Tales from the Love Shaque: T is for Travel

Saturday, April 23, 2022

T is for Travel

Hi and welcome to my contribution to the 2022 April A to Z Blogging Challenge!

This is one of many random things that just pop into my head that I'll be writing about for this challenge.

Travel. Love it!

The Spouse & I try to take some sort of vacation every year. Most years we stay here in Michigan, since it's a big place and there's a lot to see. But we have been other places.

I love to go places with the Spouse. We "together" well.

We've made countless trips to Arkansas, since he's from there - and his mom and sister live in Hot Springs. I actually love that place! Besides the amazing Buckstaff Bathhouse, they have such fun events like the Bathtub Races and World's Shortest St. Patricks Day Parade.

We've been to Virginia Beach for a reunion with some people from one of the ships I was stationed on - and that meant sightseeing along the way. We've been up thru New England and learned that New Hampshire is absolutely beautiful and you definitely need more than 1/2 day in Salem, Massachusetts.

My nephew and his family live in Chicago, so we've been there a few times. I went on a girls' trip with Mom & the sisters & a few nieces to Nashville.

I've gone on a road trip to Texas with one girl I was stationed with on my first ship to meet up with a third. In fact, I'm doing that again at the end of May!

Not long after I met him, he asked if I wanted to go with him on a trip he'd already had planned - to Alaska! I'd only known him for a few months, so I'm glad he didn't end up being a murderer or anything since I jumped on that chance!

In 2005, we went on a Carnival Cruise to Grand Cayman & Cozumel. This is the trip we got engaged on.

In 2007, we did another Carnival Cruise to the Bahama, St. Thomas & St. Martin.

For our honeymoon in 2006, the Spouse had it planned out to drive across Ontario (we have 2 Canadian border crossings within 45 minutes of our house) and we checked into our hotel on the 19th floor just in time to watch the fireworks over Niagara Falls.

photo from niagarafallstourism.com

This trip somewhat started a long Canadian weekend tradition, since on our 5th anniversary, we went back to Niagara Falls, since we didn't go to the Skylon Tower the first time we were there. We had dinner there, then went on to Toronto.

Dinner with Wayne!

For our 10th anniversary - we took a tiny, rickety ferry across the Detroit River to a podunk little town on the Canadian side. We stayed at a very nice B&B, and then went to Chatham-Kent to a riding stable so he could get on a horse for the 3rd time!

We missed out on our 15th anniversary (2021) since the borders hadn't opened back up yet - so we did the next closest thing - Michigan's U.P.!

Arch Rock on Mackinaw Island

And also, since the Spawn was part of a competitive dance team for many years - she and I took a few trips to Nationals. In 2014 they were in Sandusky, OH, in 2016 we went to Myrtle Beach & Charleston, SC and 2018 found us in Orlando, FL. For that we flew into Atlanta and rented a car, so we could visit the town my Dad grew up in, stop by Naval Station Kings Bay where my first ship was stationed, and also visit the park which is what's left of where I went to bootcamp.