Looking Ahead

Planning vacations is my favorite pastime. I might just prefer it to going on them. After all, when the actual time arrives, so many events can fall short of expectation, but while they are still ideas, it sounds like the most fantastic week ever!

This year we begin by driving to see Nora's graduate exhibit in Baltimore. Check it out at: http://www.mica.edu/News/MACA_Thesis_Exhibition_Explores_Issues_of_Social_Justice_July_15-31.html
Her dad hasn't been to her school yet, and he'll get to see Nora in full force, with a crowd of people admiring her unique work.

From there we crash that night at the Faulkners, friends willing to let us use their floor to save money on a motel even though we don't have time to really stay. Then it's on to Boston, where Nora will read in her college roommate Farrell's wedding.

The next evening we visit Ben's church plant, another college friend of Nora's. Then we drive to the far west corner of Massachusetts to see the MassMoCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where they have some galleries as big as a football field to display large pieces.

That afternoon we will drive to the top of the highest peak in Massachusetts, before meandering south to camp in Connecticut so we can mark off another state visited.

Wednesday, which happens to be my birthday, we have three hours to drive with NY city in the middle, worth a stop for an urban fix. Pommes Frites and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Then on to a Doubletree in Wilmington, which I got for a great price on Priceline, warm chocolate chip cookies here we come. The next day we visit Du Pont gunpowder factory for Wesley, as well as driving to Dover to see their air command museum.

That night we sleep on Assateague Island, and the next morning visit the wild ponies I grew up loving from Marguerite Henry's book Misty. A childhood dream finally realized.

From there a stop at a NASA post, a drive by Annapolis, then back to Baltimore. Our last day will include a sport legends museum for Luke, an Orioles game, and somewhere in there some delicious gelato.

A month from now I'll be living this, and I hope it meets expectations. Typically part of it will, and part of it won't, and I only hope I can roll with it. Just being with the whole family will be the best part, especially since we don't know when that will stop being a vacation privilege.

When I consider my yearly ritual, planning a vacation, then living it, I am glad that one final "vacation" will exceed expectations. I really don't even have to plan, I already have my reservation. Just believing in Jesus means he's planning for me, he's got a deluxe room waiting. The weather will be blissful, the activities ample, and the fellowship literally divine. And my yearly stress reliever will become a never ending way of life.

May this year's vacation be a little taste of that coming reality.