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.

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.

My hubby, my older brother (to be known as Bro from here on out)  and I just got back from a four-day road trip to Arizona. I figured out that the last time my Bro and I went on a long trip in a car together I was seven and he was seventeen. So we decided, what the heck, forty-three years later let’s do it again!  We piled in the car Saturday morning and off we went on a seven or so hour journey to Flagstaff, Arizona. Ah, Arizona…land of the unconcealed gun!  We had to get used to seeing men with a gun on their hip in the local fast food joints.

Flagstaff was just a good stopping off point between the two things we had come to see – Sedona and the Grand Canyon. However, Flagstaff is a university town and home to Bookmans, a fantastic used book, music, and DVD store. Heaven! All three of us found lots of things to buy and then we collapsed at the hotel to rest and read and, for Hubby and I, indulge in a little cable TV, something we don’t have at home.

On Sunday we went off to Sedona because Bro had never been there before. We poked around, took lots of photos of the magnificent scenery, and the like. I had made arrangements to take a jeep tour at 4 p.m. and it turned out to be the highlight of our day. This is the third time we have used Pink Jeep Tours in Sedona and we would take another of their tours in a heartbeat. We took their “Broken Arrow Tour” which is an off-road, bounce around in your seat kind of experience. Hubby and I had gone on this tour with our girls a few years back so we were familiar with it. I really thought Bro would like it and I was right.

Here are hubby and I taking in the beautiful scenery in Sedona on one of our stops on the Pink Jeep tour.

I am wondering about including the above photo in this post. I just wanted you to see exactly what we saw on Sunday. What you are also seeing is some funky hair color which I hope does not look like that in real life!!!! I think I will check it out in the mirror next time I happen to be in the bathroom….Enough about my hair, back to Sedona!

No photo I can take will ever do justice to the scenery in Sedona but I hope these two give you at least a taste of its beauty. Tomorrow I will tell you about the Grand Canyon and show you some more photos. By the way. Pink Jeep Tours did not in any way compensate me, unfortunately, for my endorsement of their tours. We just like them! Besides, the jeeps are pink and what girl wouldn’t like  a pink jeep????