what to do what to do....

Okay....So the economy is bad and the jobs for this freelance graphics operator/designer have been been scarce of late. I'm not used to this. I've been busy to the point of exhaustion throughout my working career, even during the summer months. For years I blasted through the summer haze with barely enough time to cut the lawn, never mind vacations. Of course, when we traveled, the clan was dragged out to some fairly exotic places. Hawaii, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Mexico, Barbados, Florida and Las Vegas, as well as Dewey Beach, Delaware were some of our destinations. The kids have embraced this sense of adventure and both have traveled fairly well on their own despite their youth. My daughter and son have both been to France and Canada. My daughter as a young teen has flown to Aruba and Key West to visit relatives and my son has expressed an interest to travel across the country via car. I'm happy to have instilled this love of traveling in my kids. It's important to know there is something out there besides, say, the Jersey shore.


It's a big world and someone has to see it.


It used to be that jobs would drag me around the world and I traveled very extensively. I used to tour with Sinatra as a roadie and that 5 year stretch afforded me the chance to see a lot of countries, twice. Then, when I got back into television sports I visited several other foreign countries as well as the United States, for events like summer and winter Olympics and Super Bowls.

Sadly, that's all in the past now. The family has moved on. I got divorced and Mr. Sinatra is crooning for the big guy upstairs. Sports isn't the same anymore for a myriad of reasons. Which happily leaves me with a lot of time to travel.


In the five years since my divorce these are my excursions: My boy and I took a two week drive down to the Florida Keys, camping along the way. We stopped in places like Ocracoke and Charlestown and Bahia Honda. The next summer I kicked around Cape May. Then, in 2006 I met Janet and she has become my traveling partner. She and I took a Windjammer Cruise through the Grenadines that first year! We sailed out of St. Lucia and stopped along the way at some very small islands. In 2007 we rented a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and then took a side trip on the way home.


We attempted to follow the historic barbeque trail listed by the North Carolina Barbeque Society. We started in Ayden, but only lasted until Chapel Hill when our capacity to eat stopped cold! Here is the posting: http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail_map.html. Good luck.


After we came to our senses we drove along the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah National Park, which was a life dream for Janet, before ending our trip(s) with a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield.


Last year we spent three weeks on the road traveling through the cajun country of Louisiana. You may remember the blog I kept of that trip. http://www.cajuncountrytravels.blogspot.com/.

So, with this rich history of past trips, but no riches in our pockets what are we to do this year? Both Janet and I are strapped for cash and yet we're both off for the summer. She's a school teacher. I can assure you that unless I win the lottery or snag a great book deal with a fat advance, we are stay-cationing! I know that's probably an overused term right about now. I am sure you've heard it used in the media and at first thought it was witty. Well rest assured I am quite able to take a good idea and run it into the ground, but I'm calling this blog Vacations From Home.

Even though I am gainfully unemployed right now, Janet is working. So the vacation period hasn't quite begun, but last weekend we had quite a "trip". We drove down to Philadelphia and saw something called the Dragon Boat Races. http://www.philadragonboatfestival.com/
Evidently a lot of dragon races are held around the country and the date is meant to coincide with a Chinese holiday. Dragon races originated thousands of years ago.
Whatever the history, it was a lot of fun, even if we had to walk a long way to get to the actual race course on the Schuylkill River. There was a team from Janet's gym and we watched them in one heat. There were over 60 teams competing and it was a convivial affair with plenty of food and drinks. The military had a large presence at the races. The Marines, Army, Coast Guard as well as the Philadelphia Police and Fire Departments fielded, er, floated, teams as well as an array of gyms and organizations and youth groups.

The boats themselves were long and each was decorated with a colorful dragon's head. There are 20 people paddling, one guy standing in the back steering and someone in the front banging a drum. Either the steerer or the Buddy Rich in front call out the commands for the different strokes involved to hurtle the boat down the river.

We didn't stay until the end, though Janet's friends offered us food and beer. We were determined that day to see Chestnut Hill. Janet had been promising to take me to this quaint, affluent part of Philadelphia. It is miles from Center City and the area is literally the highest point in the city. The main thoroughfare, Germantown Avenue, is cobblestoned giving Chestnut Hill a special aura.


Well, apart from driving through the neighborhoods to ogle the large houses, Janet wanted to bring me to McNally's Tavern, home of the The Schmitter® (I'm serious about the copyright symbol!). It's good. They've been making it since the Revolutionary War, or at least the past 40 years. It has all kinds of meats on it, as well as sauted onions and something like Russian Dressing. The Kaiser Roll is toasted. It's a gooey mess and very tasty, but smaller than I expected. It was just $7.00 and the bartender kept trying to get us to buy three, one to take home for a special price where we'd save 4 dollars. We declined, but evidently The Schmitter is exported to the sporting venues in town and it was once served at Shea Stadium, perhaps leading to the Mets major collapse to the Phillies over the past few years.


McNally's is long, dark and clean with a modest selection of beers. I drank Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. The basement is an adventure. I won't describe it, you'll just have to be brave.


Unless you know where you're going, you won't find McNally's. We drove the length of Chestnut Hill twice looking for it before we got lucky. There's just a plaque on the front door and no other markings. Look for the trolley turnaround across the street.


The next stop on this first day of "vacation" was the General Lafayette Inn in Lafayette Hill, PA. Just a few miles out of the city along Germantown Pike. Janet and I are a couple of beer snobs and the GLI evidently has a fine reputation for good beers. Again, Janet had been wanting to drag me here, but I ran through the door and into the musty, worn, warren of rooms before she got out of her car. They had a Pale Ale on handpump and I happily lapped at it like a thirsty cur while Janet did a sampler round. The pint is $4.00 and the sampler of 4 is $6.00. Well the GLI brews are constantly changing and some have silly names like: Alt! Who Goes There and Germantown Blonde. All are very good and several have won prestigious awards. After eating a plate of pedestrian wings (we're snobs about wings too) we walked through the 1732 that is reportedly haunted. We didn't linger to find out.

Typical of Janet and I we crammed a lot into just one day. It was a good start to our "Home Vacation" summer.