Rudi and I are heading out on vacation today. So what are we doing right now? Cleaning? Packing? Buying the cats some more food and litter?
Nope.
We’re watching the Tour de France.
We’ll get to those all-important pre-trip tasks soon, as well as a stop by the garden, the library, and a couple spots to drop off Michael’s posters and postcards. (In D.C.? Go see his play Friday, Saturday, or Sunday at Redrum at Fort Fringe. You’ll laugh. You’ll feel smart. You’ll think it’s much better than Cats.)
But our first day of vacation will be a relaxed one. We’re only planning to go as far as Princeton, N.J., this evening, so we can wander about town tonight and then backtrack a smidge to the Grounds for Sculpture. Tomorrow evening is our first real appointment, when we have New York City dinner plans with Erik and maybe a couple of other friends.
Friday we’ll head upstate. We’re hoping to spend some time with my college roommate, but if that doesn’t work out, there’s still bike riding and wandering about Dutchess County.
Saturday, we head up to the folk festival. Shelley and Mike weren’t able to camp the whole weekend this year, and we’ve had a couple years in a row of torrential rains (plus hail, fire, and tornado) which made us think a year of doing a daytrip might be in order. The fact we aren’t camping should guarantee the festival beautiful, picture-perfect weather for the whole weekend.
Sunday, we’ll be at my folks and hope to head a bit further east to catch up with Karen and meet Marshall if they’re feeling up for a visit. If not, some more family time and bike riding will give us a relaxing conclusion to our holiday before we head south again on Monday.
But, in the meantime, we have another 19 kilometers of today’s Tour de France stage to go.