Coming Soon: Good Old Fashioned Aimlessness

With the exception of journeys taken by plane, which were necessarily planned several weeks ahead of time, vacations used to go a little something like this, starting about the week prior to vacation:

Trailhead: Where do you want to go?

Trailhead Spouse: Dunno. Boundary Waters?

Trailhead: Maybe. Adirondacks?

Trailhead Spouse: Maybe.

Two days before:

Trailhead: Where should we go?

Trailhead Spouse: Hmmm. Maine?

Trailhead: Too far to drive during the time we have. Upper Peninsula?

Trailhead Spouse: Maybe.

The Night Before:

Trailhead: Where are we going tomorrow?

Trailhead Spouse: I don’t know. Just throw all the guidebooks in the truck and we’ll decide later.

Trailhead: Okay.

Sitting in the car at the end of the street trying to determine which way to turn:

Trailhead: What about the Badlands?

Trailhead Spouse: Okay.

Trailhead: Turn left.


Things haven’t happened that way in quite some time. That train left the station three years ago when the Parenthood Express rolled in. But thanks to Trailhead Mother-in-Law, who will arrive Friday evening, things are taking that turn once again. The arrival of TH MiL means the first week-long vacation for the Trailheads -- without Trailhead Kid -- in three years.

And we still haven’t decided where we’re going. The top choice is a paddling trip in Waterton-Glacier, mostly on the Canadian side. We have a couple of bad-weather backups, including portions of the Wonderland Trail in Mt. Rainier National Park, and a trip through the Hoh Rain Forest to the base of Mt. Olympus in Olympic National Park.

We’ll decide sometime before we get to the end of our street.