Even though I’m retired now, I still love taking a vacation. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, my step-father’s union assembly line job gave him two weeks of paid vacation every summer. My mother would shutter her beauty shop that was attached to our house, and, along with my older brother, we were on the road for two weeks of motels, two lane highways and tourist attractions, Summer after Summer, from coast to coast, Canada to Mexico.
Since retirement in 2014, we have scheduled a major vacation at least once a year, more often if we can manage it. But we skipped 2019, after touring the Baltic capitals in 2018. The reason for the hiatus was that we had planned an especially big trip for 2020, our 50th year of marriage. But COVID-19 blew 2020 travel plans to smithereens for almost everybody. Now, Mrs. Left is enduring mobility problems that make extensive travel impractical for her right now. I love her, but I gotta get out of here. So, here’s the plan.
Fortunately, I am blessed with a 30 something daughter who teaches middle school and spends part of her Summer break with her mother and me every year. She loves to travel as much as I do, so I’ve planned an itinerary that includes bucket list items for both of us, and includes historic Newport, RI, some beach time, the Big Apple, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, the Nations Capitol and (for my daughter’s bucket list) Dollywood amusement park in Pigeon Forge, TN. We will fly from our Midwest home to Rhode Island, and make our way down the East Coast by Amtrak through our other destinations, to the beaches of Virginia. After that, a one way car rental will take us to Dollywood and then home. Planes, trains and automobiles, for sure.
Along the way we will visit some of America’s finest historic homes, her most respected and admired museums. We’ll enjoy Sunday Brunch at NYC’s Central Park Boathouse, dinner at a renowned and historic NYC chophouse, another at the best French restaurant in Georgetown, and, during our stay in New England, lobster rolls and Chowdah await our palettes. If you don’t partake of the finest food and drink you can on vacation, you’re not doing it right.
Because of COVID, we won’t be able to fully enjoy every destination we’ve booked. Broadway isn’t open yet. Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall, e.g. remain shuttered. But there will be plenty to do. So, as fully vaccinated Americans, we feel duty bound to do what we can to help the American hospitality industry regain its feet.
We leave tomorrow. Photo essays and video diaries likely to follow. TTFN.