Maybe it’s the mid-winter blues (though I have to say, we are having such a mild winter in New York after the past few insanely snowy and frigid winters, that I feel like I have no right to complain – temps near 60 again today!), but I’ve been daydreaming a lot about traveling. It’s so hard you know, with the business, school schedules, my unpredictable freelance schedule blah blah that the excuses loom large and become big hurdles that make it seem impossible outside of our yearly August trips to the Northwest. So instead, I start planning imaginary trips, browse hotels, search plane tickets in the hopes that something will click or that I’ll book something completely spontaneous.

What trips do you have planned this year? We have 2 big things happening in 2012: a big birthday for a certain member of our household and a big anniversary. I had fantasies of going to Hawaii to celebrate these 2 events as it’s been 10 years since we were last there and Mia is DYING to go because she has all these plans to live there when she’s a grown up, but airline tickets aren’t as cheap as they used to be (Mark and I once found $200 roundtrip tickets to Honolulu from NYC non-stop! Craziness) and now there are 4 airplane tickets to pay for. Traveling as a family has gotten very expensive. There was also talk of going to Disney World for Winter Break, but it was decided that it’s not affordable right now.
 
So there is the road trip option which worked fantastic for us last year when we went to the Outer Banks in May. I’d like to plan something for Spring Break which comes early this year in the beginning of April if my work schedule cooperates. The weather will still be cool unless we go south again, but I need a change of scenery. I want to look at something different, a different skyline, different buildings, different trees, walk different streets. Go somewhere unfamiliar. See something I’ve never seen before. Something to break out of our daily routine that for the most part is comforting, but sometimes can be stifling.

Seems like whenever we leave Washington, our flight is always early morning so we need to wake up many hours before even the first light breaks. The drive is in darkness, so there is nothing to see out the car windows. I always make sure that our last night is filled with sights, like dusk at the waterfront in Olympia, to carry us over to our next visit.

So I’ll bring you back to New York next week. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Also, we are at the end of September. What?

Going back to Mark’s mom’s house in Olympia, Washington is just about the closest thing to going back home as we can get. Certainly for Mark, as he lived at that house during his high school years, but in some small way for me as well. When we drive to my parents’ house on the weekends, it’s not to the house or neighborhood I grew up in. There are no childhood relics or memories there, so I suppose in one sense going back to this house with the red door, a place that I have also lived in briefly on 2 separate occasions, is the oldest “home” to go back to.

Oh Olympia, you are a sleepy little town, but you have an impressive Farmer’s Market, a nice waterfront, and our favorite coffee roasters. It’s funny how huge the scene felt back then in the early 90s – the birthplace of Riot Grrrls, the indie record labels, the music and the aftermath of Nirvana. I guess you could say that about many of the indie college towns back then. Of course we didn’t really know it at the time, but is stuff like this still happening in college towns? Or am I that out of touch and talking like an old person?

Nothing like picking blackberries down the street and making a pie with it the same day. The kids (Lecia’s and ours) helped pick the berries and then Lecia’s older son videotaped Mark making the pie so that he could remember the recipe (and look, you can see another view of the pie here). We grilled and ate dinner on the patio under lights while watching the sun go down. It’s moments like these that make you reflect and think, “oh, that was a good summer” now that the summer is gone gone gone.

If I ever win the lottery, I’m going to buy a house on Lecia’s street, you’ll see. Then when we’re old and retired we’ll be bi-coastal. Because I can’t ever quit New York, I’ve tried – when I was living right there in the Northwest, in fact. But I can stare at this water view forever.

The temperatures dropped about 15 degrees in New York during the day today. Everybody was all aflutter about hot apple cider, Fall boots, scarves and hearty cold weather meals, but we saw the first signs of Fall already in Seattle. It wasn’t just that the leaves were starting to collect on sidewalks into piles, but we saw leaves turning yellow scattered on trees too.

I think one of our favorite things to do in NY and also when we travel is to pick a neighborhood and just go exploring. We did just that in Queen Anne one afternoon, browsing through book stores, having lunch and picking up a few thing from the grocery. We even found a playground for the girls to play in. It was one of my favorites days in Seattle.

Oh, I’m not done yet with photos from our trip. So much more to show, but you know…life happens, the beginning of school, checking in on my mom, figuring out our Fall schedules. It seems busy. As Fall should be.

But I still find myself thinking about our trip which does really seem like a million years ago, so much so that Mia keeps shaking her head with disbelief saying, “did we really go to San Francisco last month?” From my obsessive weather watching, the temps are going to drop starting tomorrow and it does feel like summer is slipping away. Looking at the photos from our trip gives me a sense of calm and also a sense of longing. I wonder why we connect with some places and other places we don’t. You already know that my lack of emotional connection to Portland confuses the hell out of me, and I have to say that I wasn’t surprised that San Francisco didn’t bowl me over with its awesomeness. I really do love the city and we had a super great time, but it never had in past visits and that didn’t change this time. So what is it about Seattle and the Pacific Northwest? I don’t know. I think it has to do with something about my youth, my long term history with the region, family ties, some fantasies and a few unrealized dreams. Maybe a special place does that for you too?

Ironically, as we were leaving my friend Lecia’s house in Seattle where we stayed a few days once again this year, she and her boys were flying out to NYC. She wrote this about their trip: “Seattle is our home, but we left a piece of our hearts in New York City.” We leave a piece of our hearts every time we leave the Northwest.

We started the summer making s’mores with the Jensens at their NY lake house and we ended the summer making s’mores with the Jensens on their tiny island in the NW. When we first pulled up to their house, the girls asked if they had moved since they were only used to seeing them in NY. It’s funny how kids perceive things. You forget that their world can be so small sometimes and this is why, above all other luxuries we really can’t afford, I’ve made it a priority to travel with them once a year, even if it’s only to visit family on the West Coast. While I never traveled as a kid, Mark and his family did while they lived in the Middle East. It’s obvious, even after all these years, how much of an impression it made on him as a young kid.

We didn’t really travel much as a family when I was a kid. I do, however, remember a few summer weekend outings spent in Montauk or the Poconos, renting out a group of motel rooms with other family friends and their children. It didn’t really matter where we were, really. It was all about hanging out with friends, like on a really long playdate, and a break from routine and everyday life.

These trips sometimes remind me of those childhood vacations full of families and kids. It’s one sort of vacation when you go to a place as a tourist not knowing anyone, but it’s another trip altogether when you spend it with a family who make the place home, no matter how many times you’ve been there. It’s a different, and I would say, more meaningful experience.

What is it about vacations that make it feel like it happened a million years ago once you get home? This was our first day on the San Juan Islands with our friends Sara and Thor and it feels so long ago even though it was the weekend before last. It’s actually a cool and rainy day here in NY. Prelude to what Fall might bring. School starts for the girls in 2 days, but first…more photos of the island to come…