Staycation Vacation

Merriam-Webster defines staycation as “a vacation spent at home or nearby.” It’s not a complex concept; the word is simply a combination of stay and vacation. We first moved to Arizona in 1993, and we’ve been enjoying staycations ever since. Because we now live in Anthem on the northern most reaches of the metro Phoenix area, it is super easy to experience nearby amenities that are completely different than where we live. And, of course, such journeys inescapably provide photoremedy opportunities.

Ingo's Tasty Food - Arcadia (fine art photo)

Ingo’s Tasty Food – Arcadia (fine art photo)

Our most recent staycation involved a sojourn into the North-Central Phoenix area, and epicurean adventures to the historic, yet hip, Arcadia neighborhood.  We stayed in what used to be accurately referred to as a resort, and it still bills itself that way. Since it is a significantly “tired” facility, and not resort quality in my book, I refused to get my camera out to take pictures of the facility. Highlights of our otherwise wonderful trip included:

Great food

Good Wine

Fun Food Shopping

Ice Cream (the best I’ve ever had!)

Sweet Republic Ice Cream - N. 16th St., Phoenix

Sweet Republic Ice Cream – N. 16th St., Phoenix

Looking at an attribute list that features great food, good wine, fun food shopping, and the best retail ice cream I’ve ever had, it becomes increasingly clear that staycations will continue to be an important part of our future travel planning efforts. After all, sometimes there’s no place like home.

West Coast Signs

A drive through Washington, Oregon, and California can be as much a cultural experience as it is a breathtakingly beautiful journey. This is particularly true for those, like Mary and me, who have spent numerous years living in places like Kansas and Arizona. The Great American Northwest definitely features different landscapes than what we know best. A wide variety of photos featuring the magnificent scenery we experienced will be shared in upcoming posts.

Bainbridge Island, WA

Bainbridge Island, WA

Before we take a closer look at the scenery, however, we wanted to share a sampling of the signs, plaques, and even tee shirt graphics that we saw on our trip. Why? It helps illustrate that while a region may be different geologically and topographically, a sense of humor can often be a common bond.  To Mary and me, the Northwest is very familiar in that it is a diverse, fun, free-thinking region. The signs of this were everywhere. Highlights from our journey included the:

CuteCute -1j

HistoricStep Back -1j

Alcohol inducedAlcohol-2j

IrreverentOver the top-1blurj

Teens and technology orientedTeens & Tech - 1j

Civic-mindedCivic - 1j

Thought provoking

Lincoln & God-1j (1 of 1)

We loved our Northwest journey and look forward to soon sharing more of the photoremedy we enjoyed. As always, we encourage our readers to directly receive our new posts. You can sign up for this by following our blog (directions are in the right hand column on photoremedy.me pages). If you want to know more about why we publish this crazy blog, check out the “Blog Background and Initial Post” link displayed at the top of the page on all our posts.