Dream Vacations

[Don Phelps 85]

If you could go anywhere in the world, on vacation for a week but no longer, where would you go?

I'm interested in Australia, Ireland and Micronesia so far.

[Scott Stone 604]

Tahiti, Hawaii and France/Europe.

[PPC 37]

fiji, hawaii or europe

[Don Phelps 85]

I've been to Sweden and Denmark.....Both very cool (cold, actually...lol). If I were super rich, I'd have a home in Sweden for sure. Extremely nice, yet reserved people.

I wasn't diggin' the whole northern thing with the sun going down at 10 PM and rising at 3 AM though.

[RPetry 564]

Egypt.

[Don Phelps 85]

Hey Rick,

I remember your caribbean trip.....Have you ever been to Montserrat? I'm thinking about that one maybe for next spring.

[RPetry 564]

Hi Don,

No, never Montserrat. We were just in St. Lucia, a few hundred miles to the south. One of the best and memorable Caribbean vacations ever for us. Love the island.

About nine years ago, spent a week in Anguilla, a hundred miles or so north of Montserrat. Best food in the islands, restaurants that rival good NYC eateries. Quite expensive.

For the best snorkeling and good scuba diving, Bonaire is hard to beat. Been there 2 times. Though we did not care for the island, Cozumel is by far the most spectacular scuba diving. Belize is good, Cozumel is unbelievable.

[Don Phelps 85]

Thanks for the info, Rick.

I've been checking several spots here.

Caribbean Vacation Getaways | Caribbean Travel ? Places to Go | Tropical Island Vacations

Wifey doesn't know it yet, but we're going SOMEWHERE!

She's shown interest in an Alaskan cruise also, so we might do that.....Who knows?

She's going to PR in the fall for a conference and I'm tagging along on that one for 3-4 days.....Could be fun.

[RPetry 564]

Don,

Alaska is amazing. We spent 3 weeks on our honeymoon traveling around the state 20 yrs. ago. Did a 5 day, small boat cruise around the Glacier Bay National Park that we still talk and tell stories about. The Kenai Peninsula and Denali National Park are other must see places.

Spent too much time over the years in the airport in Puerto Rico for connections but never have seen the island.

[Joe Ortiz 14]

fiji....g-land to be specific. and the pipeline

[Ron Musgraves 240]

Australia would be my first chioce. I would like to take and Alaskian fishing trip. (no one specific just a fishing trip Any place in Alaska.

[tunatussle 14]

Go fishing with Capt Peter Wright in Australia for marlin granders

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Turtle Island..the whole thing

[StainlessDeal 16]

Rome.

The best food I've ever eaten was in Rome.

Just to wake up and see the sun rising over buildings renowned the world over, to cool my feet in the fountain below the Spanish Steps, to listen to the ages echo against the tombs of Popes gone a thousand years in the catacombs beneath St, Peter's, to feel the weight of the faith of millions lying on the stone floor before the High Altar...this is food for the eternal part of us.

Even to a non-Catholic such as myself, the contact with the ageless is mind-bending. For more than 2500 years the civilised world has looked to Rome as its mother. Few characters that have influenced the course of history have not at least had deputies walk the streets of this ancient seat of empire and faith.

None of us lives without the mark the people of this city stamped on our languages, customs, religions, and philosophies. What's more, the very buildings and fortresses, parks and monuments frequented by those forgers of the unified Western expression of culture, polity, and reason are still there, many performing exactly the functions for which their foundations were laid.

This city was ancient when Michealangelo carved and painted the finest art worked by human hands half a millenium ago, and the art that influenced him as a young man was still on public display in the streets then, as it is now, and as some of those pieces have been since hundreds of years before Jesus walked the Earth.

I remember the moment when I was listening to a guide describing the memorial speech Marc Antony gave in Ceaser's honor and to shame his assassins, and the guide pointed right at me as I leaned against a wall.

"Marc Antony stood upon the Rostrum behind me, and Ceasar's corpse was burned right there." I was standing on the spot where Julius Caesar was burned after he had changed the course of history by making the Empire a Dictatorship rather than a Democracy. What's more, the English word dictator comes from the Latin word of the same meaning, a word that was an obscure legal title in his day, has become a commonplace term in our world, precisely because of this one man's actions.

I ate a Gelato standing opposite the Milvian Bridge, the place where in 312, Constantine's legionaires defeated the pretender to the Roman throne as the result of divine intervention. This allowed him to enter Rome on the Flaminian way (a road already over a thousand years old) and inspiring Constantine to credit the Christian God with his victory.

This was the beginning of Christianity's ascendance in Europe, this was the site where the Empire became a Christian entity, and the place where the doom of polytheistic western thought was writ large upon history...and there I was eating an extraordinary chocolate ice, as people that lived and worked nearby went about their daily activities with hardly a thought.

I love Rome because almost every square foot is historically significant to more than half the world's poulation. Having been there, I realize how impoverished my life would have been, had I never seen the Eternal City.

I'd go back at the drop of a hat, any day or season, without a second thought.

[RPetry 564]

Jumpin' Jehosaphat Scott, your above post brought tears to my eyes and a choked up throat! I thought Egypt was the ultimate, now I have to get to Rome?

So little time and never enough spare change... Ah, the old adage, if theres a will, there is a way!

[Ron Musgraves 240]

Jumpin' Jehosaphat Scott, your above post brought tears to my eyes and a choked up throat! I thought Egypt was the ultimate, now I have to get to Rome?

