Fun Monday-Summer Vacation

Our Fun Monday hostess this week is Patience, and she has summer on her mind. She wants to know what we plan to do on summer vacation. Specifically:

Y'know, it's getting on to that time of year. Everyone's already thinking of what they'll be doing on their summer vacation. So, let's hear about it already!! (And pictures are always welcome!)
And if you're not planning a vacation, tell us about vacations past. (Please. Keep it clean! If you can.)

The Hula-gen's didn't take a vacation last year because we had a big federal tax bill, so we were determined to take a vacation this year. For the last few weeks I've been surfing the web for a good deal. We discussed taking another cruise and flirted with the idea of an all inclusive trip somewhere tropical, but we finally decided to stay within the borders of the U.S. because Hubby said there are several places right here at home he hasn't experienced yet. We settled on the beautiful Emerald Coast, Destin Florida.

Everyone we know who has been there says it's fabulous; beautiful emerald waves and white sandy beaches. So we plan to try it, and I booked a condo just last week. After much discussion, we decided to go in early October instead of summer. Florida is just too hot in the summer, and this way we kind of stretch out summer by taking advantage of the warm weather in Florida because all of the leaves are off the trees here.

In the meantime, we have some summer fun planned. We kick off the season by seeing Willie Nelson in concert on Memorial Day. For the last couple of years, he's been on our list of Music Legends To See Live Before They Kick The Bucket list, and he's playing in our backyard on that day. That should be fun. I love Willie. He's truly an original.

We will also travel to Cincinnati in early August to see Jimmy Buffett. That's always a blast. Last year we saw him in St. Louis, and the fans there weren't as...shall we say, lively...as the Cincinnati bunch, so we're headed back to Cincy this year. Fins up!

And somewhere in the middle of summer, we may travel to King's Island with the youth group from church. They have a new roller coaster there this year that's supposed to be phenomenal, and I'm sure my dare devil child will want to ride it. It looks something like this:

If we go, I'll have to decide if riding this is worth the two hours of nausea I'll have afterwards, or if I should just throw up my hands and quit pretending in front of the kids that I really enjoy riding stuff like this.

That should keep us quite busy in the coming months. While Fall seems a long time away, I'm sure summer will slide by us as fast as ever, leaving me longing for even more beach time than I will get. Sigh. I get giddy just thinking about it. Now, follow me over to Patience's place to see what everybody else is doing this summer. Has anyone seen my flip-flops?