Woman in the Middle

Forgive me. I am having a hard time typing right now, I am laughing so much. I was just reading a fashion blog. Not normal my cup of tea, but it was about what she wore on her cruise. I got sucked it, thinking it might have tips about how to pack light for a cruise. Uh, no.

On one day of her four-day cruise she changed clothes four times! FOUR TIMES! That didn’t count her change from her pajamas to real clothes, either. I can’t even imagine. I understand that after a shore excursion on a hot Caribbean island she would want to shower and change cloths for dinner, but four times? She put together one outfit just to go get breakfast. Wow, I missed something about packing “breakfast wear” for any of the cruises I have been on!

However, there was a story in the news that I could really relate to. A young man with some Scottish band decided he didn’t want to pay to check his luggage. Instead he wore everything he was taking on his body. Unfortunately, he  got severely overheated and had to be rushed to the hospital with the plane landed. I like to think I wouldn’t do something quite that dumb, but I have thought about what I would do if the irritating airlines started charging for carry on luggage. I now know that wearing a suitcase full of clothes is not a good idea!

Give me a decent sized purse, though, and I bet I could still pack enough to get by for a few days at least.

We just got back from a little vacation. We flew to Seattle and, for the first time ever for all four of us, drove south and visited the great state of Oregon. Our visit was mainly to Portland. Since we had never been there before we had plenty to see just in and around that city. We were also there for just three days, so there was only so much we could do. In comparison to the desert where I live, Oregon was very green, which was a refreshing change for us. It was also nice and cool, compared to the 106 F it was the weekend before we left home. Finally, and craziest of all, they had two rivers in town and both had lots and lots of water in them! We have a river, too, but it is almost dry most of the time. It takes a considerable rain fall for anything more than a little bitty stream to run down our river. But there, why there were actual boats of a considerable size on the Columbia and the Willamette.

We rented a small SUV for the trip. We ended up with a Nissan Pathfinder, after they tried to get us to take a bus, I mean a Town and Country (not so ) minivan.  I am sure I have mentioned before that I have a very funny family. Well, we jumped in that Nissan and off we went, and then Eldest Daughter found a Fruit Loop in one of her cup holders. It wasn’t just any Fruit Loop, it was a blue one. Well her riffs on blue Fruit Loops kept us laughing for several miles.

Another thing that kept us laughing was the button I found on the radio/dashboard of our rental SUV. It was great for cat lovers like us. Here is a photo. Can you spot it?

Yes, the Pathfinder has the unique feature of being able to find cats for you. Well, the button said “Seek Cat!” But no matter how many times we pushed it, all we seemed to see were dogs. There was a beagle, a standard poodle, a pit bull puppy, and many more. But, until we got to our friend’s house in Seattle the second to last day of our vacation, we didn’t see a single cat! They have two cats, so that helped make up for the total failure of the “Seek Cat” button.

As I upload my photos and think back on our trip, I will tell you more about what we saw in and around Portland. Until then, I hope the rest of your weekend is a good one!!!

When I was 16 I had the great good fortune to be sent on a 6 week trip with a teacher and a handful of fellow students to Europe and the mideast. You can only imagine the souvenirs I purchased and finally managed to get back home with me. I did manage to resist the urge to buy the 3 foot high camel in Egypt that looked like it was covered in cat fur. Many in my group did not resist that urge and in those heady days pre-9/11 the aisle of the plane was littered with those cat-camels.

Fast forward five years and to celebrate our graduation from college my friend Barbara and I went to England for two weeks. One of our must see places was Stoke-on-Trent where many of the English china factories have their seconds stores (or at least they did then.) Nothing says “Hard to get home” than a bunch of breakable china. Again, pre-9/11, Barbara and I staggered home with all kinds of goodies for our selves and our family.

I have to admit that I still have most of what I brought home from those two trips. But I also have tons of other stuff from a life time of accumulation as well as Hubby’s stuff and the kid’s stuff and stuff from my grandmother and my parents….So I don’t tend to bring home as many souvenirs as I used to. What made me think of all this is that I got a bowl full of hot veggies out of the microwave last night and I used my Hawaii potholder and my Australia pot holder. That is one of the things I buy now when I travel – a souvenir pot holder. It has a use and a place to go when I bring it home and when I use them it reminds me of a memorable vacation. The potholder habit started at, of all places, Graceland, former home of Elvis in Memphis, Tennessee.  They had a pot holder with one of Elvis’s favorite recipes on it and it made me laugh and I had to have it. Then there was the potholder with the Space Needle in Seattle on it and I was started on my new pot holder collection from around the world.

The other thing we always try to buy now is a small print of some sort, preferably purchased from a local artist, that will remind us of our trip. I now have a vacation wall where most of those vacation pictures are located. It is fun to see new people in my house try to guess where they are all from. The Sidney Opera House and the Space Needle are easy. No one ever can guess the cotton field in Arkansas with Memphis in the distance or the bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.

We buy less now, but somehow it means more.