Two words spark excitement in children and sheer dread to parents. What are they? … Family Vacation. Your station wagon is packed to the brim and no sooner are you backing out of the driveway comes, “Daddy, when are we going to get there?” or “How much longer?” or “I need to go potty.” Ah, yes, I remember family vacations from bygone years.
I asked “Are we there yet?” every 15 minutes. Our own kids said it constantly when we went on trips. Now their kids are saying the same things. In the midst of planning this year’s family vacation, memories of vacations past come to mind.
In 1958, my parents packed the 1956 Oldsmobile, equipped with a brand new air conditioner, and we hit Route 66 all the way to a new amusement park in California … Disneyland. We travelled three days across hot sands of Death Valley to maneuver in Los Angeles traffic, but we made it. My brother had been noticing a new sports car … a Corvette. We counted each and every Corvette we saw, each trying to be the first one to yell “Corvette”! About 20 hours into the trip Daddy laid down the law … if he heard “Corvette” again we’d pack up and head home. But that’s OK, we were young, creative, innovative … so we began calling those cute sports cars “Big C’s”. That was a memorable trip.
In the 80’s, we went to Family Camp in Colorado with other church members. We climbed, went horseback riding, zip-lined, but the height of each trip was white water rafting down the Arkansas River. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Pee Wee Herman on the radio or on cassette. There was one time one of our friends fell in that icy cold Arkansas River water. We got drenched, ate a lot, and played a lot. Those were memorable trips.
Somewhere in the 80’s we took one trip to Disneyworld. I just knew this was going to be a hit! Unfortunately, Disneyworld didn’t get the message. The top five rides were out of order, it was the busiest time of the year (thus, super long lines), Epcot Center didn’t go over as well as I’d hoped. The biggest “hit” of the trip was the swimming pool at the hotel (for this we could have stayed in Texas). But in the end, this was a memorable trip.
In the 90’s, we went skiing between Christmas and New Year’s. The kids took to snow like an Eskimo. Me? After one venture on the slopes, I wanted to hang on to anything that stood still, so I would stay where it was warm, reading, cooking (just a little) and always making snow ice cream. We laughed, we cried, enjoyed our time. They were each unique and memorable trips.
We have a family vacation coming up this year, this time with all the kids and grandkids. In lieu of presents, this will be our “Christmas.” Thinking back I can’t remember what present I got 10 years ago, but I can tell you everything about our family vacation. And you know what? I’m not dreading this Family Vacation … we’ll be building memories!
P.S. Check back in January for an update.
