Vacation Experiences

[Jeshurun]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,



I thought maybe we could lighten up and try to get to know one another a little better. It might be time for a diversion.

One of our beloved board members has informed me that he lives in the cold, but amazingly beautiful State of Maine. So I got to thinking about a wonderful vacation I once took there. I thought it might be encouraging for one another to relate some personal vacation experiences.

Of course the thing that stands out in my mind about these exotic places is the awe-inspiring marvels of Jehovah's creation. In Maine I got to see several things that I have only seen once in my life.

How about a fifty-pound shiny blue lobster! Exceedingly hideous, and stunningly marvelous.

Or a bald eagle, perched high above the Gulf of Maine, on cliffs sprouting majestic evergreens, and near the top of one of them what appeared to be its aerie.

And a brief look at a whale, spouting a huge geyser and doing its majestic leap not more than 500 yards away.

The only bummer about the whale sighting was that I had to endure a wind chill factor of minus 8 in the middle of July.

The village of Bar Harbor, quaint and yet bustling, touristy, but wonderfully historic. I took home a baseball cap that said "BAHABA MAINE" (New England accent, they're proud of it!) We New Yorkers also have an accent unto ourselves. We can't go anywhere without getting snagged after 2 or 3 words.

I think I had a fever that night, but well worth it.



Any thoughts?

Agape

Lou

[olrono]

I love ya, Lou

[Shibboleth]

I'm planning a trip to Utah in June to see Arches and Canyonlands. Gonna drive out there from New England. It's gonna be a haul but so worth it.

[eyes&ears]

I have not been to any place exotic but I visited my uncle in Oklahoma City, and he took me to Indidan reservations. I was flabergasted, not to mention that I tried to buy all their jewelry. I had never seen real Indians up close and in person, they must have thought me to be a real idiot as I kept starring, they just smiled.

Probably thought, little woman needs to get out more humph! :ban_dance01:

Oklahoma is real flat and the soil was all red. That is what I remember about it. The folks take life real slow and are very friendly and layed back. The cost of living was very inexpensive. (90's)

My uncle took me and several other family members to a camping site and I stayed in a log cabin for the first time. For a city girl this was very exciting. I had no intentions of roughing it in a tent, thank you very much.

I remember fishing from a boat, and my uncle bragging about how good a fisherman he was, and his pole got caught in a tree and my cousin, his daughter had to get the line out of the tree from the boat. What drama that was, but fun!! My uncle exaggerates. Guess that comes from his service days in the Airforce he, flew planes and thinks he is special, so we all humor him The big airforce pilot (ho hum)!!

Other than that, it was a peaceful, quiet and much needed vacation and I loved every minute of it.

Perhaps in the future I will have the opportunity to go somewhere EXOTIC. One never knows.

Love to you all

WOW Shib, should we pass the CYBER PLATE to help you with GAS :D

Have fun and be safe OKEY DOKEY, check in with us if ya can, let us know how you are and what you are doing.


P.S. I know about the N Y accent, I'm from UPSTATE, 45 minutes from Wallkill/Farm and everyone always asks me, where R you from, etc. etc.

E & E

[Berean]

Like E&E, I haven't been to any exotic places... a few years ago though, I went with my parents to another part of the country (Netherlands), called the Veluwe. It's a beautiful national park, and it really shows that there's beautiful nature everywhere. Also, while staying there in a cabin/bungalow there, my mother noticed that every morning, the table outside had fallen over (she put some leftovers on it every night, for the birds). Some birds, we thought, pulling a table to the ground! Well, then one night, she heard something, and she woke up me and my father to have a look, and I'm glad she did! There (s)he was, a badger, eating up some leftover fries. It was the first time ever I saw a real life badger in the wild, and possibly the last, but things like that are just awesome. You can see an animal on TV, but seeing it in the wild is just a whole other experience. That said, I hope that I'll ever be in a situation again to actually go on a holiday, and then I'd love to see something more of the world.

[juffowup]

I personally love diving in the ocean. I have a scuba license, but I like snorkeling best, since I can hold my breath for about a minute and a half and it is far less noisy. And cheaper. And safer. But I digress... I love the feeling of weightlessness, and I love the silence down there. You can be on a reef that is literally teaming with life, but unlike a large city, or even a rain forest where the sound of life around is deafening, everything is wonderfully silent.

Also, unlike terrestrial animals that are often skittish and flee from humans, almost all undersea life will allow you to approach quite close. Maybe because they realize we're so slow and clumsy underwater that we're no thread. I've swam through a school of fish and had them reform in a circle around me. It was a simple experience, but awe inspiring. I've also been not paying attention and swam through a cloud of jellyfish, which was an entirely different experience! Fortunately, they were just sea nettle, so while painful, it wasn't life threatening.

