Packing For A Trip

This year I'm going to be flying at least eight times that I know of, and it's just January! So that number could go up if I book any more events. I leave tomorrow morning for Orlando, where I'll be the retreat speaker for the Word Weavers. It's going to be a great weekend with the theme SuperMarketing. It will be a play on what we do to market ourselves and our books, and on the supermarket. The team has planned an imaginary WeaverMart store, for games and decorations and I might even take a trip to WeaverMart!

So...today I'm packing. I'm getting pretty good at this. I have a few suggestions for others who are traveling this year and want some tips.

I use the spacebags designed for luggage. It doesn't require a vacuum cleaner. I put all my clothes inside the bag. Lay down on it to squish all the air out until it looks like an astronaut's meal. It gives me more space in my suitcase AND surprisingly, it helps with some of the wrinkling.

With what wrinkling does happen--as soon as I get to my destination I pull out my clothes and hang them up. Then I retrieve an empty spray bottle I always pack, fill it with simple water, and spritz my clothing. This freshens it up and the wrinkles fall out over night. No need for fancy products!

I try to pack my clothing in a couple of basic color combinations so I can coordinate them like grown-up garanimals. And it limits my shoes and jewelry needs.

I have a travel notebook that has all my important contact information for people where I'm going, for people from home in case something happens to me, my medical information, my agendas, my boarding passes, etc. This time it will include the cell phone number of the person picking me up since she will be hanging out at the cell phone parking lot waiting for a call--then she will pull up to the arrivals where I'll be waiting for her. This saves time and money and also reduces the number of cars hanging out around arrivals waiting for their passengers--a security thing.

I'll write more travel tips in the next day or two. In the meantime, please pray for my travels. I never take safety or security for granted. I rest in God's hands--as do each one of us!

SEATTLE: Personality

Some of the things I wanted to share about our Seattle vacation regard the personality and style of the town. It's like no other town I've been in: liberal politics, alternative lifestyles of every sort, eco-friendly, natural, multi-ethnic, vibrant, colorful, energetic, eccentric, etc.

Clothing styles like I've seen nowhere else in my travels--as ecclectic as the personalities, mixing function, message, and style. Women of all ages and shapes wore leggings under dresses or long shirts or under shorts. You name it, they had on leggings. Some with high heels to rival the space needle, others with tennis shoes that advertised a walking to work pedestrian. If not leggings, the skinny jean.

More dreadlocks, less deodorant. More walking, less driving. More coffee, less tea. More languages, less litter. More fresh, less canned. More entertainment choices, less church buildings. More Smart Cars, less SUVs.

The weather alone made me happy. The view...happier still.

And for this public relations gal, the palpable BUZZ was thrilling. Maybe it was all that collective coffee drinking (me withstanding).

Here are some photos to tell the tale of Seattle moods:

SEATTLE: Day One, Part Two

So, I realize that there's no way I can write about all the thrilling things we did in Seattle in the detail I'd like to give. I'm going through a type of "boot camp" physical therapy right now and so I'm not exactly riddled with extra time and mental focus after giving my clients first dibs to my brain and creativity. So, I'll have to do the Seattle: Condensed Version report.

The rest of Day One consisted of:

Eating at FareStart (a restaurant where they train jobless, often homeless individuals to learn the various jobs associated with running a 4-star restaurant).


Unfortunately, I had some sort of bug, and so I didn't get to enjoy my meal much. Russ had a BLT w/Haddock.

After resting a bit at the hotel, we walked down to my first peak of Pike's Market. It is amazing. I could go there every day! If I lived in Seattle, I would rarely buy food in a grocery store. Can you imagine cooking with fresh ingredients every day. WOWZER! And this market has a little of everything. We went almost every day of our trip--so I'll share photos throughout the blog posts. Here's a start:





Then, we ate at a French restaurant called the Maximilien at the market. By this time I was hungry and opened with the best French Onion Soup I've ever eaten, then enjoyed the best filet mignon, with gourmet mashed potatoes and veggies and bread with the BEST butter. If we had dessert, I can't remember. The other great part of the meal was the view of the water from our table. And the waiter was French--his accent added to the ambiance of the entire experience!

SEATTLE: Day One, Part One

Waking up in Seattle is a vacation if nothing else happened all day. The view. The air. The weather. Did I mention the view?

Russ found a variety drug store across the street from our hotel while I was stirring, and picked up a Diet Pepsi Max for me and some packaged pastries. Starbucks Coffee in the room. We didn't want to load up too much since we had such a big day planned.

First off, we took the monorail to the Seattle Center to pick take the tour via land and sea on the WW2 Ducks Amphibious Landing Craft. Or Ducks for short. This was one of our favorite activities of the vacation, because the tour guide understood our kind of crazy. He gave us a great tour of the sites, but we also got to sing and interact and just be goofy.

It was during one of these goofy songs (I think it was YMCA, complete with arm motions), that an elderly pedestri-woman shook her head at us in disdain and asked us, "What in the WORLD do you think you're doing?" All the while scolding us with her pointed finger.

Oh well...I guess what sounds like fun to some people sounds like noise pollution to others!



One of the best parts of the tour was when we drove from the road, right into the water and toured the water's edge of Seattle. There are some parts of the town best viewed from the water.

And then, there's the water.

Sun rays warming the face. Moist air cooling the flushed skin. Slight waves rocking the boat. Nature alone is enough.

