Crazy Amigo Challenge: Travel

Well, for the theme on this week's Crazy Amigo Challenge is Travel. Should it be somewhere I have been? Somewhere I am going? I seem to be travelling a lot lately - Cabo, then Toronto, and we are off to Montreal in a week or so for our annual summer trip back home.

But I chose Greece. The place we planned to go instead of Cabo. The itinerary was all arranged - Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. The luxury accommodations were selected. Then the reality of two things kinda sunk in. The price - well, $3600 alone just for the airfare! And it just seemed that if i didn't have a suite with an infinity pool with a view of the million dollar sunsets, i just didn't want to go. The other more realistic issue? - STAIRS. Have you seen pictures of the quaint villages? All stairs, all the times. One hotel had 80 stairs DOWN the cliff to get to your room. Well, after falling down stairs and breaking my ankle and having two surgeries and spending 9 months on crutches in 2006, sadly i am not ready for a vacation involving that many stairs. One day. I am sure it will be awesome.

Above is a little 4x5 stretched canvas painted entirely with Portfolio Oil Pastels and my finger. No collage, no words - just that perfect image of sea and sky - and the pretty white house dotting the cliffs. There used to be an ad on TV, "The Gods could have chose anywhere to live. They chose Greece". It is sort of my dream to go there. One day.


But off to Montreal we go next week. It really is the next best thing to Greece, since there is a Greek restaurant practically on every corner.
Here is a painting by one of my favorite Quebec artists - Robert Savignac.

We'll see all our good friends, my mom and brothers, and my sister and her family will be up at the lake in their new lakefront cottage. The evenings will pass quickly with great grilled food, dining al fresco, and music will waft through the air, as most of Jim's friends are musicians, and what a great thing to do in the balmy summer air than strum a few tunes and singalong.

Here is a painting by me emulating one of my favorite Quebec artists - Robert Savignac!
The days will be spent splashing in the pool or floating on the lake. Or better yet, scouring the dollar stores for AWESOME crafty treasures. I am SO BUMMED about the new luggage rules. I have routinely brought back a whole suitcase of cool stuff each time I visit Montreal. I don't know why, but they have the best dollar stores e-v-e-r. Like stretched canvases - 3 for a buck! Mini wooden shadow boxes, a buck each, aisles and aisles of ribbon and buttons and feathers and stickers - all too cheap to pass up.
When we went to Mexico a month a go - international travel still allowed 2 bags on most carriers. Now Air Canada has cut that to one bag each - in our "class" anyway. Luckily my hubby would be happiest in trunks and a Hawaiian shirt for 10 days, so i can fill his suitcase with my treasures.