I was on vacation for the last four or five days.
"What?" (I can hear a few of you saying.) "You've been on vacation for weeks and weeks. It's almost annoying how long you've been on vacation."
Yes, that's all true. I'm on Summer Vacation from teaching, but last week my wife and I went "away" on vacation. I took a vacation from my vacation.
*gag* (I hear some of you having some trouble here.)
As fun as my stay-at-home vacation has been, my wife suggested that we get away a bit before I went back to school. That was about three weeks ago.
Now my wife isn't one to suggest these things very often, so I jumped on it. I have something called RCI Points, and for a mere 7,500 points and $168, I got us a two-bedroom, fully furnished timeshare in a country club setting in Indio, near Palm Springs, for a week!
Indio in the summer is about the only place still available for trading during the sought after month of August. Why? Because it's hot! 100 degree plus hot. But we decided to go for it, and we're glad we did.
Indio is about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, which is 90 miles east of where I live. So, after less than two hours of driving, we were at our new "home". Although I got the timeshare for a week, I only anticipated staying four nights. (Playing the timeshare/points game is an art form.)
Last year we did a desert road trip in June and the weather was 110 to 115 degrees hot. Ouch. Instead of being 10 degrees hotter than normal like last year, the weather was 5 to 10 degrees below normal, so we had 90's and low 100's. With A/C in the condo and car, it was a breeze. (Joshua Tree is high desert, so it was a cool 88 to 93.)
We used the condo as our "base camp." Some people climb mountains from their base camps, we took day-long road trips. We drove to Joshua Tree National Park two of the days, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (and Salton Sea) another.
A little research uncovered a local Fresh and Easy Market, and we had meals to-go, and meals to have at home. We had a blast. We smiled a lot. We marveled at the scenery, enjoyed the blue skies, and the nice beds. We got back yesterday.
The bags aren't unpacked yet, but I'm back to my other vacation, which includes catching up on reading some blogs. The cats and dog are glad we're home. I'm back to lining up some racquetball. The new plants survived. And I have pictures!
Another awesome aspect of the vacation is how great 85 degree weather at home feels. It's so cool!
So although I vacated from my at-home vacation, I still have a few more weeks before I return to the work-a-day world of gainful employment. And just to ease the envy of all of you who don't get summers off, remember, I don't get paid. Paychecks come my way once a month, ten months out of the year. During July and August my paychecks are absent. (Good thing I know how to budget, save, and spend wisely!)
Hope you all are enjoying the summer. Before you know it, fall will arrive, and then... that long, cold winter that makes you long for... summer!
Great to hear you're having a great vacation!
ReplyDeleteSummer is the time to live it up!
I haven't been to Palm Springs in a long time, is it dry hot, or humid hot?
I have learned through my travel experiences dating back to my first trip to Arizona, and my first trip to DC, that those two types of hot are very, VERY different.
I am gonna go back through your blog, and catch up on the posts i missed while i was absent from blogging
(:
@Pieces: Palm Springs is a dry heat. That's what makes it sooo much more bearable. (AC doesn't hurt either.) Downtown PS has shaded sidewalks with built-in misters to cool off the strollers. Palm Springs and Joshua Tree are great places for a (long) day trip. Both are memorable in their own ways. (But they are not Taj Mahal! Well, Joshua Tree might be... but a Natural architect.)
ReplyDeleteGlad that you had a great time! Love the photo of the two of you. Perfect vacation with many opportunities for smiling. Those are the moments to enjoy and remember.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time!
ReplyDeleteLooks like I'll have to practice budgeting a bit better if I'll be pursuing this teaching bit for awhile. :) Well. Worth it.
Indeed, I did notice you were on a little vacay of sorts. I'm so glad you got to get away before you go back... It makes a big difference even if we do get a whole chunk of time off. The pictures are fantastic too! Yay for summer! Yay for vacations! :) and Yay that you're back in the blogging world yet again! :)
ReplyDelete@september: Glad you liked the pic. Shhh... the wife doesn't know I posted it. We had a great time, and it inspired us. Vacationing is different at different times of life. Each requires adjustment and a learning curve.
ReplyDelete@Chase: We did have fun. We exceeded our expectations! Budgeting is important, and teaching has its own idiosyncrasies, like 10 monthly paychecks. Easy enough to adjust for, or not. I like to moderate my stress, so I do some planning so summer work is an option, not a necessity.
@Miss H: Thanks for the welcome back. I'm including lots of pics in the next few blogs for your viewing pleasure. It's not Montana, but it's beautiful in its own right. Yay for summer is right, fellow teacher.
Don, what would you know about cold winters?!?!?!
ReplyDelete:P
Your wife is lovely. :)
@Saphron: I only know what I read... mostly on the blogs of others. The winters of Fullerton, are mild, mild, mild. We get rain three weeks in a year. By reading the accounts of others, I've learned that they have cold winters. I don't. Sometimes, in the winter... I wear a jacket!
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