We're heading out early tomorrow morning for Manzanita, OR. Just a weekend away before Spring term starts at school, and back to work-work-work. We're trying our second rental experience via air B-n-B...a house that sleeps up to eight, just blocks from the ocean and walking distance to the main street of this small coastal town. Looking forward to fresh air, leaving a window open to catch the sound of the ocean, the quiet and slower pace of a small town, morning coffee and pastries at the local bakery, watching some old movies together, beach combing, and clam chowder. Oh, and, yes, we'll be poking our noses into all the little antique, thrift and junk joints along the way...

See you when we return...happy weekend!

V is for Vacation

We've got a plan, a reservation, and in a few weeks we're heading for Oyster Bay--aka Bremerton, Washington. No more virtual vacations, folks, this is gonna be the real deal. What's cooler--we're trying a different approach, skipping the pricey, impersonal hotel route, and going with a home stay.



See, I'm one of those people who actually looks at, and occasionally clicks on, the ads on Facebook. This time I discovered a very nifty *new* service called airbnb. What, you ask, is an airbnb? From the website:

Airbnb is a marketplace where you can list & book anything from a couch to a castle by the night. With a reach of over 4000 cities in 131 countries, Airbnb is a global movement empowering everyday people to travel.

We're staying in a bungalow on the water. We have the entire lower level of the house, the garden, two kayaks, daily breakfast, jet tub, laundry, movie and book library and free wireless. Just up the road are restaurants, cafes, yoga, antique shops and the ferry to downtown Seattle. All that and the beauty of Puget Sound for about half the cost of a regular, mid-price chain hotel room. No kidding.

The folks we're staying with sound neat. He is the founder of a software company, an outdoors organization, and an avid mountain climber. She is a photographer and fiber artist who takes budding photographers on local photo walks. If we want to learn how to bake sourdough bread, that's an option as well.

Getting away is always good and we're overdue for an adventure. I'll let you know how the airbnb service pans out, and if it's as good as I suspect it might be we may just have found our new way to travel.