This week’s Sunday Stills theme is “Staycation or Vacation.” This should resonate with most bloggers as we head toward the holiday season (there! I said it!).
The US is celebrating the Labor Day holiday typically observed on the first Monday of September. Students head back to school, and many folks begin their laser-focus back at work, already counting down to the next set of holiday weekends coming in November and December.
As most of you know, we enjoyed a month-long road trip through six states in June and July. We spent half of the time camping in our RV and the other half staying with family and friends. Great fun and celebrations, heat, and family drama punctuated the time spent.
Our neighbors invited us to go camping in mid-August, but the heat in Washington state deterred my interest, especially after spending most of our road trip in intense heat. So we stayed home. We’ve also toyed with the idea of camping this month, but we are faced with many projects and tasks around the home.
So “stay-cation” it is!
Here is why.
A staycation gives me the opportunity to indulge in a little home decorating. After all, if I’m spending a good amount of time here, it might as well be homey!
“Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a place beautiful.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
After almost two years of pandemic travel restrictions, I believe many folks turned toward making their homes the place to be. Once we moved out of Northern California suburbia to rural Eastern Washington, we focused on making our new home and property our haven.
When we lived in Sacramento, one of my favorite vacation destinations was Lake Tahoe, just 90 miles away.
Now I feel as if we live in Lake Tahoe, surrounded by pine-forested mountains and local lakes and rivers.
I’m sure I’ve bragged about Nine Mile Falls enough but isn’t it gorgeous? And only 9 miles away from home.
“My goal is to build a life I don’t need a vacation from.” – Rob Hill Sr.
Have you ever been to a destination wedding? Last June, my next-door neighbors hosted their son’s wedding on their 5-acre property. Local family and friends loved it, (we could walk to it) but the bride and groom’s friends were all from the west side of Washington and camped in their RVs. Here is the scene from our backyard to theirs.
Last week, we drove 20 minutes to Lake Spokane Campground and played on the SUP. The dogs loved the shade and water, as we did. Aero kept a watch as Hans paddled.
Nearby at the lake was this retired couple floating in their tubes with possible alcoholic beverages. This was taken at 11:30 am. This image was last on “my card” on 8/31. I added my watermark.
Staycations are wonderful but we do have to travel. Here is a gallery of actual vacation spots we’ve enjoyed in the last 5 years: Yosemite and Grand Canyon NP; Prescott, Sedona, and Scottsdale, Arizona; San Diego and Sacramento Delta in California; Hawaii’s Big Island, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
The featured image at the top is the sunflower fields that are less than 10 miles from our home.
Inspiring Photo Challenges
Each week I am inspired by my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I find it fun to incorporate these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.
- Bushboy’s Last on the Card (Retired floaters)
- Cee’s Flower of the Day
- Hammad’s Weekend Sky
- Jez’ Water, Water Everywhere
- Johnbo’s CellPic Sunday
- Marsha’s Writers Quotes Wednesday: Labor Day Holiday
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
Sunday Stills weekly challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
- Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
This Week’s Featured Bloggers
Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared photos of vacations or staycations. I add these all week as new links are posted.
- YOUR BLOG’S NAME HERE!
- Between the Lines
- Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
- Cee’s Photo Challenges
- The Day After
- Deb’s World
- Equipoise Life
- Graham’s Island
- Hugh’s Views and News Image shared in comments
- LadyLeeManila
- Loving Life
- Natalie The Explorer
- Quaint Revival
- Space Stories By Gift
- This is Another Story
- Travel with Me
- Travels with Ali
- Wandering Dawgs
- Wide Eyed Wonderings
- Woolly Muses
- Working On Exploring
I can’t wait to read about your vacation or staycation. If you celebrate any holidays soon tell us all about it. Have a fantastic week and holiday!
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