trips in waiting

[calimac]

When I was working, often long hours with little vacation, I would muse on the things I'd like to do and trips I'd like to take if only I had the time to do them. But when I was between jobs and had the time, I'd forget what I'd been thinking of. Eventually I decided to keep a list and just consult that the next time I had the opportunity to travel. This worked splendidly.

So now I think I will start a list of the trips I want to take once the virus is no longer a danger. This doesn't include a pair of 2020 conferences I already signed up for which have hopefully (a word I'm using in the traditional sense) rescheduled themselves for 2021.

1 and top priority: to visit my brother in Pittsburgh. I haven't been there since before he moved house (though I've seen him when he came out here), for lack of an urgent reason to go. But he was recently ill for a while, and I couldn't go and help out (not least because Pennsylvania has quarantine). So as soon as I can go, I will.

2: to visit our nephew and his family, and some friends, in Seattle. This one is for B. and me together. We're going to drive up, which we never have done together further than Portland. But hey: she's retired, so we have the time. We were going to do that after going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in October, but that's out, so it'll have to be next year.

3: Pinnacles National Park. Day trip, since it's only 80 miles from here. I've been to all the National Parks in California at one time or another, but I haven't been to Pinnacles since before it was a national park. I was thinking of going in February, when I still had an annual pass I got without asking when we went to Cabrillo NM in San Diego last summer, but I didn't get around to it, and after that it was too late.

4: The Mother Lode gold country in the California Sierras. This is a road trip I started working out last year. I've been here before, several times, but never comprehensively or in the amount of detail I'd like. As I worked it out, I could do this satisfactorily in three full days plus time to travel there and back. And it's smaller-scale than, for instance, my week in Montana a couple years back.

Comments

[ranunculus]

A friend just went to Virginia City and wished she had allotted more time there. With the pandemic visitors are light and there are a LOT of very interesting tours.

[calimac]

Interesting, but I'm not going anywhere while still subject to the pandemic.

[bibliofile]

Good on ya for having the presence of mind to plan now. (This pandemic stuff isn't helping me at all, that way.)

Me, I'm hoping for my aunt's 90th birthday party next spring. I'm not optimistic, but I'd love for the extended family to have another good reason to get together again. (Failing that, I just want to visit that aunt & uncle. They won't be around forever.)

[calimac]

I was a little skeptical of traveling across the country for my aunt's surprise birthday party. But she was absolutely delighted at finding that what she'd thought would be just a quiet little dinner out was a whole private room at the restaurant full of out-of-town relatives, and it was indeed the last time I saw her. So yes, do it if you can safely.

[bibliofile]

This aunt knows the party's coming, because she was there for my uncle's 90th birthday party a year ago, and we told her that she's next.

Even if the party doesn't happen, they're still at the top of my list. Much as your brother's at the top of yours, I expect.

[athenais]

I'd like to hear more about what you want to see in the gold country. I've been through part of it on my way to Bodie, but didn't do any exploring.

[calimac]

My goal is to drive every mile of Highway 49, from Oakhurst and Mariposa to Hallelujah Junction, stopping at every whistlestop historical site along the way.

[athenais]

Ah! I've been on it from Oakhurst to Coulterville with Tamara Vining when we drove from Bodie through Yosemite to North Fork where she grew up. A spectacular drive.

[calimac]

I've been on various patches, as far north as Loyalton, over the years, and I've stayed in or around Auburn, Placerville, and Jackson. Colorful places.