But there's more. Float planes. House boats. Floating homes (we learned the difference!) Fancy yachts. War vessels. Deadliest Catch ships.

We learned to be able to spot our hotel in the skyline of every tour, of every walkabout.

The tour guide showed us the home of Sleepless in Seattle.

Just so much. Before noon on Day One!

Back on land, almost sad to know we were headed back to headquarters.

Oh...and every time we drove by a Starbucks Coffee (almost every corner), we were coached to shout out "cha ching!" Fun, funny, and so true!

I highly recommend this tour, and suggest you do it early in your vacation so you can get oriented on the Seattle basics. A must do!

SEATTLE: Travel Day

Over the next few days I'm going to write about some of the highlights and insights of our recent vacation to Seattle. Russ and I have traveled many places, but never to the northwestern part of our country, so this was a real treat. We have been planning this trip for over a year now. It was originally scheduled for last August, but a series of events put our trip on hold. So, let's begin!

We flew out of Harlingen, TX around 5 PM Central Time, with a brief layover in Houston. No real time to get a meal there, and we weren't really hungry. But we often experienced the pit-of-the-stomach hunger while flying due to in-air snacks limited to nuts and soft drinks. Risking it, we boarded essentially foodless (a few cookies stashed, just in case). So we were pleasantly surprised when their "snack" consisted of a delicious cheeseburger and fresh green salad, and a chocolate bar for dessert.

We landed in Seattle around 10 PM Pacific Time, after being in the air about five-and-a-half hours total. One thing we realized is the older you get, the smaller and less comfortable those seats in the plane become. So, we walked off the plane a little bit like Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein!

The buses were about to close, and didn't sound all that special to take anyway, with our baggage and my wheelchair. We planned to take a taxi, but when we hailed one, he refused to take us due to my wheelchair, even though we showed him it folds up easily for stowing. He said he could call a van for us from the same taxi line, but it could take a while.



This limo driver kept bugging us to ride with him. Finally he quoted us a price just $13 more than the absent van, and after that long on a plane and desiring to get to our room, we succumbed. So this was our first ever limo ride.



The driver decided to be our first Seattle tour guide as well, so there was no glass window between us and the front to provide privacy for our ride to the hotel. That's okay, it was enjoyable to get a sneak peak at what we had in store for us over the next 8 days. And the city was beautiful at night!



We arrived at the Westin, greeted by the valet. That is the last real memory I have of the night. I know we went to the registration desk. We struggled with our luggage up to the 39th floor. We performed the perfunctory oohs and ahs much like a fireworks display when we viewed our room as well as the room's view. But truthfully, that last 15 minutes felt like sleepwalking as if living out a dream sequence compared to the vivid memories of the days that followed.

We sunk into what Westin calls their "heavenly bed" and "lights out."

Dream Bigger!

I'm traveling on a 10-day roatrip with assistant and friend, Gina Stinson. Her husband Bruce asked me one of my favorite questions tonight, and now I can't sleep, thinking about it. He asked me if what I'm doing now is "living the dream" of what I dream of doing in my life. My reply was, all this and MORE. I'm a big dreamer, and God is an even BIGGER dreamer, coming up with all sorts of exciting and challenging plans for my life.

The projects I'd love to work on are ones I sense God leading me to work on--some with church and community ministry, some with business (which is also a ministry).

The hard part is to figure out how to get from Point A (where I am now) to Point B (where I believe God is leading me). I don't want to have a 40-year journey in the wilderness, if I can help it! Just like we used mapquest to figure out our road trip route, taking us from our current position to our destination, I wish I could figure out a way to mapquest my life.

But there really is a simple way. Allow God to dream big dreams for me, and then obey Him as He leads each step. Each decision, each contact, each project, yielded to His direction. Yet, it's not always as simple as it sounds.

But it IS exciting. Maybe, just maybe the journey is as important as the destination. Gina and I are looking forward to the road trip as much as the conference, and maybe my life journey of getting from where I am to each task God has for me is just as important as the arrival. Gina and I will visit in the car as we travel. God and I will fellowship on my life trips to various God-directed tasks and projects. On this road trip we have to trust the map to get us there even on roads we've never driven, and we have to trust the vehicle to function properly. In my life journey, I have to trust to get ahead too. Trust God. And trust that God-given gut instinct He places inside of me.

I'm dreaming big dreams, and I'm determined to enjoy the trip as much as the destinations in this great big life God has for me!

Top 10 Ways You Know You're Not in KY Any More!

10. You find po'boys on the menus instead of sub sandwiches.
9. Spanish Moss decorates the trees.
8. Oil Pumpers in the fields instead of corn.
7. Find crawfish traps and rice fields instead of limb lines and soybean fields.
6. Seagulls and cranes grace the boggy fields-and even ride bareback on cattle.
5. Love bugs pollute the air and collide with windshields rather than lightning bugs.
4. Cajun food signs rather than KFC.
3. Words use more vowels and less consonants (such as Ribodeaux).
2. Instead of rivers, creeks, lakes, and ponds you are more likely to see bayous, marshes, and swamps!
1. Carnage consists of puffed up armadillo rather than fatally injured deer.

And here's a bonus one:

You don't worry about drought, you survive the eye of Hurricane Humberto! We woke up in Vidor, TX with no power, no telephone land lines, and no air conditioning. Streets were flash flooded and lines were out to the main roads at gas stations (to power generators).We're fine now-all snug in a bug at La Quinta Inn, Texas City, TX near Galveston.