What strikes me about the sea is its power. A wave barely my height can easily knock me down. And I know that wave is nothing compared to the 30 foot monsters that you can find on the North shore of Oahu, and those are nothing compared to open sea "rogue" waves, or tsunami. So much power, and yet it's not even an infinitesimal fraction of the power Jehovah controls. It doesn't even register compared to what He is capable of. When I extrapolate that power to his wisdom, mercy, and love, which I know must be comparable in scope and grandeur, it is overwhelming.

[James]

I like to go camping every summer. I have a pop-up camper and I usuallt go to the state parks in Michigan near the beach -Lake Huron. Love it all, the woods, the beach, campfires, the tranquility, brings me closer to Jehovah. I've been to Mackinac Island several times, no motor vehicles allowed, only horses and bicycles...
I remember about 30-35 yrs ago some friends and I drove to California from Michigan and I had been sleeping and I woke up as we were on the highway around Laguna Beach, California. It was around noon and on the radio they were giving the weather report saying it was a clear sunny day. The sky was more white than blue and the sun looked hazy! They did mention something about the smog level,I don't remember.
Even though Detroit was (is?) the motor capital of the world, we still have blue skies and no earthquakes! LOL
Hey E & E, being so close, have you toured Bethel? How about you, Jeshurun? I was in New York many years ago for training, before I was in the truth, and on the weekend break I went up the Statue of Liberty and the Empire state building. Awesome!

With love in Christ,
James

[eyes&ears]

Hi James you asked:

E & E, being so close, have you toured Bethel?

When I lived in Upstate NY, my second home was the farm :185: The congregation I attended was so close and most of the brothers attended the congregation I was in. It was a wonderful experience. There was always some type of activity going on. Hiking, camping, just good clean fun and enjoying Jehovah's creation. I had lots and lots of friends living at the farm.

I visited Bethel in the City several times. It is an awesome place, very busy, everyone very friendly. I loved going there because I had friends who lived at Bethel. and they always put me at a great table. One of my married sister friends was always trying to play matchmaker. She said I am going to get you in here if it is the last thing I do. Little did she know that I did not want to live at Bethel. I thought it was a wonderful place to visit, but not for me to live there. I also got the latest info (happenings) as well as the latest literature, Mags, KM's. It is good to have contacts in Bethel very good. It was great because I had a sense of what was happening there positive and negative. Those were some wonderful memories and times.

Take care

E & E

[Jeshurun]

Hi Everybody, love all the input so far.

James, I did the Bethel tour when I was 8 years old. The thing that stands out in my mind the most was how they just loved showing off those massive state-of-the-art printing presses!

I know many brothers in Bethel from way back then who are still there.

Juffowup, have you been to Oahu? I went to five of the islands back in 1985. My favorite was the Big Island. I'll never forget the Black Sand Beach and Akaka Falls. Mauna Loa rising 13,000 feet right out of the Ocean is a unique sight on this earth. The Hawaiian language is beautiful.

Kauai was my idea of paradise. Lagoons, lush greenery, the Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast, where it rains more than any place on earth, over 600 inches per year.

Berean, I'm sad that you can't seem to get away for a break, everybody needs one at least once a year. I would consider the Netherlands exotic, the canals and waterways are amazing, and it's very green. No I have not been there, but I feel like I have been all over the world because I've done a lot of websurfing and came across wonderful photo sites. One you might want to check out is worldcityphotoarchive.com.

e&e, how are you feeling? You seem well, and I am so happy we are just about neighbors. I go upstate often, and I'll be passing by you when I head to Cooperstown with my baseball team on May 3/4. We go every year and we play 2 games at Doubleday field against another team in our division that also takes the trip. I really look foreward to it.

Let's hear more from everybody!

Agape

Lou

[eyes&ears]

e&e, how are you feeling? You seem well, and I am so happy we are just about neighbors. I go upstate often, and I'll be passing by you when I head to Cooperstown with my baseball team on May 3/4. We go every year and we play 2 games at Doubleday field against another team in our division that also takes the trip. I really look foreward to it.


Lou


Hi ya Lou,

I'm OKEY DOKEY. Have fun with you baseball team. I grew up in the UPSTATE area, and left there in the 80's. I now am a resident of NJ. CULTURE SHOCK :D Thank Goodness FOR FILTHIDELPHA, (PHILLY) The so called City of Brotherly Love. (That is a real joke) .

