Resting






I have just spent two amazing weeks on vacation. Not a lot of travel… not a lot of sightseeing… just vacation. Two weeks spent either watching our daughter play in a pool, looking for seashells with her on Turtle Beach in the Gulf of Mexico, or fishing with my husband. Plus, one excursion to the Ringling Museum of Art.




Restful. That’s it in a nutshell. We agreed at the onset that we’d have absolutely no agenda for our trip other than rest and play. Don slept most of the first three days. Every time I turned around he was either asleep in a chair, on the couch, or on the bed. Normally, this would irritate me to endless bounds, as I’m a go-go-go kind of person, but this time, I really tried to embrace the idea of resting. I sat, read a book, went for walks, colored pictures with Marla, and rested.

Now don’t get me wrong… it wasn’t a perfect trip by any means. We did have a five year old with us, and there was this one day when Don totaled the car. Yes, I said it, “totaled”. On our 7th day in Siesta Key, Don was driving a friend back to Orlando when falling gas prices caught his eye in congested traffic. After giving the price a double take Don returned his eyes to the road just in time to see brake lights in front of him. Bam! No more SUV for the Taylor family. Fortunately, the airbags deployed and kept Don and our friend from injury.


















On the bright side, the rest of the trip was remarkably uneventful and relaxing. Daniel and his girlfriend drove over for a couple of days and we all visited a really spectacular beach (Siesta Beach) and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and water. All in all-- a good trip.














Marla had a great time!
















Don and I both went back to work today, but I’ve already started saving change for next year’s vacation. We’re talking about going to another favorite place of ours… Naples, Fl., and (you’ve got it) resting.

Dreaming


I've been dreaming about our vacation. Now it's almost here! One more day... there is only one day left until we get off the work treadmill. I need it this year more than most. It's been a Spring full of major events. On top of my regular work week, in the past four weeks, I've been the music director for a major HS musical with 50 cast members, put together a Disney Review Concert with 84 singers ages 11-17, hosted our daughter's fifth birthday party for her pre-schooler friends, hosted a wedding shower, written a women's session for a Mother/Daughter event, struggled with Laryngitis, and caught a really nasty summer cold. Right now, vacation sounds like heaven.

We're going to Siesta Key. I found a great condo on the internet, and we'll be relaxing by the pool, beach, and bay... if I only had an ipod, I could create myself a vacation play list and truly be relaxing in style.

This is a vacation of almost no agendas. We've saved our money and booked for two weeks (I found an incredible deal) and we're only planning on playing with our daughter. There's a possibility that our son Daniel and his girlfriend will come for a day or two, which would be great! Other than that, we might visit the Ringling Museum of Art one day.

When I was a child and living in the Bradenton/Sarasota area, my mother signed me up for art lessons at the museum. The lessons took place out on the lawn near the Sarasota Bay, in a grove of Banyon Trees. I remember the lessons well, and loved them. But what I remember most is playing in that grove of trees. They had such on otherworldy appearance that it was quite easy for an imaginative child to play for hours there.

I'm really looking forward to it. If I could, I'd vacation all year long... sigh. Maybe when Don retires he can become a plastic surgeon, move me to Sarasota, and I can play in the sand in my golden years... There I go... dreaming again.