I only have 2 trips planned for the summer - SoCal in early summer for my niece’s wedding then my grands Christmas present: Boston/Iceland later in the summer. I need something in between. I might fly to SFO for a long weekend to see my nephew’s new house. I have a flight credit left from January when the snow/ice hit and everything got canceled.

3katz, when we bought our first weekend house, part of my kitchen equipment came from DD and her roommates graduating college and not wanting to take stuff with them. If you are near a college in SC, keep your eye out for stuff the college kids are jettisoning. Sometime at the end of school, Goodwill will have a lot of good stuff. You might even be able to snag a nice toaster oven.

Oh, how nice, what are your plans in Vermont? Such a pretty state. Reminds me I still have a few to get to.

We have a lot of company coming this summer and into September. The local social scene has also picked up steam with some of the snowbirds back and with us meeting more neighbors. I have joined two new charitable groups so that will add to the mix. A few extra things going on at the office so now I will be a bit busier with that too.

As is my wont, I started planning our next trip on the way back from the last one. DH has always wanted to ski Bariloche and I have wanted to see Iguassu Falls, so we will go to South American in late August (optimal skiiing). We will stop in Uruguay while we are there, another place I've always wanted to see. That will also be country 99. Oddly, country 100 will be Paraguay. When in Iguassu Falls, you can take a 15 minutes stroll over a bridge to see Paraguay.

Thrifting for housewares would be fun, I am sure you will find great stuff. My Airbnb does not have a glass measuring cup, and I am thinking of thrifting one and leaving it here. I am also thinking of going antiquing in my quest for what I learned is called a "pond boat" ( vintage model boat for using in ponds).

@bbstx - our lake place in MN is rural so no college population nearby. I've already had some luck at the local thrift shops, including Goodwill, so I will check that out again. It is the kind of area though where people age out of their fabulous second homes and sell some great things, often an entire household estate sale.

No big plans here. We normally dont do many trips in summer, preferring to go when school is still in session. we have a little antiquing trip next month. Summer we will be enjoying lots of time outdoors. I’ll be attending to all my flowers and probably a small veggie garden. We are involved with a church project in June. We will probably have a good bit of lake and mountain time 😊 (Tina Marie)

3katz, I was thinking check around in SC if you are near a college town, assuming y’all are driving back to MN. The parents of DD’’s best friend in college invited me to their lake house in MN. It was miles and miles to even a convenience store. I loved it, but my impression was that the lake part of MN is very rural - in a good way.

I hadn’t thought about it until I saw Iguassu Falls. Mother bought DD (about 3 y/o at the time) the prettiest handmade dress when they were there. It was white with tiny tucks and beautifully embroidered pastel flowers. I think I passed the dress along to a cousin when DD outgrew it.

We are leaving for a trip this coming Saturday. Sicily and Mallorca. We've been meeting with contractors for the past 2 weeks to get bids on a major reno project.

We'll be redoing the kitchen, main bath, guest bath and powder room. Putting in all new flooring. Some other minor upgrades. We'll be renting a place while the work is being done. I'm hoping we can start by the end of July and be finished by Christmas!

Czarina, wow that is quite a project! Have a great trip. Jealous about Mallorca. It always sounded so romantic. I had a colleague whose wife was from there and they owned an almond orchard. Sounded heavenly! Do share when you get back.

We’re going on a round trip transatlantic crossing on the QM2 in mid June and will go to the beach in August. In late fall we are tentatively planning a trip to DC (to see my nephew) and a theater run to NYC. Everything depends on my mom, who has slowed down quite a bit in the past month— nothing actually wrong, just as if she is stepping on the brakes iykwim.

Our youngest is graduating from high school. We’ll have a whirlwind of graduation events and parties. Then we’ll get him ready to go off to college.. Our oldest is leaving in the midst of all of that to study abroad in South Africa.