E & E

[Berean]

Berean, I'm sad that you can't seem to get away for a break, everybody needs one at least once a year. I would consider the Netherlands exotic, the canals and waterways are amazing, and it's very green. No I have not been there, but I feel like I have been all over the world because I've done a lot of websurfing and came across wonderful photo sites. One you might want to check out is worldcityphotoarchive.com.[/b]
Yeah, it would be great to be able to see more of the world - nature, culture... I might be going on a little tour around Europe this summer with a brother though, if that works out. And otherwise there's always the new world we're looking forward to. And that website doesn't seem to work, but is it worldcityphotos.org perchance? Some very good photos on there. Another site I like when it comes to photos is the National Geographic Photography site. I just love nature pictures, and I love taking pictures as well (like the one in my avatar).

[Reader]

We just got back last month from the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. It is fantastic. I love it there. That was the second time there for us, and I love the snorkeling. Also been to the Domincan Republic. Didn't like it so much, but the Samana Peninsula is the best part of it, very scenic with all the coconut groves. We went whale watching there, and saw a humpback with her calf which we followed for about 45 minutes to an hour. Amazing.

Also been to Newfoundland, very serene. And sparse. On one of our stops we were looking for directions to the next place. The directions were to take the second left and then the second right. IT WAS A 4 HOUR DRIVE!!! But the fishing villages snuggled into the rock cliffs overhanging the grey, cold Atlantic were quaint, and neat to visit. Definitely worth the trip.

We are probably going to Arizona next month. That would be interesting. Been to Utah on business and really enjoyed the parks there. Very different from my lush, mosquito and black fly laden parks of Ontario!

I enjoy the natural changes and the cultural changes that come with travel.

I would like to wander Asia as a vagrant for about three or four months. It think it would be amazing to really immerse myself into the life that goes on there every day. I also would like to go to Everest base camp. I just want to hang around all the folks that think that they are going to climb the mountain. It's a pity what they have done to that area, but that trip would be more for the people watching.

Regards,

Reader

[Cricket]

Great idea Lou! Sounds like everyone has had wonderful trips!

We had a really cool trip some time back - we called it Trains, Planes and Automobiles - we flew to Chicago for a few days, took Amtrack to the Twin Cities and visited the Mall of Americas. My son thought that the indoor theme park was the bomb!
That night we hopped back on the train, and overnighted through the Dakotas and woke up traveling through the back of many farms. Later we arrived at East Glacier Park in Montana. WHAT BEAUTY!!
After a few days we took the train through the rest of Montana, Idaho and Washinton State to Seattle. The views were fantastic! Unfortunately, we had someone right behind us talking about his last Harley ride the whole night. We were wishing we had paid for a sleeper car then. When we finally got on the bus to Vancouver we fell asleep.
We stayed several days in Vancouver and explored everywhere we could.

The one thing about this vacation we enjoyed most is that we met people on the train from all over and they were all so friendly. There were two young college girls from Britain vacationing across America for the summer who had a similar itinernary. We ran into them a lot during our stops. There were a group of Amish women and I enjoyed watching them. They would sneak some lifesaver candies and look around and giggle to see if anyone caught them! There was an old railway worker, colorful cowboy type, who had a local maps of the areas we were traveling so he was quite popular. He would entertain us all with funny stories about the railroad and the locals.
I would love to another trip like that again, only across Canada next time.

[eyes&ears]

Well now,

After reading all these expressions I feel lighter already. :ban_dance02: This was a nice change, great idea Jesh.

E & E

[juffowup]

Juffowup, have you been to Oahu? I went to five of the islands back in 1985. My favorite was the Big Island. I'll never forget the Black Sand Beach and Akaka Falls. Mauna Loa rising 13,000 feet right out of the Ocean is a unique sight on this earth. The Hawaiian language is beautiful.

Kauai was my idea of paradise. Lagoons, lush greenery, the Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast, where it rains more than any place on earth, over 600 inches per year.[/b]

Only once. I spent a week there as an early 20 something and wasted the majority of it in Wakiki. I finally made it to the north side for a day, and it was awe inspiring. What I loved about even Waikiki is that you can kick off a few dozen yards off shore and hit reef. I saw things there that I'd previously only seen in a Zoo, like a morey eel and various octopus (octopii?). Just so cool.

When I dive in Florida, it is neat, but most of the stuff you see around there you can see in the saltwater section of a petshop in a land locked State. Not so in Hawaii. I'd love to go to Austrailia, because I hear it is like that 10x. New Zealand is another dream destination.

Maybe in the new system... *sigh*