Vacation!

(W)Holes is over. I was going to say, "(W)Holes closed on Saturday" but that just sounded weird.

(W)Holes was a grand experience and I won't even try to tell you all how good it felt to laugh and play with those people. I gotta say -- we were a funny bunch, we were. My God, I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time.

From Cyndy's "Oscar" to the infamous "DI, YOU WERE MARRIED? HOW LONG WERE YOU MARRIED?" and rubbernecking at the "Botox Bar"...it was really, really fun. And of course, since "there is no room for cattiness in theatre" I'll (ahem) quit right now.

And the show closed just in time, because we five are headed to the sea. Several months ago, my enterprising husband acquired some very, very, cheap air tickets (Skybus rocks, by the way) to Seattle.

We're leaving Monday and will be gone for eight days. Eight glorious days in a place not my house and not Ohio. I say "glorious" NOW, because I'm oh-so-selectively not thinking about the reality of traveling with a needy husband and three almost as needy children.

Four and a half hours on a plane, then eight days in cramped hotel rooms and driving around in a (gasp! forgive me!) minivan. God help me. Please God, I beg you to help me. And God, while I have your attention, I'm really sorry about the minivan.

But it's all going to be worth it because after a night in Seattle, we're going to the sea.

First, we're going here and staying here. So, despite the air travel and the rental transportation, the trip definitely has possibilities.

We'll spend several nights at Cannon Beach, and then move on to Ocean Shores, Washington, where we're staying here.

I'm looking forward to (and will need, no doubt) the therapy-by-default that comes with being at the ocean. Both of our hotel destinations (excepting Seattle) are at oceanfront hotels. That was my only wish when we made the plans.

I need it. I'm tired. I'm emotionally walking on thin ice these days. I need to be at the sea with my family. All annoying five of us -- together. The little ones whining, the teenager griping, my husband harping at them for whining and griping.

And me - just sitting back, reading a grocery-store novel.

We'll go to see Mt. Rainier and Mount St. Helens, and Olympic National Park. We may go on a whale watching excursion and we're also going to maybe see a show here.

But the highlight of the trip for me will be going Roslyn, Washington to see this and have a beer here. (Roslyn is where the best TV show OF ALL TIME was filmed and from what I hear, the town is pretty much exactly the same as when the show was in production.)

So, I'm off to the Pacific Northwest to stand at the edge of the sea, explore, climb, hike, and be free with nature.

In a minivan.

God help me.