and a seemingly endless stream of lighthouses.  We quickly developed an affinity for evening drives in search of sunsets over the water.  Best of all, of course, was the uninterrupted time with my beautiful girl, who is an excellent companion in all circumstances.  It was an opportunity to replay my times with my grandmother in reverse!