Sworn off travel?  No, indeed, my dears.  Mommy knows her age and didn’t have more invested in equities than was appropriate for her tolerance for loss, so I will indeed travel, dahlings.

But, Mommy intends to travel her in her own country to better our economy, rather than those abroad, my dears.

We are not travelling far. If at all, we will spend our money in US to help economy.

I’m taking a vacation, even if I have to borrow to do it.  I’ve been wanting to go to Tuscany for years, and it should be very affordable this year.  A few days after 9/11, Mayor Giuliani called the theaters and asked them to re-open, and he called Letterman and told him to go on the air and tell jokes, and he told all New Yorkers who were not mourning the loss of a loved one to go to work and to dinner and to shows, and it would not be disrespectful.  He saved the city.   Now many people are making do without because they have no choice, but many others can afford to go away but they feel it is somehow disrespectful of those who are suffering financially.   Collectively, we need to get over our guilt and go out and shop and eat and drink and travel and enjoy all the things we used to enjoy.

Vacation?  I haven’t been able to afford one of those in years.

I still plan to travel, but…..  for those who cannot, or those who love to travel - I highly recommend Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss.  

Dee T, happy to have you in Maine anytime.  Hope you’ll come to Downeast next time, quiet, breathtaking, not crowded.  Not the wealthiest part of Maine but we have clear waters, ancient forest, and the sea, great camping too.  ( oh and we have lobster up here as well!)

For me, a trip to Israel is in the works. It’ll be my first, and I couldn’t be more excited! :-)

Most of the time, a vacation is turning off the alarm clock and sleeping until you can’t sleep anymore.  We live 20 min from Va Beach now, so we can walk the beach whenever the weather gets nice.  Once a year we try to take a weekend trip within driving distance.  One of our favorites is Virginia Safari Park (near Natural Bridge, Va).  You get to drive though and see lots of animals (deer, antelope, pot bellied pigs, ostritch, rheas, giraffes and a few others in some non-fed-by-the-public feeding areas) and feed them with kibble you buy near the main gate.  The Fallow Deer were a little pushy when we visited as three of them tried to push their heads into the minivan fuzzy antlers and all.  It’s great fun, but you definately have to wash your hands when you’re done, and then wash the van once you get home, too.  We’re going to go again this summer.

BULGARIA - great food, excellent wine, great spas, history-history-history - and soooooooooooo cheap.

my family decided we may try a little camping, bought a "teardrop" which I called the ultimate tail"gator" and thought we would see our own country a little. I have lived in NY for over 5 yrs now and have never been to the adirondacks. Now, we have gotten carried away and have sold our original teardrop for a profit and have bought a few more vintage ones that we are going to renovate on weekends….and who knows, we may even make enough money to pay for a trip to see Mount Rushmore. Now that’s American recessionism at its best. Make enough money to do something you love while your doing something you can learn to love to do. Hurray for inspriations.