Homework: Vacation!

This week, Scalzi (we're on a last name basis, right?) asks,

"Weekend Assignment #7: Share the vacation you most want to take -- but haven't taken yet. (Extra Credit: Show off some recent vacation photos.)"

Is that a weekened assignment tailor made for me or what?

I mean, really.  The whole raison d'etre [imagine appropriate accent marks] of this journal was for me to document getting my act together and taking it to New Zealand.  (Hence the screen name.) 

It wasn't just about going to New Zealand, it was really experimenting with a whole new philosophy.  A more adventurey philosophy.  One that involved jumping into canyons, hiking on glaciers, whitewater rafting, black water rafting, and (of course), bouncing down a hill in a big plastic ball.

And it worked out great (excepting, perhaps, for the glacier thing).  The travelogue (in a billion tiny entries) starts here and the recap in photos is here.

I here re-post my favorite photo from the whole trip:

You just don't get scenery like that around these parts.

And so ... (to the first part of the homework assignment) ... you may ask where I really want to go next.  And I've finally figured it out:  Alaska.

More precisely, I want to go on a cruise with these people.  I mean, get a load of this cruise:  small boat through the Inside Passage, lots of kayaking and checking out the wildlife, and the boat even spends a night in Glacier Bay National Park.  I am so drooling.

There is, of course, the small matter of the, er, price.  Which is why this vacation is the "vacation I most want to take -- but haven't taken yet," as opposed to "the vacation I'm going on next month.  See you.  Bye."  And, of course, if I'm going to be in shape for all that hiking and kayaking, I'd better go back to the gym.  At least I'll have something cool to motivate me.