This is our first summer in recent memory that won’t be consumed by travel/club lacrosse, so we plan to spend a fair amount of time at our lake house with whomever will join us. We’re also going to Sea Island, GA in July.

Lots of travel over the next month: North Adams/Williamstown (MA) this weekend to do some hiking, museum hopping, and eating for our 35th anniversary. (I got married in 8th grade.) Mid-month, an all-family trip to Iceland for a week. Four days after we return, DH and I will be off to NC for a wedding. Two nights in Raleigh for the wedding, and two nights in Wilmington just because.

No big summer plans, just back and forth between home and beach. Early Sept., we have a big road trip — flying into San Francisco and driving up the coast as far as Eugene and flying home from there. That will be about 12 days. It is mostly a photography excursion for DH with me along for the ride, but I did request that we stop here, so we’ll be here for a couple nights.

https://marvistafarmandcottages.com

@bbstx - unfortunately we have no room in the vehicle to haul any extra purchases back to MN from SC. I’m hoping to fit a couple small items in that I moved but decided I don’t need in SC but could really use in MN.

After buying a new house in a more rural area, I feel like I have a never-ending list of projects to make it feel like home.

I'm currently working on building a custom closet (DIY) for the master bedroom, which means a ton of my clothes and shoes are still in boxes. I'm making slow but steady progress.

I desperately want to paint the living room / dining room / kitchen. I would describe the current color today as "mud" and I really dislike it. The room is complex with vaulted ceilings, beams, stone fireplace, and of course kitchen cabinets. It's going to be a tough job with a lot of ladder climbing. I'm dreading the project but also can't wait to change the color. I think we've settled on Sherwin Williams Shiitake. Unfortunately I didn't make it to SW over the weekend and missed out on the sale.

The property is over five acres, but a smaller section is landscaped around the house, especially an area inside a tall fence to keep dogs in and deer out. Unfortunately the previous owners vacated the home for 8 months and prior to that I have my doubts about how much they were doing to maintain the property. I have a huge amount of crabgrass to dig out and make a landscaping plan and landscape. My husband will have his hands full fixing the irrigation system.

Beyond that the laundry room needs to have wallpaper removed and painted, probably some new cabinetry. And the guest bedroom and exercise room need paint at some point. Oh and the lower entry and rec area need paint too.

I do have one trip planned with my father and brother to Canyonlands (The Maze region) which should be fun.

Prickly you are going to be VERY busy! I hope you’ll share pictures of your projects, pretty please!

3katz, I was afraid room in the car might be an issue. Bummer!

@Sueb20, sending you a video review of a restaurant 20 or so miles outside of Reykjavik. I can’t see us going there with the kiddos, but maybe you’ll go and I can live vicariously. (Can’t post the video here because it is from Instagram and I don’t know how)

Love hearing about everyone's trips and projects -- can wait to watch as you make your new house your home, Pricklypear!

My plans are pretty basic but i am really looking forward to all of them

Travel

• I leaving in a few weeks to spend 2 wks with SO -- always relaxing and lots of fun! It will include hiking, second hand stores, blues bars and picnics at the lake (May also return in August.. depending on how work is going)
• I will go on a weekend reading getaway with BFF - still working through plans but it will be somewhere relaxing and include shopping, bookstores and dining (as well as reading)
• Also planning a getaway with sister but that one may push into fall .. very likely NYC for shopping

Projects

Didnt make much progress on house projects in the beginning of the year -- hoping to make good progress on my home office and LR this summer into fall in preparation for an extended visit from SO.

@czarinalex We spent 2.5 weeks in Sicily last summer. Pure heaven. Pay $6 or whatever to download the Osterie d'Italia restaurant app. We ate our way through Rome and Sicily using restaurants on this app.

There are not heaps of restaurants included because the criteria is really stringent, so those that are listed are really great. In addition to the food being fresh and local, it has to be an affordable restaurant. (Quite the opposite of what farm to table is in the US!) A lot of these were mom and pop restaurants in neighborhoods we would never have otherwise known to visit and were the best meals of my life.