So little time and never enough spare change... Ah, the old adage, if theres a will, there is a way!

Rome would be very cool, I just think it would take more than a week. Thats 2.5 days just travel time.

Thats on my list, just not 7 day list.

I think europe would need a 14 day stop. just so many things to see..

Rome would be top on my list...

[MMI Enterprises 289]

..and ya don't even need clothes, toga toga!

[Palmetto Home and Deck 167]

For the best snorkeling and good scuba diving, Bonaire is hard to beat. Been there 2 times. Though we did not care for the island, Cozumel is by far the most spectacular scuba diving. Belize is good, Cozumel is unbelievable.

Rick, you are a diver too? I was a PADI diving instructor for ten years. I agree with you about the diving in Cozumel. I have been there several times. I have been to the Fla. Keys about twenty five times.

I spent a week on a live aboard dive boat in the Bahamas once...Get up and make your first dive before breakfast. Eat breakfast and make two more dives before lunch. Take a good nap after lunch and make another dive before dinner. Eat dinner and make a night dive before going to bed.

I used to regularly do black water diving in the Cooper River near Charleston, SC. Lately I have been settling for diving in Lake Jocassee in the upper northwest part of SC. With 18~20' visability it is good for around here, but definitely not the Caribbean. I still want to go to Bonaire and the Caymans sometime.

[RPetry 564]

Hi Len,

Yeah, I use to be a North Atlantic diver. Mostly going after lobster, but use to penetrate wrecks with one "buddy" that knew the ropes.

For years, I was a mate on a commercial boat out of Pt. Pleasant, NJ, owned by a good friend, catering to both dive clubs and serious deco charters. Tried never to spend too much time at depth, set the hook, grab a lobster or two, and get back on up. Doubles and dry suits were required.

These days I fish. Gettin' old, just want to relax.

[Palmetto Home and Deck 167]

Hi Len,

Yeah, I use to be a North Atlantic diver. Mostly going after lobster, but use to penetrate wrecks with one "buddy" that knew the ropes.

For years, I was a mate on a commercial boat out of Pt. Pleasant, NJ, owned by a good friend, catering to both dive clubs and serious deco charters. Tried never to spend too much time at depth, set the hook, grab a lobster or two, and get back on up. Doubles and dry suits were required.

These days I fish. Gettin' old, just want to relax.

Going after lobster in the North Atlantic? Man, that's hard core stuff. I did my 'bug' gathering in the Florida Keys. That is why I was there so many times. Twenty five feet of water, an 80 cu.ft. tank will last over an hour, no decompressing, and all you wear is a dive skin if that.

I don't think there can be anything that taste better than catching a Florida lobster and having him on your dinner plate in the same hour. Oh man, I am getting 'bug' fever. I think I am going to plan a dive trip down there for next year.

[RPetry 564]

Len,

Up here in the Northeast we have real lobsters. Ones with big strong claws! Not those poor defenseless bottom insects you Southerner's think are lobster!

Just kidding around but you have to admit, cold water Atlantic lobster do taste a whole lot better! This post is making me hungry! :sinister:

[StainlessDeal 16]

Rome would be very cool, I just think it would take more than a week. Thats 2.5 days just travel time.

Thats on my list, just not 7 day list.

I think europe would need a 14 day stop. just so many things to see..

Rome would be top on my list...

I'd go to Rome for a week, if I had the chance, but longer would be better for sure. The rest of Europe would definately take a few weeks. or months. Probably be best to set more time aside for your first trip.

Len, a guy I used to work with was always talking about lobstering from a boat, in the shallows, with a ragmop. He said you just push the mophead down on them and their spines get tangled up in the strings.

Of course he also claimed to be ex-special forces, and to have had Saddam in the scope, just waiting for clearance to shoot...but no go.:rolleyes:

I just wondered if that was true at all. You ever heard of the mopping up system?

[Tegrey 121]

Don,

I'd be happy to just have some time off to relax. Heck your back yard for a BBQ would be fine!LOL

[Ron Musgraves 240]

I'd go to Rome for a week, if I had the chance, but longer would be better for sure. The rest of Europe would definately take a few weeks. or months. Probably be best to set more time aside for your first trip.

I cant argue Scott , you would miss a few things.

I took Dons post to literal I guess. If this was a fantasy dream vacation I suppose my destinations would actually be many in about a 6 week period.

I took a three months vacation one year and took the entire family. My kids at the time where glad to be home. They missed freinds, now they are older and asking me constantly , dad dad dad when we going on a long vacation. I have told them i dont see that in the near future. The dollar is weak and the rest of the world is becoming expensive.

I know why Don use teh 7 day in the answer, reality often bites. Most of us cant get away or afford a fantasy vacation and 7 days anyplace outside the states other than Mex is expensive.(double)

I think my trip to autralia I wouldnt see everything I wants. Shoot i was in FL for two weeks months back and could of stayed another month.

I see your points guys, I guess I just think different.

Heck, I lived here for years before seeing one of the seven wonders of the world.

Well keep posting exotic places, I would like to own a second home in a few places also. Maybe I should make a fun thread like that,

Great thread Don and lots of fun.

[Don L 14]

I would like 10 days without leaving our beautiful home.

Except to fish in the lake that is 5 min from here,or to fish in the lake that is 10 min from here.

A 20lb laker was taken in one of them some weeks ago.

Mmmmmmmmmm.

I would love to see my wife or one of the kids hook a monster fish!

I know, I should get out more.

Maybe some smally ?