Ten on Tuesday...July 15...

10 Memorable Vacation Moments

1) Clearwater Beach - This was the first vacation we ever took as a family. My grandmother, mother, sister and I spent a week at a place called the Sea Shell Motel. Probably about ten years old when this happened - but, it was like the best thing that happened. We ate in the restaurant and played on the beach. We didn't own a car so we took the Greyhound bus from Tampa to Clearwater Beach. (The hotel/motel was still around when I was in my 30s - couldn't find it listed now!)

2) Nashville, Tennessee - My first vacation alone! I was in my early 20s and went to Nashville to see the sights and the Grand Old Opry! It was the first time I drove a long distance by myself. Stopped in Atlanta, Georgia for the first night.

3) Road Trip to Massachusetts - A friend and I struck out for Fall River, MA as she wanted to go back home. Didn't want to leave or sell her Mustang in Florida - so I rode along...and then flew home. Fell in love with Boston and Cape Cod...and was ready to move the next week. It would be almost 40 years before I got back to Boston.

4) Disney Orlando - Took Tara to celebrate her 4th birthday at Disney. We took a Greyhound excursion bus - because I knew I'd be too tired to try and drive back home that same day. It was marvelous to see her little eyes light up at the wonder that is Disney! Mine did some lighting up too!

5) Savannah, Georgia - Tara and I experience our very first train trip together...went to visit a friend of ours for a week and stayed on the beach. It was great fun...and Tara learned how to skateboard. We came home on the train with a skateboard for her...

6) Washington, DC - Took a three day side trip to Washington, DC on my way home from a business meeting. It was the most awesome feeling to be there in the middle of the city that houses our government. Seeing the monuments, the graves of JFK and the Unknown Soldier, the Viet Nam Wall, the White House and the buildings that house our Congressional people was so inspiring.

7) Hawaii - It was a dream to be able to go there. I went there on a business trip and stayed a few days to see the wonders that are Hawaii! It was beautiful...and I am glad I was able to go. Stopped in San Francisco on the way home...and got to experience it.

8) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - this was one of the most memorable places I have ever been. If it were possible to fall in love with a city or area - this was it! I still can envision the places I went and the things I saw so vividly. Beautiful, safe, exciting, vibrant! Yea - that's Vancouver.

9) Cayo Costa State Park, Florida - A small island accessible only by water. I took Scarlett there for her birthday...we lived in a yurt (with the bathrooms across the way), cooked all our food on a grill, walked the beaches and the trails, hung our food from trees so the wild pigs wouldn't get it...lived in a bathing suit for three days and loved every damn minute of it! Left a loaf of bread in the yurt while we went for a walk and came back to find a squirrel family sitting on our bed enjoying the bread...

(You leave for the island from the place that Body Heat (William Hurt & Kathleen Turner) was filmed...we drove over that same bridge!)

10) Quebec City, Quebec, Canada - Another city that I fell madly in love with...I don't know if it was that everyone was soooo French...and soooo Metropolitan! Or if it was the quaint little shops, bakeries, open air cafes. Or maybe it was the day that we spent at the Zone Spa - alternating between a marvelous hot tub and then having buckets of ICE cold water poured over you among numerous spa treatments and a wonderful lunch. Or maybe it was the wonderful little hotel we stayed at...which you can see here! But Quebec City was and is memorable!!!!

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