It’s time to calculate that PTO!

by. Amanda Brenneman

This past weekend something bright, yellow and warm appeared out of nowhere here in Salem, Oregon. It was a rare sighting and something I felt faintly familiar with… After wracking my brain for a while I realized it was an old friend that I hadn’t seen in a while, my old friend named Sunshine.

I was so excited to see this old friend that I immediately invited him into my house- I pulled the curtains back, opened up windows, and even invited flip flops to the party. Ultimately though, we wound up hanging out on my back deck. As I stretched out my toes and soaked up all of the Vitamin D Sunshine had to offer; I dreamt of barbeques, family get-togethers and summer vacations. Oh the longings for road trips, lakes, canoes, camp fires, and baseball games all came flooding into my mind. And just when my mind was running at max speed with all of these great vacation ideas– Sunshine left– like he always does here in Oregon.

Here I am two days after Sunshine left, still dreaming of summer vacations… Lucky for me, after hours of researching and brainstorming my wonderful fiancé already has our summer honeymoon planned with all of our favorite vacation elements, with the highlight of finally seeing my favorite MLB team live- Go Yankees! Throughout our travels, we’ll be buying local and doing our part to contribute to the tourism revenue of the cities and towns we visit.

So, when planning a summer vacation, where does one find the best local secrets for food, lodging, activities and all around fun? Well there are a couple options…

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