2012 Travel Plans

I am a planner.  I can't help it.  Because Kevin has to squeeze out every day of vacation strategically, we take this time of year to chart our travels.  Without the dog, I anticipate we'll explore some weekend places that weren't as dog friendly.  We also have a few big trips on the horizon. Here's what we know so far:

One of the many gorgeous beaches of Cat Island.

1.  Cat Island (late January).  One of Bahamas Out Islands, Cat island has a small population (less than 2,000 according to Wikipedia) and yet is 150 square miles so the sparsely population paradise is a beach lover's dream.  We traveled to Eleuthera another Out Island a few years ago and basically loved every moment.  We're renting this beach house and plan to hike, kayak, read, cook and do a lot of chilling. 

2.  Weddings (April and June).  We have two of them in 2012.  One in Austin, Texas in late April and one in Raleigh, North Carolina in mid June.  We plan on bookending the weddings with a few days to explore both locations and take a beach trip with the family after the North Carolina nuptials.

3.  Anniversary (early June).  This year the Traveling DINKs celebrate TEN YEARS of wedded bliss.  This is crazy stuff, people.  And to celebrate this big event (June 1), we will treat ourselves to a meal at the Inn at Little Washington.  We plan on staying nearby at The Blue Rock Inn and visiting a few vineyards, taking a few proper hikes.  Early June is really one of the few windows of time that is nice in the Washington, DC region so it didn't make sense to travel somewhere too exotic and miss the fine weather.  (Now I have probably jinxed it and it will rain the whole anniversary weekend.)

4.  Boston-Hartford-Providence (late June).  June is going to be jam-packed for us in 2012.  I have a meeting in Boston so we are making a long weekend of it and visiting a relative in Hartford and then swinging over to Providence, Rhode Island for a few days.

5. Lyon and other locations in France/Switzerland TBD (late August).  A meeting takes us to Lyon, France in late August, but we have yet to fully construct a trip around the event.  We are either going to fly into Geneva or Paris and then take some time to visit either Dijon, Loire Valley, or Provence.  Stay tuned.  This is going to be an amazing trip!

6.  San Francisco and the Big Sur (early November).  Another meeting takes us to San Francisco so we plan on wrapping in some time to visit Hearst Castle and probably as far south as San Luis Obispo.  This trip is still so far out that we have not firmed much of it up just yet.

7.  Weekend Jaunts (throughout 2012).  We know we definitely want to visit Richmond (yeah, honestly we've never really explored this city just two hours away), the Northern Neck and probably a beach or bay trip.  A lot of these trips will be more last-minute variety (again the luxury of being dog-free for the moment) and be based on the weather conditions.

8.  Ohio (summer of fall 2012).  I am sure we will find ourselves back in the home state to visit family, friends and maybe take in an Ohio State game. 

I'm sure more travel plans will pop up, but it looks to be a full and fun travel year!

The Northern Neck and Tangier Island

A watermen's shack, Tangier Island, Virginia.

To toast the end of graduate school, the DINKs took a small getaway to the Northern Neck of Virginia.  About 3 hours from DC, the Northern Neck is a spit of land that juts out between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.  Several islands that rest in the Bay are accessible by ferry along the Northern Neck.  The islands and the Northern Neck have long histories when compared to other parts of the United States.  Old plantations--including Robert E. Lee's birthplace, Stratford Hall Plantation (constructed in 1738!). The Captain and Explorer John Smith visited Tangier Island.  The tiny island community has attracted the attention of linguists because its people speak a unique English Restoration era dialect of American English. Each of the original surnames and several of the present surnames on the island originated in the United Kingdom, predominantly from Scotland.  The DINKs were fascinated to visit one of these islands (others include Smith Island and Tilghman Island). 

Roadsign sinking into the marshland, Tangier Island, Virginia.

We took a ferry from Reedville on a clear and hot July morning--choosing to take daytrip, but stay on the mainland.  I have to say, we were sort of disappointed.  The island was compact and walkable, but there really wasn't much to see.  For a place that has had people on it since the 1600s, I guess I expected more.  It's just a small fishing community.  I don't regret the trip, but I was ready to get on the ferry at 2:30 and I am glad we stayed in Reedville on the mainland.  We chose the B&B, The Gables, built in the early 20th century by a wealthy fishermen (the area is famous for menhaden--a type of little fish that is used in everything).  We had a room in an annex  (the homes old carriage house), steps away from the Bay.  After the daytrip to Tangier, we spent the late afternoon sitting on the lawn, watching the water and a family of osprey.  The next morning, we wandered around the quiet streets of Reedville, impressed that all the houses had lovely water views and water access, then spent an interesting hour exploring the Reedville Fishermen's Museum and learned all there is to know about menhaden.  We then slowly made our way back to DC, stopping at Oak Crest Vineyard in King George.  And then stopped for crabcakes right along the Bay.  Overall, the weekend was a nice blend of nature, history and relaxation.  It reminded us that Virginia has a lot of interesting things to offer and a rich history!

The DINKs 2010 travels.

Since I killed http://www.thetravelingdinks.com/ last spring, we had the chance to take a few weekend trips and one major trip to Europe.  I'll break down each of these trips in a few posts, but here is a quick breakdown:

1.  End of July.  I graduated. Joy.  To celebrate, we took a fun little trip to Reedville, VA and Tangier Island off the Northern Neck.

2.  End of August.  The annual trip to the AMEE conference.  This year it was held in Glasgow, Scotland so we took some time to visit the British Isles.  This was the a bit of a nostalgic tour for us since the UK was our first big international trip when we were college kids.  We spent time in London, took daytrips to Richmond and Bath, then flew to Belfast and rented a car and tooled around County Antrim in Northern Ireland; finally we went to Glasgow and took daytrips to Edinburgh and the Trossachs.

3.  November.  A long weekend to our favorite cabin in the VA countryside.  The weather was unseasonably warm and we had a lovely, peaceful time.

4.   December.  A long weekend some place warm is always a welcome treat when the weather cools in DC.  We escaped to Miami, staying at the campy chic The Standard on the Bay side of South Beach.  We had some memorable meals--one at Indomania (Indonesian fare) and a return visit to the always special Wish.  We did get stuck an extra day in South Beach because of weather troubles elsewhere, but there are worse places to find yourself stuck!