Katelyn Cole » travel and vacation

Almost ran over a groundhog today

Katelyn — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:00:54 +0000

This morning I had to run errands in town, and on my way in a groundhog decided to run out into the road in front of my car. I had to go all the way over into the other lane (thank goodness no traffic was coming!) in order to avoid hitting him. I remember when I saw him my first thought was “why is he up, he saw his shadow two days ago and declared another six weeks of winter!)

I guess that particular groundhog didn’t get the memo to go back to bed!

Keith found a job

Katelyn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:45:38 +0000

Mom was telling me that she finally heard from Keith, after six months of silence. Seems that he hitch-hiked out to California with a friend of his and after bumming around for a while finally got his act together and started working for a Los Angeles moving company as a helper. Mom was so happy to hear from him; you could just see her eyes lit up. Seems that he had made friends with some other men that worked for the same LA movers company and they helped him to get hired.

Keith has such a strong work ethic that whatever company of Los Angeles movers were lucky enough to get him will certainly get their money’s worth out of him! I can remember one time when Mom wanted our refrigerator moved out from the wall so she could clean behind it and Keith just picked it up and said “where do you want it Mom?” My jaw hit the floor when that happened!

I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t work here!

Katelyn — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:05:47 +0000

Guest post by Lois Turner

Finding myself in an internet cafe at the hotel that I’m staying in, a couple of young ladies interrupted my work, asking me where my restrooms are located! It took me a moment to realize that they must have thought that since I was dressed in a business suit that I must work there! I apologized to the ladies and explained that I did not work there, and I don’t know where the restrooms are. As they walked away I had to suppress a chuckle. I hope they find what they are looking for!

Charming flowers

Katelyn — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:00:29 +0000

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

Right before Christmas my mother decided that she wanted me to accompany her to a fantastic display up at the Shenandoah Caverns. The display was of historical parade floats, and antique
Christmas window displays from storefronts.

Having always been fascinated by things like that, I readily agreed, although I would have preferred doing it after Christmas. Nonetheless, we went up there and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the window displays. One of the things that I really appreciated was the fact that the main room of the window displays was decorated with artificial flowering wisteria hanging from garden arbors.

The effect of the flowers climbing the arbors was very effective, and it made the entire room feel charming and romantic and old fashioned. The display has inspired me to put an arbor on my “wish list” for the landscaping plans for the side yard of the house.

Where has the southern hospitality gone?

Katelyn — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:19:23 +0000

Last night I have to travel on business to a different state about 5 hours away from home. As I check into the Sheraton Hotel that I’m staying in the desk attendent does not offer to help me, I have to ask her for help. She asks me if I’m trying to check in, and I reply “that would be nice.” I give her my name, and my credit card, and a few moments later she hands me my room key and tells me what room I have. She doesn’t ask me if I need directions to the room, so I ask her how to get to the room and she tells me directions to the elevator.

I thank you and take the key, and turn to go to the elevator. I was anticipating some kind of farewell greeting from her, something like “you’re welcome” or “have a good night” or “thank you for staying with us” or ANYTHING. Not a sound. Very surprised. If I was secret shopping, she would have flunked for sure.

Travel on a budget

Katelyn — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:35:36 +0000

One of the the biggest challenges in traveling on a budget is finding cheap flights to where you want to go. It’s great to see advertisements on television about how easy it is get get a cheap last minute accommodation of some kind or another through a travel specialty website, but for the most part I find that the cheap last minute flights are usually to someplace that I don’t want to go.

Don’t get me wrong, they are all great vacation spots; I’m sure that a lot of people go there and have a lot of fun. But when I go on vacation I tend to go visit family, and they don’t live near any fantastic tourist spot that is going to offer great cheap rates on any kind of travel, whether it is last minute or not. In fact, the closer the travel date, the more expensive the tickets seem to be. Sometimes I miss the days of my youth when I would just throw my sleeping bag in the back of my station wagon, grab some maps and drive south until I reached someplace that seemed interesting. I looked at life like it was one great big adventure back then. I’m no longer interested in roughing it any more than staying in a five star hotel!

New Year’s Eve

Katelyn — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:38:18 +0000

This year I decided to stay in for New Year’s Eve. I watched a couple of television shows and turned to Dick Clark’s televised party from Times Square to watch the ball drop. I had my laptop on my lap, while sitting on the sofa and sipping some asti spumante. I have a couple of friends that went up to Times Square to join the party and was reading their occasional facebook post about how much their high heels were hurting their feet. I wondered why they didn’t wear sensible shoes and was really glad that I’ve gotten over that need to wear high heels in order to feel that I look good. I do have to admit, though, that the shoe designers don’t do enough for women in the designing pretty shoes that don’t hurt your feet! They must be sadists!

Winter chill

Katelyn — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:39:44 +0000

So far the winter has been very mild. I was watching the television news last night and they were talking about how the ski slopes in New England did not have enough snow yet. The skiing industry is very important to New England; I hope they get lots of snow so their economy gets a good boost from it. As for me personally, though, I like how pretty snow is, and I remember I enjoyed playing in the snow when I was younger, and it puts me in the Christmas spirit – it makes me want to go shopping and drink hot chocolate and decorate the house! When I HAVE to drive in the bad weather to go to work, however, that puts me in a bah-humbug frame of mind!

Now that’s really different

Katelyn — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:25:48 +0000

One of the things that I really love about the Internet is how creative and different so many people can be when they create their web pages! For example, some people will focus on just one particular item, like how to make oversized candles with milk cartons and crushed ice, or dedicate themselves to raising money for a good cause. Still others will use the Internet to promote a political issue, or a particular candidate. And there are a lot of websites dedicated to religion and love, others are devoted to spreading hate. And some of my favorites are personal blogs, especially from my friends who love to travel; they post their adventures and pictures on their blogs. And let’s not forget the social media of facebook, and email!

Hackers and spammers get in there and try to create total havoc. I never could figure out why anyone would want to do that, I guess it’s just pure evil oozing out of their bodies, trying to ruin the capitalistic societies of the world. Where else could you push a button or two and switch from a screen that gives you a completely honest pacific hydrostar pressure washer review from fellow Internet users, and then a button push or two be able to find out where you can get some price comparisons for the same pacific hydrostar pressure washer, and then thirty seconds later buy a brand new wedding dress size 0 and pay for it all with PayPal? And then five seconds later get the up to date weather report for a country half-way around the world! What a great world this is!

Do you hear the pipers calling?

Katelyn — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:49:27 +0000

One of my dream vacations would include taking a couple of months off and touring the British Islands and Europe. One of the things I’d love to do is check into one of the best Edinburgh hotels and invite our old live-in nanny Jeanne, her husband Don to come over and join me for a lucious meal and then be my tour guides. I’d love to see where Jeanne grew up and have the chance to meet her family.

I’m not quite sure when my fascination for all things Scottish happened, but I think that I have always been interested in other countries, and having a Scottish nanny just piqued my interest in Scotland even more. A lot of things in my life have been Scottish things and I have to wonder if it is a simple coincidence, or if it was somehow subconciously done because of the interest that Jeanne sparked of me. For example, I owned a Shetland Pony, and a Shetland Sheepdog. I like going to concerts where there are bagpipers performing and I enjoy going to the Scottish Annual Highlander games. I’ve even tried haggis! (Not as terrible as some would lead you to believe!)