DR. WALLACE: My girlfriend and I are both college students, and we have five days off about a week from now. We briefly debated where we would like to go, but neither of us came up with anything definitive or particularly compelling. The subject came up again last night, and she simply looked at me and told me to come up with a location where we could drive through some "lavish scenery"!

I started to interject and to get her involved in the decision, but she told me that I was the better travel planner, had a better sense of direction and had in fact come up with a few nice custom vacation ideas in past years.

So the pressure is definitely on me now. What do you think she meant by "lavish scenery"? And I should also add that we each have a lot of frequent flyer miles, so we could literally fly anywhere, rent a car and start driving. — In Search of a Lavish Scenery Road Trip, via email

IN SEARCH OF A LAVISH SCENERY ROAD TRIP: You still might have time to do some research to see where there still may be fall leaves changing their colors in beautiful and brilliant ways at various places around America. The leaves have already turned in some locations, but there are others that are soon to be in their full regalia.

Taking a leisurely scenic drive this time of year through those areas is indeed one of life's treats, and I trust such a drive will be quite successful for your purpose. There are many interesting vacation places to drive in the spring and summer, but at this time of the year, my advice is to head for the colorful leaves!

Take note that in higher mountain elevations, the temperatures cool faster, and this causes leaves to change several weeks before they do in the surrounding valleys. Therefore, depending on where you're planning to go, there may be variance if there are differences in an elevation within driving distance of each other.

Definitely call ahead to any hotel you're planning to stay at, and ask them specifically how far along they are in terms of the seasonal colorful leaves. If you can put together such a trip, I trust your girlfriend will definitely confirm that you delivered lavish scenery!

HE DOES'T KNOW WHY I WEAR THAT TYPE OF BATHING SUIT

DR. WALLACE: I'm 21 and my boyfriend is 22, and we've been dating now for almost two months. I'd say this relationship has gotten off to a better start than any of my previous ones. I know it's still early, but I'm quite hopeful that things will continue to go well for the two of us. His personality is exactly what works for me: He's well grounded, friendly and easygoing, yet he's not afraid to show a mild bit of a sense of humor here and there.

And it just so happens that one of the recent times he chose to use his sense of humor was when I was showing him some photographs of me hanging out with some of my other girlfriends early this summer before the two of us met. As he was going through the photographs and looking at them, he complimented me on how nice I looked in the photos, but he couldn't resist teasing me for being the only girl in a one-piece bathing suit. He even asked me if it was a hand-me-down from my grandmother!

I did laugh in the moment, but as I did so, I winced inside. I wear a one-piece bathing suit almost all the time in the summer because I have an unsightly scar just above my left hip due to an accident I had as a young girl. It has healed, and I'm not in danger of any further complications, but the surgery back then was a bit messy, and it's definitely not an aesthetic part of my body, so I keep it covered up.

The next day, I found myself wondering whether I should just continue to say nothing or instead use this as an opportunity to tell him why I was wearing the one-piece bathing suit and even be brave enough to show him my scar since I haven't revealed it to him yet. Do you think it's too early in my relationship to show him the scar? I certainly don't want to scare him off before we get to know each other even better. — I'm Experienced Hiding My Scar, via email

I'M EXPERIENCED HIDING MY SCAR: As human beings, we all have flaws here and there on and in our bodies. Some were just natural at birth, while others are due to wear and tear, accidents like yours and other things that have happened to us over the years. Therefore, I feel it's not a big deal to reveal your scar to him at this point, especially since the two of you are getting along so well together.

You could preface your reveal by bringing up his comment about your one-piece bathing suit, and you could show him the reason why you wear that particular suit. Put it this way, I feel quite confident he will be extremely understanding and supportive, and if on the quite remote chance that he isn't, wouldn't it be better to know this now rather than much later?

Having said that, I think it will provide you peace of mind to get this particular issue behind you within your relationship, especially since it indirectly came up organically and you had to internally wince and felt the need to remain silent yet again. If you're up for it, move ahead with your plan to do the reveal in a confident way internally yet in a nonchalant way in front of him, and I trust everything will work out just fine.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Aaron Burden at Unsplash