I entered a sweeps to win a trip to Maui today. Maui makes me think of two people, someone I know and someone I don’t. The person I know is one Ms. Shoes, the inspiration for my New Year’s resolution to try and win a trip and, by extension, the chain reaction that led to my first blog and now this, my second. Ms. Shoes’ top-security position makes it imprudent for me to reveal even her first name to all 15 readers of Travel Sweeps. Suffice it to say I call her Ms. Shoes because she’s got a closet full of natty footwear. She’s proof positive that women in Washington have great shoe style. Shoe intrigue, too. Once she had a shoe crisis (broken heel, Manolos I think, not pretty) in the middle of some very, very important goings-on, meetings-behind-closed-doors where a woman limping around in one good shoe and one bad might prove distracting enough to threaten national security.
Here’s the back story: In the summer of 2005, Ms. Shoes won a trip. To Maui. Through some public television pledge drive. Ms. Shoes has not, as far as I know, taken said trip. Last we spoke, she was going to ask for an extension. I was so inspired by this win of hers, I embarked on a luck lark to try to win a trip. Thus this travel sweepstress was born.
The other person Maui makes me think of is the writer Caitlin Flanagan. A year or so ago, she published an article in The New Yorker about a vacation she took with her family (she has young twin sons) at a resort on Maui, the Mailea. Reading Flanagan’s articles usually makes me want to do one of two things. 1.) Slap her up the side of the head. (Not literally, of course.) 2.) Sigh, and confess to myself that despite everything (her hypocrisy, her way with words, her hair) I wished I’d written one like that one. Her article on Maui was one like one I’d like to have written. It was about one of my top travel bugaboos: People staying at resorts and never leaving or almost never leaving them. This kind of travel is the antithesis of my kind of travel, especially leisure travel. Even business conferences attempt to get folks out and about off property. The arc in Flanagan's piece has a hotel staffer telling them at checkin to be sure they get to the beach. But they don't. Her article reads like a critique. But she ends by saying they'll be back. Once again this woman leaves me scratching my head.
This one is for airfare and six nights at an undisclosed hotel in Maui. I hope Ms. Shoes plays.
To enter, click HERE.