Sometimes you need to get away for a few weeks just to figure out who you are again.
Judd Apatow
We’re honored to have been invited to be guest hosts for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #157 by the four creative photographers who began this project. This week’s topic — Getting Away — is near to our hearts, because in the last 15-20 years or so, we’ve left our comfy nest in Knoxville, Tennessee, to travel near and far — short trips, long stays, cruises, solo drives . . . we’ve loved it all. We hope you’ll share your favorite getaways with us this week as well.
Maybe you, too, are yearning to get away after being quarantined during the pandemic. If the packed hotels and restaurants we’ve seen of late are any indication, we’re all “itching” to get away, even if it’s just to rejoin the people we love and the places once familiar to us.
We don’t always have an absolute getaway strategy. At times, we like to be alone in our thoughts like the traveler in the picture at the top of this post sitting by himself on Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park contemplating the view and the world we live in.
At other times, we travel in groups, with people — lots of people — just to see some of the world’s famous places. And to find we have more commonalities than differences.
Once you get away from where you’re from, you look at it in a different way.
Deana Carter
The reasons for getting away are as varied as the destinations.
One year, we timed a trip to Provence just as lavender plants began showing their colors.
On another getaway, we floated past homes along the famed Mekong River in Cambodia.
A getaway to Morocco took us to the tanneries in Fes to watch (and smell) the tedious, yet centuries-old, process of dying leather.
We’ve tried picking a favorite, all-time, most memorable getaway, but it’s nearly impossible. Perhaps it was the morning we hiked up (alone) to Monhegan Lighthouse in Maine to greet the sun bathing white clapboard buildings with light.
Or maybe it was the time we chartered a plane to catch a glimpse of Mt. Everest, flew closely to the snow-covered peaks, and gripped each other’s hands as we took our turn standing beside the pilot.
But it wouldn’t be a proper post of ours if we didn’t mention our once-a-year destination for the past 42 years, our go-to getaway that has recharged us every year: Pawleys Island, South Carolina.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile. And then come back to it and begin over.
Robert Frost, “Birches”
It may seem that we only yearn to see faraway places. But that’s simply not true. Our all-time best getaway is at home — on our humble, but well-used, screened-in porch!
So, whether you head to a favorite place each year, or you like to travel to destinations far and wide, show us what “getting away” means to you. We look forward to reading about — and seeing — your favorite spots.
Thanks again to Patti, Amy, Tina, and Ann-Christine for inviting us to be guest hosts this week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #157: Getting Away. If you join us, include a link to this post and use the Lens-Artists “tag.”
We invite you to join us next week when Beth Smith of Wandering Dawgs leads Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #158. Her theme is “Along Back Country Roads.”
Travel wherever your heart takes you,
Rusha & Bert