Mid-August has finally arrived and in this area at least, we are on our 60th day of 90+ degree temps. Really! I am officially over watering my outdoor potted plants, most of which look something like this:
 |
| Petunias have long since burned up and almost nothing is blooming |
Once again we will not be traveling at the end of August. We passed on Will’s backpack trip to Oregon for a couple of reasons, mostly because I have been working full-time for only 3 months and I am building vacation, some of which I will carry into 2011. With that said, we look forward to a couple of weekend get aways and have begun the conversation for 2011 vacations. Half the fun of travel for me is the dreaming and planning. This process gets me through the months of daily routine. Besides, John and I tend to develop inertia when we don’t plan.
Currently our discussions center around two main destinations, both have to do with long time dreams. The first is backpacking on Baffin Island. While our dream has centered around exploring Ellesmere Island, the trip is cost and time prohibitive and we can’t find a good way around these roadblocks (we have been looking for almost 10 years). Baffin Island, located on the east side of Greenland, is roughly a bit south of Ellesmere and fits our time and cost objectives nicely. The scenery on Baffin is probably better than Ellesmere with magnificent glaciers, mountains and river valleys. We think this trip would be similar to our spectacular 2001 backpack in the Gates of the Arctic in the Alaskan Brooks Range, only we would be dropped at the start of our hike by boat instead of float plane.
Our other vacation option is Egypt. On my “must do” list for almost 35 years, Egypt would be a dream come true. Who wouldn’t want to wander through the land of the pharaohs and pyramids, float down (up) the Nile, shop in the markets and maybe ride a camel? The culture, the food, the land, we think we would be remembering this experience for many years to come. Where we will end up is really any one’s guess. I know John would like to take a trip with his mother and siblings and this is in the discussion too.
Meanwhile, we remain in Knoxville. We have a busy couple of weekends coming up so today we ran some errands and did some of that stuff that has to be done. Yesterday I worked 1/2 day (1 of 4 Saturdays a year I have to do so). After work we jumped in the car and headed to the tourist town of Pigeon Forge to hit the outlet malls. The town was crazy busy with back to school shoppers and end of summer vacationers, traffic was bumper to bumper. While we enjoyed being close to the mountains, getting to Gatlingburg on the outskirts of the national park was not something we were willing to sit in traffic for. So we walked around Five Oaks Outlet complex, looked but didn’t buy too much. We did stop at Harry and David’s to pick up these jars to goodness:
 |
| Salsas and pepper/onion relishes |
We ate a “gray hair” dinner (5:00 PM) at the Applewood Farms Restaurant (also in Pigeon Forge) and were home by 7:00 PM. By all accounts, we had a nice weekend.
