I know I say this all the time, but ...

Another vacation is upon us. For the first time in nearly two years since working here, I'm taking an extended vacation. Essentially nine days will pass after I walk out of the office early Saturday morning until I walk back in on the evening of June 1. Not counting the week off we get for Christmas/New Year's, this is my first vacation since Bryan and I went out West to drive around the Rockies.

(And sadly, I've yet to write about that trip, despite a yearning to do so.)

The trip is simple enough: Sunday to Sunday, Maine and Massachusetts. Two familiar states, though we'll be in less-familiar areas. And so, with this combination of the known and the new, I can feel the urges -- to photograph, to ruminate, to carry around and pull out that Moleskin notebook -- pushing to the fore. It's a road trip -- yes, a road trip in tough economic, oil-driven times -- so that will allow for a little over-packing in the form of the laptop, the tripod, etc. Who knows how much I'll actually use it on the road (our first hotel does have WiFi), but at least it will allow me to upload photos daily and not have to worry about conserving memory card space.

I'm stoked to get away, though. The long break will be nice; getting back to Maine will be wonderful. Exploring Bar Harbor and Acadia more closely will be an adventure, seeing my family in Wiscasset will be fun and a couple of nights in Portland -- with trips to Freeport and a Sea Dogs game -- will complete the exploration of Maine's mid-coast. I've wanted to see Portland's Hadlock Field for seven years, ever since Derrick Lankford told me he loved traveling there and heading down to the harbor.

After Maine, we head to Amherst, Massachusetts, for a wedding -- and surely a lot of drinking. But the best part will simply be getting away. I've taken on more responsibilities at work in the past few months, so that even when I'm off, I kind of have to be paying attention to what's going on in baseball. But next week, I'm free to ignore all that.

I can't wait.