Denise Goldberg's blog

Escaping home to peek at spring
Hiking in Zion National Park

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Introduction

Looking back, written on March 16, 2007...

Restless, dreaming of a quick escape

Spring is edging closer, but it's not here yet. The equinox is just a short week away; I have to remind myself that the feeling of spring will probably lag that by several weeks. This week? It's a real jumble of seasons. I was able to take advantage of our unseasonal warmth earlier this week - riding in summer attire - and now the weather map shows an impending snowstorm. Ouch! I think I'm in a bit of a winter funk, and yes, that has been hanging over my head for about the last 6 weeks...

I know better; I haven't been to any interesting destinations since my September trip to Nova Scotia. I suspect that my winter funk is a combination of the months of cold weather (even though this hasn't been a bad winter overall) and my stay-at-home life. I guess I need a mid-winter escape, whether it's a full-length vacation or a simple long weekend away. My goal for next winter is to plan ahead of time and avoid the funk!

For now, I know that spring is not too far away. Even knowing that, I've planned a short escape to help my attitude along. My rules for a long weekend destination is that it is a non-stop flight away, and then that it is within a reasonable distance from my target airport.

Three weeks and counting... I'll be flying into Las Vegas, then driving to Springdale, Utah to play at Zion National Park. I found what appears to be an interesting B&B to serve as my home away from home, and I've always enjoyed wandering at Zion. I'll have two full days to play there, then a traveling day. Since my flight home is in the late afternoon, I'm planning to stop at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada for a little more exploring on my way back to the airport.

Ah, a hiking and a play with cameras trip, a good escape!
It's times like these when I really wished I lived on the west coast within reach of Hawaii. And yes, I really would go there for a long weekend. After all, flying to Hawaii from the west coast for an extended weekend isn't much different (from a time perspective) than my planned east coast to west coast jaunt.

Table of Contents

For now, please use Blogger's list of posts in the sidebar to follow my trip in reverse sequence. I plan to flip this blog on its head so that the posts flow from oldest to newest (like the table of contents in a book), adding a real Table of Contents and a Page by Page sidebar entry, and adding (better) next and previous links at the bottom of each post.

I probably won't be able to make these changes for the next several weeks.

...Denise, January 21, 2009