2008 - the year of the stay-cation

I am a single mom I was left with six kids to raise on my own so vacations were scarce. Now with everything so high priced we don't go many places, usually if we it is for a 3 day week-end type deal and we go camping, we are lucky to be close to everything. We have 3 lakes close within a 30 min drive, so summer camping and winter snowboarding. When summer comes to entertain ourselves we bought a big pool a couple years ago and a portable hotub last year. On Tuesdays when the guys are at work my daughters come over and my mother and some friends an we have Tuesday lunch and afternoon coctails it's fun just eat drink and chat the afternoon away. On Saturdays we have a family cook out, we invite our friends, neighbors, and family over its a potluck everyone brings something again we eat swim hot tub talk listen to music dance or whatever we feel like doing its entertaining and its like a vacation.

Well - I have no intention of taking vacation, because of my offline job. To cut costs on havign to pay for gas, I try to do more within the same trip, meaning that I try to avoid starting up my vehicle just to go to the store. Being that i am lucky enough that the local supermarket is on my way home, trips to that supermarket is only done on my way home. The other problem is, at my workplace, this is when I usually get extra time for those who are going on vacation. This year, it might mean that either co-workers will less likely go on vacation, & therefore, less extra work time for others & me. I will have to see what happens on that one. In my case, I have been trying to work on music for another mylotter's lyrics. The lyrics were posted here on MyLot a while ago, so instead of actually going away when I'm not on MyLot, i'll probably be working on that as well.

I had not had a real vacation, other than the short trip to my brother's, since my grandbaby was born. She is over two. We went to Minnesota for a long weekend. I hope to be able to do it again before the holidays, unless they find a job that will let them move this way. Other than that, there are tons of museums that we can go to that are less than an hour away. I like to vacation in my library a lot.

We're lucky enough here in Erie, PA to have a ton of things going on all summer long. We have the beautiful beach to go to any time we want. Every Tuesday we have a concert at our lake front amphitheater and at least one of the bands that performs is a big name band, usually announced at the beginning of summer. Every Wednesday we have a big bonfire, beach volley ball and local bands playing on one of the beaches. Every year we have a rib cook off, a chili cook off, We Love Erie Days, Erie Arts Festival and an awesome Jazz Festival that last 3 days! I'm kewl with staying home this year!

Deb, we will probably go camping close to home, we have plenty of lakes and rivers around us. I also want to buy a new sit down pool for the grand ids this year, the one we have had the last couple of years sprung a hole last season and was not holding air. The public library has a reading for children twice a day, and I think the grand babies will enjoy that. So far thats all I am for sure planning.

We were planning to drive to SD this year, but gas prices have caused us to abandon that idea. We have some great state lakes nearby and we will be going camping, swimming and fishing close to home. The younger ones will be going to day camp through school (no cost to parents) and the older ones will be working a part-time Summer job to take up some of their free time.