travel – Page 7

the plan, the reality and the provision…

Published on July 7, 2014 by Mae @ RainydayinmayLeave a comment

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. I suspected they might be a little busy as Gen returned from Jamaica and got ready to spend a hefty chunk of the summer with family & friends out west. As the mom of a teenager I get to be chauffeur and along with that we were seeing to all of the eye doctor, dental and physical appointments we usually take care of between school years. When planning the trips, it made absolute sense to have two solid weeks between the two, so we could spend quality time and lessen the blow of missing our girl (who is growing up so fast). While we did get some quality time, it was very bitter-sweet, and sad and chaotic and rushed… Minus Chw finishing a movie that Gen and I had already watched without him, (and wanted to see with him) we managed to accomplish everything we set out to do.

Though my blog was eerily quiet…

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Before she left, however, we spent the Fourth of July at Greenfield Village (A part of the Henry Ford Museum.) If you’ve never been, it’s a cool place. If you ever want to go for the fourth of July, I highly recommend it, but maybe do it differently than we did… We learned a lot about how NOT to go (which is how we went), but would do it again because the fireworks show is hands down the BEST ever…

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One of the two weeks that Gen was home, Chw was in Utah on business. This week he is once again out-of-town on business, (Chicago area) and I decided to tag along. My thoughts had been long quiet days of writing, reading, catching up on letters and just enjoying the down time. In the evenings we could try local restaurants, maybe see a movie, spend time at Millennium Park and take in a museum. Not at all a bad plan, but the drive into the area took twice as long as it should have, (think 8 hours instead of 4) and Chw had to work on a project before this morning so that was a bummer. My lovely morning was shaken, quite literally, by jackhammers and other manners of construction right outside my window. Even so, they upgraded us to a lovely suite with a full service kitchen, which will make my lunch times a breeze. (plus, there is a Trader Joe’s and a Super Target. I mean, seriously…) So I can’t really complain. Chw even left me his noise canceling Beats so the construction isn’t so bad, and I’ve decided to just pretend the shaking, vibrating and earth moving is a bonus massage. That works right?

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In April, when we were back home visiting, Gen was helping our dear friend D (her Godmother) with her (much younger) kids and D piped up and said “You know Gen, you should come back for the summer and help me.” D was serious because she works mostly from home and this would help her a ton. Gen responded with a resounded “Fine by me!” Because she loves those kids, she loves that family, she loves Idaho and it seemed fun. Of course, the weeks leading up to it (and the solo, cross-country flight) she was less thrilled and wanted to stay home. (Can’t fault the girl for trying.)

The week before Gen’s trip, D was injured and had surgery. She is now laid up in a cast for the next three months and definitely needing a TON of help. Of course none of us had any idea, prior to the trip, this would happen, but it’s still pretty cool that Gen is there to help her out. {Bonus cool is that one of Gen’s good friends from when they were younger is visiting from California and our Very dear family friend Aubree is ALSO visiting Idaho. She’s one lucky girl!}

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If I’m realizing anything, it’s that we make plans, and often the reality looks/feels nothing like the plan… BUT, most of the time it turns out awesome, OR it turns out we to be the best thing anyway, even though we didn’t know it when we planned it.

And, on that note, it’s Monday. This weeks Hi-Five:

SONG- THIS!!! Gen and I heard it on the way to one of our many appointments. We swooned. Adorable! (Not the best video, sorry! the song is worth it though!)

SHARE- Anne with an E. Have you watched these? I LOVE Anne of Green Gables and while these videos are cute, they aren’t really my favorite. (I’ve been spoiled by the quality of Pemberly Digital, I think) What i DO LOVE about this series however, is their twitter feed. (among the characters.) Absolutely adorable…

SOMETHING I’M LOVING- This Trader Joe’s REFRESH Body Wash that I picked up here. I usually use Rain Bath and the TJ’s peppermint but forgot both and so I tried this. The smell is AMAZING!

SOMETHING I’M INTO- I’m embarrassed to admit this… Clash of Clans. I found out my friend K was addicted to it when we were home in April and I held out until a couple of weeks ago. Then… I don’t know what happened. Now my husband is getting intrigued by it.

SOMETHING NEW {TO ME}- Coconut water. I’ve held out trying it due to the steep price tag, but the hype is so big I finally gave in. I’m not sure how much I love it, but I want to. Any Coconut water tips/secrets?

The scales of just…

Published on April 10, 2014April 9, 2014 by Mae @ Rainydayinmay5 Comments

I’m headed somewhere really wonderful. (for me and the members of my family it’s pretty wonderful anyway… For you, it might not hold any sort of magic. That’s ok.) In the interim however, while we wait to go to Wonderful, we’re sort of stuck in somewhere a little less so.

By a little less so, I mean that for us it pretty much sucks significantly hugely. For someone else, it could be their Wonderful.

Now that we got that out-of-the-way, life for Gen and I is pretty much a series of images from our hotel room. It’s one of those realities that seemed dreamy and wonderful, in abstract thoughts and day dreams, but in reality is not. Allow me to share what our week days, thus far, have looked like…

– We bought the electronic banking version of Monopoly and played that.

