Fortunately for me, I haven’t had to worry about this yet. Nicole and I take numerous trips throughout the year for both business and pleasure, and if a woodworking-related opportunity is in the area, I never have an issue working it in. I imagine that might all change now that we have a little one. I suppose you have to be a little more careful how you shoehorn this stuff in. May I suggest one of the best possible win/win scenarios? Take a class at the William Ng School. You can spend the week with the family at Disneyland and then on the weekend, you can take one of William’s excellent two-day classes! Of course other woodworking schools may be near stuff that would interest your family, but Disneyland is pretty hard to beat, although I’m more of a Disney World kinda guys myself.
This poll was created by Tom Iovino at TomsWorkbench.com.
A couple of years ago (after several years of planning ;^O ) I ‘suggested’ that our family take our vacation to New Hampshire so I could attend The Windsor Institute’s chair (sackback) class. There is a beach but we are usually South Carolina or Florida beach people and I wasn’t sure how it would be received. They were all in- I did feel a tad guilty for spending days away but they soldiered on and explored the area when not at the beach. I still wasn’t sure if they really enjoyed it or were just saying they did- to get the unfiltered voice of truth, after a couple of months I asked my 4 year old son where he wanted to go on vacation the next time and he gleefully said “New Hampster!”
I think a Continous Arm class is in my future!
Sorry, didn’ see the “I do, she doesn’t” check box…
What’s this vacation thing you speak of?
I’m considering moving to Canada, mainly to be in the vicinity of a Lee Valley store. And I don’t even have any hand planes or a proper workbench yet.
Just got back from a nine day vacation in Costa Rica. There are so many giftshops with so much cocobolo!!! We stayed in Manuel Antonio. So on the way back to San Jose there was a spot called Woodshop and souvenirs. We ended up stopping for a couple hours. These people are amazing. Bought a couple masks carved by the Boruca indians. Bought some tree frogs carved in cocobolo. Check out the house we stayed: http://www.vivalasvillas.com/casanovaestate.html
or #6 I have no Family
On a trip to LA for a wedding…we rearranged our schedule so we could see the Sam Maloof house on a day they were open. While in San Diego, we dropped into the Minkei international museum to see some Nakashima originals (it was only $8!)
Since my family vacations are nowhere near my shop, I never plan for woodworking. However, since all my family vacations take me to Arizona, I’m biding my time until the first public tour of the WoodWhisperer WoodWorking WorkShop (my that’s a lot of W’s).
A friend of mine invited me and my family up to stay with him in Maine when he was on vacation there a couple weeks ago. I’ve been up there before and there is a good amount to do… lots of outdoor stuff…hiking, canoeing, etc. and the typical touristy stuff. And like Marc, we now have our first little one to take into consideration (but at 7 months she’s just happy hanging out).
Once I started looking at the map, the names of nearby towns starting looking familiar. Long story short, we all took a visit to Center of Furniture Craftsmanship. It was a very interesting place and the people there were very friendly. We got to walk through the Messler Gallery and look at several pieces there by local woodworkers and instructors. They didn’t mind us walking around the school and peaking in the workshops, even though they had classes going on (by that time it was lunch break and I didn’t feel like we were intruding). My friend (not a woodworker per say) and I enjoyed looking at the shops/classrooms and my wife enjoyed looking in the Messler Gallery.
I live in Charleston, SC, which is not a great place to buy woodworking tools. I purposely plan or agree to travel to places where I am able to buy tools. I’ve recently found antique markets to be a great place to visit to find used hand planes and of course my wife very much enjoys the fact that I am not willing to enter an antique market.
We’re going to Atlanta this fall and I’ve already mapped the route from the aquarium to Highland woodworking. Just to go in and look around.
I’ve always thought someone should offer a woodworking class along with activities for the non-woodworker.
My wife loves scrapbooking and I could probably get her to go along with that.
better plan on a couple of hours at least , was in atlanta a couple months back for a training session went by and 2 hours flew by and not sure i saw it all. great selection freindly helpful staff . you will enjoy.
Vacation is when I do a lot of planning in my head. I daydream about the next project and visualize how I’ll carry it out.
I think you need an option for, “I never really considered it, but perhaps I will in the future”
Woodworking is typically “me time”, while vacations are usually “family time”, so it could be tough to get significant chunks of time approved by the boss lady (>couple of hours). Swinging through Rockler would be an easy sell, taking a class, not so much. Though I live about an hour from a Rockler store, so even that may be a tougher sell during a vacation.