Wabi Sabi Vacation

Our first wabi sabi vacation was a huge success. After 10 days away (I can’t bring myself to say it is over. State of mind and all.) we are now back home, safe and sound.

It was long enough for me to forget a few passwords, shake off all the residue of a stressful summer, and has left me feeling like my mind and spirit are a clean slate and I am ready to start again.

With the perfect perspective which hindsight often gives, here are a few things I learned along the way:

1. Prepare as much as possible and then relax and commit to letting each day unfold as it will. It’s good to research and know what’s available, but flexibility adds to the fun and you may have some unexpected adventures.
2. Don’t pack at the last minute. Instead, have everything ready 4-5 days in advance and then two days before leaving, take out half the clothes. Yes, I said “Half!”
3. Take it slow enough to have fun. I’m so glad we had some down days and slow starts (only the children set the alarm so they could get up at 6 am to watch the cartoon marathon) which were especially important to adjust to the change in elevation and avoid altitude sickness (or attitude sickness, if you are traveling with teens
4. Start and end each day with a smile. And smile lots in between. It was quite easy for us as our hotel room had a mountain view and waking up each morning to “purple mountain majesties,” well, a smile on my face and praise in my heart was simply a given.
5. Spend as much time as possible in and doing “the out of the ordinary.” The purpose of vacation is to untap/unclog and fill up/recharge the senses. For us, it meant more time in the mountains and less time waiting in line with tourists. It was really important for me to “fall off the face of the earth” — figuratively, of course! Nothing like perching on a piece of red rock, over looking green trees, under a blue sky, and watching white clouds go by…

One morning on our way to the mountains, a Big said to me, “Our vacation is a class “A” assignment,” which was a reference from the Naruto series. Class “A” assignments are only given to the elite ninja and are special missions to assassinate an enemy or to protect an innocent. Well, we were on our way to knock off the wear and tear of the modern world and revive our spirits in nature, so I guess she was right.

This morning I awoke to a cacophony of lawnmowers and hedge trimmers coming from every direction. I didn’t get the memo, but apparently the neighborhood landscapers had agreed to meet at 10 am on Thursday. It took a few moments for me to identify the source of the noise and understand why the sound was filling my room (I had gone to sleep with the windows open). Yes, we were back in the big city and the world had things to do, places to go and people to see. But I didn’t. In my mind, I’m still perched up on a rock, watching tree tops wave in the wind. So, I smiled and turned over.

Mission accomplished

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Vacation - Day 9

Today our vacation travels take us to New Mexico and Arizona courtesy of Amtrak. This time I was better prepared for the journey and packed not only kid-friendly, but momma-friendly food. So while the children enjoyed the novelty of eating in the dining and cafe car, I’ve eaten yummy live food and am much more comfortable on the return trip home The children are completly at home on the train and are enjoying traveling with the Boy Scouts onboard. After dinner in the dining car with a beautiful New Mexico sunset, we retired to the sight-seeing car to watch the night sky and played MORE 30 SECOND MYSTERIES SPINNER BOOK TRAVEL GAME. I knit on my lovely silk and angora ballet socks (no toes, no heel) and soaked up each and every moment. This vacation has been such a blessing Now we are back in our seats and after tucking them in and saying their prayers, they are all fast asleep and I am blogging on Tomoko, my iPhone. It has been a good day

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Vacation - Day 8

What a wonderful day it was! Our last day in The Springs, and I really wanted to cross off three more things on “the list” — and we did!

1) Cave of the Winds. We took the 45 minute Discovery Tour and had a great family photo taken inside the cave.

2) Yarn Crawl. Some people like souvenir t-shirts, I prefer yarn I checked with the Colorado Knitters on Ravelry and got their suggestions for “must visit” yarn shops. I’m happy to say that they were right in their recommendations and the staff and selection at the Green Valley Weavers & Knitters and Needleworks by Holly Berry were excellent.

3) Geocaching in The Springs. Throughout our trip I had been having all sorts of fun with our new GPSr (How high are we now? How far to our exit? What’s our ETA?) but wanted to share the fun and do some family geocaching. The first cache we went to “Flea Flicker” was a microcache and although we were apparently standing right on top of it, we never did find it. Of course, that may have been the problem as my children thought it best to look by kicking pine cones and anything else that was in their path. Sigh. The next two were traditional caches in Monument Valley Park but we ran out of time and energy before we could locate them. It didn’t turn out as I had hoped, but before we got tired and thirsty, we did have a lot of fun.

Thanks to the yarn crawl and the lovely shops in Old Colorado City, we ended our stay in Colorado Springs on a high note. Tomorrow begins the train ride home. All that’s left for me to do now is pack

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Vacation - Day 7

Today we ventured further west to the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park in Canon City, Colorado. We had stayed the night with family and after sleeping in late and enjoying a hearty breakfast, we loaded up and headed out. As always, the drive alone was worth the price of admission. We saw cows, horses, raptors (birds, not dinosaurs) deer, deer and more deer.

Once inside the park and 6,537 ft above sea level, the views were simply amazing. No wonder they call it “The Grand Canyon of the Arkansas.” The children were excited and looked forward to each next thing as if they were at an amusement park. We rode the aerial tram, the incline railway and walked across the world’s highest suspension bridge. Having recently discovered that I am afraid of heights (long story) I mostly stood still looking up while everyone else enjoyed looking down at the Arkansas River 1,053 feet below.

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