– We’ve watched wedding shows on TLC, (her thing, not mine).

– We’ve watched Wife Swap.

– We’ve swam, but they have the STRONGEST amount of Chlorine, EVER.

– we’ve read our kindles.

– We have had deep talks, silly talks, stupid talks, bickering talks…

– She has done homework.

– I have looked at a magazine.

– I have tried to write.

– Our mini fridge has frozen EVERY SINGLE THING we have bought to have for lunch, since we are trapped at this hotel all day, in the middle of nowhere. (let me tell you, a frozen turkey sandwich is enough to make me NEVER eat another sandwich, and the frozen salad may have permanently killed the enamel on my teeth.)

– our microwave does not actually heat anything.

– our internet does not stay connected.

– the elevator keeps threatening to break with us in it…

– We have 12 cable channels, and most of them have crime shows on. ALL. DAY. LONG.

– the hotel has some sort of construction/remodel happening so there is equipment and HIGH levels of noise happening all day long. There is no escaping it.

– I have not had a vegetable in 5 days.

I totally realize there are real problems happening and none of these are. I am absolutely aware of that. I’m not so shallow to think this is the height of all issues, but it’s been a bit of an inconvenient (and eternally long) week. It’s not all bad though… like they have really amazing blueberry muffins, and possibly the nicest/most helpful hotel staff ever.

And let’s face it, comfort food and personal kindness make up for a whole lot of annoying inconveniences…

I’m tempted to say “Just a few more days until Wonderful”, but the truth is, it won’t be all that either. It will be pretty Wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure there will be disappointing moments, and tensions, and sadness and goodbyes too. {which suck way worse than any of these silly frustrations here in Less Than} The best thing I can do for myself is simply to be present, all present and invested in the griefs and the joys of every moment and appreciate when life seems to strike a balance.

Upon returning…

Published on January 27, 2014 by Mae @ Rainydayinmay8 Comments

My husband just got home, this weekend, from spending the last few weeks in Australia. He was there on business, but because of the nature of his business, his trip was also filled with lots of fun. Adding to the reality that he truly loves his job, it was pretty much the best sort of vacation ever. He would likely read this and argue that, no, he would rather his family be with him. While I think he believes this is true, he got to hang out with new friends and spend the whole of his free time bingeing on gross sci-fi movies or geeking out at super uninteresting attractions that he and his engineer friends find enthralling while his family, well, wouldn’t… Don’t get me wrong, he loves the vacations where his family is along for the adventure, BUT the trips down under are likely best reserved for he and his work mates.

I use the word mates because, while my husband can relocate pretty much anywhere and never have his accent reflect that geographical location (unlike myself or his daughters), it only takes him a matter of days in a new plays to pick up on their lingo. His first Skype with Gen, he accidentally referenced her mates instead of her friends. She hasn’t really let the slip go, and since he flew home there have been many other slip ups that make us chuckle (though I’ve never really been to Australia so for the life of me I can’t remember what they were.) He is having difficulty driving on the right side of the road and turning on the blinker rather than the windshield wipers, which makes for really fun trips when winds are howling outside and the snow is whipping about, but hey, it’s good for life to stay exciting. (also, we’re really hoping these things right themselves soon. This wasn’t his first trip down under, but we don’t recall such difficulties the last time. He’s now asking me to move there, something I’ve NO DESIRE to do… His work will take him there again and I fear the next time there may be no adjusting back. Ha!)

All in all, despite his completely wonky sleep schedule, his incessantly reminding me it’s cold here and that he just left 78 degree weather, and my having to surrender his pillow, slippers, favorite sweatshirt and side of the bed (all of which I stole the moment he left town) it’s just really wonderful to have my husband home. It’s hard to find anything wonderful about a Michigan winter laden weekend that comes close to topping that gift.

Girls just wanna, they just wanna…

Published on January 20, 2014 by Mae @ Rainydayinmay3 Comments

Since my husband has taken an eternity long business trip Down Under, Gen and I decided we’d get away for a bit. We took advantage of an amazing hotel promotion (perk of having a husband whose business keeps him on the road from time to time, I guess.), had a friend hang out with our dogs and away we went. I knew, from the very second that this plan was birthed and set in motion, that I was in for some trouble. You see, I’m not the world’s most confident winter driver and would just as soon stay home if anyone so much as speaks the word snow. With this being the upper mid-west, and January, I knew I was in trouble. Even so, we do what we must for the sake of fresh walls and sanity, so I packed a bag and off we went.

(I apologize now that the only photos I have are cruddy, bad-light, iPhone shots. It just so happened, everywhere we went had mood lighting.)

While our hotel was “super fancy”, (That’s a complete 14-year-old Genny quote, not me. She was enamored by the fanciness of it, to the point of spewing nauseating charm all over their lovely fabric covered walls.) they did not have free wi-fi nor did they serve a free breakfast. (to those of you out there with extra class, you will now see the types of places we are likely accustomed to staying.)

