BlogHer - staycation - Comments

Official Adventure Day

Beth Terry — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:22:11 -0500

@Crankycakes -- great lineup. Can you say more about official Adventure Day? What does that entail? I should add Official Adventure Days to my schedule, too.

@Condo Blues -- awesome post!

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Staycation

crankycakes — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:46:02 -0500

Although we've got a couple camping trips and a couple of day camps thrown into the mix, I'm looking for the good stuff to do too!

My family really needs a little structure, so we had a family meeting at which we agreed on the schedule:

Sunday - church/playground/groceries
Monday - library day
Tuesday - our local science museum (we've got a membership so this is kind of free)
Wed. - official adventure day
Thurs. & Fri. - they're with my ex
Sat. - Play at Home day (we live in a big cohousing place, so there's a lot to do outside)

What I like is that I've got a reason to get them away from the *&%#^$% Disney Channel ("Hey guys, we've got to get to the library!"), but we've still got flexibility.

Staycation Tips from a Vetern Staycater

Condo Blues — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:44:04 -0500

I’m veteran of staycations. Sometimes by my choice and sometimes the
choice was made for me by outside forces, for example on my honeymoon. At the last minute we had to ditch our plans because I was still recovering from an ankle injury and we had to do something less walking intensive than we originally planned. We still had fun, just a different kind of fun than we originally planned.

Attitude goes a long way in making a stay at home vacation fun. I wrote an article about it and have some ideas on deciding what to do and how to do a staycation fun http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/2009/07/8-tips-for-great-staycation-fun....

Condo Blues Frugal green living that's big on style and small on budget http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/

I love all of these creative vacation ideas!

Beth Terry — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:36:46 -0500

Many years ago, I made a list of the 100 things I wanted to do before I died. I think it was cuz Oprah said to do it. Every now and then I pull it out and review it. Some things I can check off the list (like completing a marathon) and other things I just get rid of because they don't seem relevant anymore. Maybe I'll pull out that list again to get ideas.

I love the idea of checking at the library and also playing tourist in my own neighborhood.

Sadly, I many not get to do any of these things this summer because I just heard from my sister that my parents are having difficulties with getting around and getting organized and need us to come and help them move. So that may be my summer vacation.

Of course, there's always BlogHer! Can't wait!

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Challenge Yourself to Do Something New Every Day

maryrichy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:20:29 -0500

Make a list of things you've never done before, but would like to do. Some of them can be things that excite you, some can be things you just never have the time for, and others can be things outside your comfort zone. Then every day, choose one and do it...I've been doing this for the last month. I call it my "Month of Living Dangerously', which I started because I was in a little bit of a rut. It's been totally fun, every day is unique, and I'm going to make it a lifestyle choice now (rather than just an experiment)

http://maryandseansadventuresabroad.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

The Subway Roadtrip

Suzanne Reisman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:47:47 -0500

My first book, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York CIty's Best Unusual Attractions, came out last summer and is about taking a "subway roadtrip" in NYC instead of renting a car (most New Yorkers don't have cars), leaving the city, and driving around. There's plenty of unusual things to see and do right within the 5 boros if you live in NYC, or anywhere that has good public transportation!

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

start a book club

Danalorraine — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:24:10 -0500

thebloggingmum mentioned making a list of movies and books (which is great)-- I say take it to another level! Start a bookclub--you can do it in the backyard, living room, front porch or wherever. You can do it with your family, your friends, or fire up a skype call with some of your friends that live far away (maybe they are on a staycation too). CODEPINK Women for Peace has a bookclub where it recommends books, provides reading guides and more. Last month they did Story Teller's Daughter (by Saira Shah) and this month its The Places in Between (Rory Stewart)--both about Afghanistan, great travel narratives, autobio nonfiction, good stuff! you can use their resources (full disclosure, I work for them, but I also do the bookclubs with women in the NYC area) here- www.codepinkalert.org/bookclubs... GoodReads hosts online bookclub forums too (though not as fun as sippin' wine or tea with friends or fam and really digging into these books.) happy staycation!

The List

thebloggingmum — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:02:29 -0500

One of our favorite things to do is to make a list (or find one) of movies or books, etc.

Then we start on the list, and talk about it as we go. We've found a few gems in various lists, which has been a nice surprise!

Check your library

sassymonkey — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:50:46 -0500

Librarians usually have the scoop on what's going down in the neighbourhood, including the off the beaten trail kind of stuff. Also, more and more libraries have family museum passes available that allow you to get into local museums for free.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Play Tourist at Home

debra roby — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:59:19 -0500

Beth,

Living in the bay area, you're lucky. Play tourist at home! Take BART to Oakland Museum or the Asian museum in SF. Visit Alcatraz. The A's have $2 tickets on Wednesdays! I could give you weeks of ideas.