We are putting off a trip to Europe, although apparently when we do go we will need to have a visa or something to visit our hoped-for destinations. But we may plan a trip around either delivering or picking up mu church’s handbells from refurbishment in northern Michigan. We haven’t been up there in ages and not to this particular area so that might be fun.

Other than that, house projects, some deferred projects, etc. Yawn.

The "visas" being implemented for US citizens in placed like the UK are pretty much just a tax. You do it online, pay a fee, and should be ready to show the email on your phone if asked. Not like the old days when you filled out lengthy forms and sent physical photos or those countries where you need an invitation!

I love reading about everyone's travel and home reno projects! I mean, duh isn't that why we all came here in the first place!?

In July, we go to Cape Cod for a week with DD, DSIL and grandbabies. I have yet to be able to convince DS to come with us. He is so not a beach person. Sigh.

I tried to extend it to 2 weeks (the kids/grands wouldn't be able to come for that long) but it would give DH and I more time to relax. Unfortunately, the house we rent wasn't available.

In August, we're doing an Alaska cruise from Vancouver. We've never been to Vancouver so we'll spend a few days there prior to cruise.

In Sept, we actually have 2 resorts booked for the same time period. One in Aruba. One in Mexico. We weren't sure which we'd want to do (Aruba is significantly more $$ than Mexico). I was planning to cancel both. DH is against that idea. Since I plan to retire this year, I just thought it would be better to not spend that money. On our catch up call with our financial advisor today, DH brought it up. I conveyed my thoughts about spending the $$. Advisor said "I approve the trip. Go." Sigh, thought he was on my side!

And some local-ish trips -- DH has some Marriot points that have to be used by the end of June, so we'll probably spend a night or two in NYC to use them up. And I think we'll go to the shore for a couple days/nights. Found a boutique hotel we want to try. We had reservations there last summer but DH had covid and we had to cancel. And probably a couple nights at our favorite inn near New Hope/Lambertville/Peddlers Village. We haven't been in a while and I think it's time.

I grew up in the New Hope/Lambertville/Peddlers Village area, and my BFF and sister are still there.

@Kendrah Thanks! I downloaded the app. We'll be on a tour but about half of our meals are on our own time.

Four of our soon-to-be 11 grandchildren have birthdays in May, and the same four are graduating—a gdtr from middle school, two gsons from high school, and a gdtr (our oldest gchild) from college. Fun! Then we will take a couple college visits with a gdtr who will be a high school junior, have another gdtr stay with us for ten days while her parents and her brother take his hs graduation trip to Alaska, and finally, in August our entire family of 24 will go to the resort we have taken our family to for 35 years for a week of pure wonderfulness!

We have a slew of birthdays in october and november, and this november will conclude with the marvelous finale of the birth of Number 11, who will be the tie-breaking sixth boy. ❤️❤️❤️

Looking forward to a low key summer. Just two trips, first up is a resort in San Jose del Cabo with family. Followed by a late summer a trip to a friend's beach house in Coastal Oregon, with a stop to see friends in Portland. DH and I will be visiting Hawaii in the fall

In-between the trips I need to concentrate on updating my house, changes were pushed back while my MIL was living with us, as DH's office was in the living room. MIL has recently moved to assisted living, so time to move forward.

in August our entire family of 24 will go to the resort we have taken our family to for 35 years for a week of pure wonderfulness!

Fabulous!

@czarinalex - Enjoy the tour and your meal excursions. We were the only tourists in any of the restaurants we ate in. It was fantastic to immerse ourselves in local culture and local food. We experienced different cuisine and drink than anyone else I know who has visited Sicily.

Heading to 30A this weekend with our kids and their families for a week of fun and sun. Later in the summer we are heading to Paris for 10 days with part of that being on a river cruise. I have wanted to take one for a while so I am excited about that.