How About A Mini-Vacation? from Lisa Wingate

Happy Monday Everyone!

If you’re father north than Texas, you may be feeling the first hints of the changing seasons right now, but around here, it feels like endless summer. In Texas, August is an endurance test. I’m ready to head to the mountains, but with a new school year just around the corner, that’s not likely to happen.

So… we thought it would be fun this week to lean back in our porch rockers here at Belleview, close our eyes, and take a mental vacation. That’s the great thing about stories–with a little time and a little imagination, we can take a mind trip to another place.

So, why not close your eyes and join in (well, after you read this, of course)? You might want to visit these places for real when you get the chance, but for now, let’s head off on a getaway to a couple great places in my neck of the woods.

We’ll be driving north. Maybe the weather will get cooler as we go. Yes… yes, I think it is getting cooler. This is our mind trip, after all, so we can conjure up any weather we we want. I’m feeling… mid-seventies and not a cloud in the sky, how about you?

First, we’ll stop off in Forth Worth overnight at the Southside Preservation Hall for Buddy’s Big Band swing dance night. Facebook and writer-friend, Deanna Luke and her sweet hubby introduced me to this place a couple weeks ago. It’s a blast from the past in a beautiful historic building that has been rescued from the wrecking ball by a dedicated group of supporters. There’s nothing quite like walking in the doors of this graceful old building and hearing Buddy’s group blasting big band music through the halls. Watching the dancers is like taking a step back in time. Swing dancers from five to ninety-five come to enjoy the music and take to the dance floor. It’s the perfect chance to let all your modern cares float away.

If you’d like to know more about Southside Preservation Hall or Buddy’s Big Band swing dance night, click here.

If you want to get all gussied up in garb from the swing dance era, you’ll fit right in here!

Now that we’ve danced our feet off, let’s drift north across the Red River and a little eastward into beautiful Southeastern Oklahoma. We’ll travel into the heart of the Kiamichi Mountains, which are one of the area’s best kept secrets. If you don’t have time for a trip to the Rockies, the Kiamichis will satisfy your mountain fever. There are clear-mountain lakes, tumbling streams, towering pines, hiking trails, and some of the best trout fishing my fisher-guys have ever found anywhere. Here’s a digital scrapbook page from my DSP scrapbook:

While we’re in the Kiamichis, we’ll be sure to stop by and visit the Choctaw Capitol Museum, the historic headquarters of the Choctaw Nation in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma. Since this is a mind trip, we’ve arrived just in time for the annual Choctaw Labor Day Festival. If you’ve never spent Labor Day at the Choctaw Capitol, you’ll love it. The Labor Day fest is crammed full of amazing activities for kids and adults, including a carnival, crafts, museum tours, powwow dances, and concerts featuring big-name headliners providing entertainment. Most events at the festival are free–offered to the public courtesy of the Choctaw Nation. To see this year’s schedule, click here. I love the Choctaw Labor Day Festival so much that I set a book there a few years ago. Here’s the scrapbook page for A Thousand Voices:

I should mention that both of these digital scrapbook pages were created with digital scrap kits designed by our favorite BelleView graphics girl, Teresa Loman.

To check out my Digital Scrapbook Place gallery, click here.

To check out Teresa’s pages and kits, click here.

So what about you? Do you have a vacation in the works this month… or maybe, just a little mind trip to someplace interesting? What’s your favorite getaway close to home? Or, to go even bigger, if you could be anywhere in the world, where would you be right now?

It’s fun to think about, isn’t it?

I can’t wait to see where the rest of the Belles take us this week!

Happy traveling ;o)

Lisa