Those living other places can do the same thing. There are usually sites near one's home that the natives never visit. Pretend you're there on vacation, and play tourist.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Weight for Deb

Staycation/naycation

susanna — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:47:46 -0500

Lucky you, going to BlogHer! And thanks for the link.

We are going to try to go cheaper this year while still vacationing. We will be driving about 5 hours to go to a living history museum, spending the 4th of July at another living history museum in our town (just a couple miles from us), and in a week or two going camping a couple hours' drive away. I splurged on camping supplies (a real tent that my husband can stand up in! sleeping pads!), but we can drive for little and stay for pretty much free if we find a spot in a public wilderness area. We can eat the same as at home, so it will be pretty cheap.

My recent idea for making staycation more appealing is to learn a skill. In a week, if you focused, you could really make some progress at a craft (knitting, spinning yarn, sewing, scrapbooking), a skill (woodworking, plumbing, cooking) or a new ability (from tennis to dancing). You could check out books or videos from the library and really study up.

I do love reading travel literature, so it also could be really fun (especially for the childless/free to go all out!) to read some travel literature that really takes you away, mentally, and then make food related to that area, rent a movie about it, decorate, entertain or whatever.

I'm thinking they key to a more fun staycation is to think about what you've thought "I'd do that if I just had time ..." and do it. And tell everyone you're GONE, of course!

Good luck!

Susanna a.k.a. Cheap Like Me

Cheap Like Me blog
http://www.cheaplikemeblog.com
Where economy and ecology meet the good life.

www.midwestguest.com We're

Midwest Guest — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:06:13 -0600

www.midwestguest.com

We're going to go on shorter trips and probably on much shorter notice than when we were chained to Tim's work schedule...but we've always done a lot of weekend and overnight travel in addition to longer trips anyway. We'll just try to make up for having to budget things a little more closely with taking advantage of our last-minute flexibility right now.

We scooted out to Cleveland for two days in November.

I grabbed the opportunity this year to head north for a few days this winter. We've almost never been able to take enough days to get up north during the winter, but this year I get a few days "Up North" for my birthday! I've got the cross-country skiis and cameras packed...and we're out of here Monday for five days :)

A snack that could become a meal

Cynthia Clampitt — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:45:12 -0600

A most timely post, in a year of economic uncertainty. I particularly enjoyed the links to blogs -- some great resources, and a few really talented writers. But the nice thing is, while the idea may offer snacks, the links offer wonderful insight into locations that might one day make it onto the "plate" of a larger trip. Win-win. Thanks.

Cynthia

http://waltzingaustralia.wordpress.com

Washington Wonderland

Pam — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:06:46 -0600

We're really lucky, Wa. state is an incredible place, plus, we have two great cities either side of us, Portland, Ore and Vancouver BC. Either of those places can be day trips - I've done Vancouver for one day and thought I'd rather stay over just to mitigate the driving, it's manageable with a little extra coffee.

I'm currently wondering about day trips from Austin - I'll be wanting to skip out of SxSW for a bit to do some exploring - but that's not the same as a short trip close to home. Though it occurs to me that those local field trips - the kind of things people who live there do for a day - are probably exactly the kind of thing I like to do.

Nerd's Eye View
@nerdseyeview

Short trips from the D

Midwest Guest — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:29:40 -0600

I often post about short trips within a few hours of Detroit on Midwest Guest. With limited time off from work throughout the years, shorter trips were our best option to travel more frequently than just taking a two-week trip once each year.

Ann Arbor, Michigan (the quintessential college town and home to University of Michigan), Toledo, Ohio (for a minor league Mud Hens baseball game or lunch at Max Klinger's favorite place for Hungarian hot dogs, Tony Packos) or a trip up to Michigan's Thumb (to skip stones on Lake Huron or visit a lighthouse) are favorite days trips from here.

If we want to stay somewhere over a night or two, we'll go over to the west side of Michigan (Grand Rapids for the Gerald Ford Museum or Grand Haven to visit the lighthouse and Lake Michigan beach) or down to northern Ohio (to visit Marblehead Lighthouse in Sandusky...or to Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and eat at Maribella-Spanish cuisine). Midland, Michigan has the Alden Dow House (a strong Frank Lloyd Wright connection and some cool Wright-inspired houses around town). Chagrin Falls, Ohio is a cute little town with waterfalls and easy access to the Amish area east of Cleveland.

Those are just a few places I can think of off of the top of my head.

I've written about many of these places at Midwest Guest, or they're on my running list of topics for future posts.