Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Vacation musings

I've tried to imagine various types of vacations I'd like to do ... cruise (just did one, yea! Neat), dogsled trip across the Gunflint Trail (possibly doable next year), and a trip to Peru to see the ruins there.

One thing I'd like to do that I doubt I ever will is to go on an Eco-trip -- one of those things where you go to the Galapagos Islands and count turtles, or help tag llamas in the Andes, or research whales in New Zealand. I used to get catalogs of these types of trips and I would daydream about what it would be like to vacation AND help the world at the same time.

But alas, reality intrudes. I'm not cut out for camping, hiking, and living without running water. I know that about myself. So I confine myself to daydreaming.

A 'vacation' I want to do when I'm in retirement is to be an emergency responder for pet rescue after hurricanes and other disasters. EARS is the Emergency Animal Response Service (part of UAN: http://www.uan.org/) . I'm hoping, in a few years, to be able to work part-time and use my free time to volunteer for something like this. How cool would it be to help out like that in a crisis? I think I could do it -- if I can only get the time!

But for now, I'll settle for more prosaic vacations: a conference next week in Chicago, a trip to Kansas City in March, a trip to L.A. in April, a trip to Ohio in June .... I'll rack up those flyer miles and hope I can use 'em some time in the future!

1 comment:

Donna Caubarreaux said...

Wow!

Some of these I've never heard of. It shows a lot about you JL, very loving and giving of yourself.

In your last paragraph, do you do something 'tourist' in your travels?