They were willing to charge us $20 for internet (no thanks. I was spending time with my kid, what do I need internet for anyway? Besides, we have a portable hotspot, which I brought, but it stayed packed.) and they offered room service breakfast though $9 for a muffin seemed a bit excessive. SO, Gen and I used our beloved Yelp ap and went in search of a high rated bakery which sold these:

Feeling ready to tackle just about anything, at this point, we explored the area a bit. We were feeling pretty good. We had a “super fancy” hotel room, (ok, this was more Gen then me, but whatever.) We had outsmarted the hotel and gotten some form of (adorable) breakfast to tide us over til checkout (for under $4!!! this was total me who was excited about this point, Gen could have cared less.) And I had made it to said hotel AND bakery, keeping us and my car in tact while snow flurried around us. (Also more so me, but I’m sure Genny’s gratitude is there, buried beneath teen angst.)

Eventually we wandered back to the hotel. I mean, it had likely been ten, or so, minutes since Gen had raved on and on about the “super fanciness” of it. Between their actual glass drink ware in the rooms, our mini Keurig, the embroidered hairdryer bag and the fresh, warm cookies they serve the guests- well, we needed to hear more about it all, so we went back. Eventually I talked her into sitting laying across her bed and watching a movie on tv while I sat in the living room and just sort of vegged for 90 min. On Commercials she would come out, (or shout out) about how laying in a fancy hotel bed watching tv was the best feeling ever.

It really wasn’t a fancy hotel… BUT, I was slowly falling in love with the sofa and chair. I wonder where they got them?

Anyway? Eventually we headed out to share this AMAZING brick oven BBQ chicken pizza…

And then we stayed up until early hours of the morning playing card games and talking…

I won.

But not by much, she’s a worthy opponent.

The next morning she slept until a reasonable teenage hour while I tossed, turned and then rose early to drink tea and read on my new favorite sofa. When we departed, Genny reluctantly said goodbye to her “super fancy” hotel suite, remarking how she hoped she never had to stay in those places where the cheep hair dryers hang on the walls again. (Sorry, Gen, you will.) She was also deeply saddened that they do not offer warm cookies to people checking out. I love her…

We had been able to chat with Chw the afternoon before, and he shared with us that he was heading to spend Saturday at the beach with his newfound friends from Japan, Thailand, Korea and of course Australia. What a little life of luxury he leads. Ironically, the man hates the beach while Gen and i LOVE it. So, when Saturday found us heading to a movie over near his very favorite restaurant, well, we had to go. It seemed the nicest thing to do… And then we checked in on Facebook. He laughed, it was all in good fun. He also got a little sunburnt and pelted in the face with windy sand. We got this…

I think it’s clear, despite his 75 degree weather, who got the better end of the deal. (please lie and tell me that it was us!)

After that, before trekking home, we went to see 12 Years a Slave. We don’t usually let Genny watch R rated movies, but on the very rare occasions that she has seen them, it has been with us and they were R for reasons that weren’t sexually explicit or graphic in unnecessary ways. I don’t regret taking her to see this film. It was emotional and moving. Difficult to watch, but such a beautiful story full of valuable life lessons. As we left the theater, still stunned from all we’d seen, I looked to her and said “wow, huh?” And her sweet 14 yo response?

“That movie was NOT entertaining. I hate that movie. That wasn’t fun at all.” Yes, she had seen the trailer. I don’t know where she expected it to turn into a fun movie, but we had a wonderful discussion about the film and Solomon’s story on the way home. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it… (Where kids are concerned though, obviously, read reviews and use your best judgement.)

Anyway, our Girl’s retreat was fun, and I think we’ll do it again. I think maybe we’ll do it with another mother/daughter someday… It was a lot of fun though, and we want to make it a semi-annual tradition. Considering we really were just winging it, it was pretty great…

Snowy day run aways…

Published on December 13, 2013 by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments

While everyone is busy posting Christmas cookie secrets and holiday party scandals I’m busy thinking about packing my suitcase and running away alone for a retreat.

A personal writing retreat is something I’ve toyed with over the past couple of years but opportunity and finances didn’t really leave a lot of opening for such dreams. Coming up in a few weeks, however, there may be the possibility to make such magic happen and I’m thinking I should jump for my chance.

Is it ideal? Maybe not.

I’d much rather there be spring blossomed trees to breathe in, soft grassy paths to clear my head on or Fiery red leaves absorb inspiration from.

I have the opportunity though, and goodness knows I need the change of scenery as I have a LOT of work to do. Something about this room isn’t making that any easier and maybe a change of scenery is just what I need… I’ve been exploring possibilities close enough to home to make it worthwhile, and most of what I’ve found does not fit the bill. Interestingly enough I’ve found a lot of suggestions for various spiritual retreats, which is an interesting idea as well. {Not for this time out though, but one day.}

So, my friday question for you is, have you ever done anything like that? Ever taken a retreat for yourself? Maybe a photography journey? {I’ve done day long photography journeys, though obviously not with the two of my iPhone photos before!} Maybe a weekend, with a good friend just to relax or de-stress? I’d love to hear your stories, advice or tips…