For Michelle

Michelle, this, hopefully, is an answer to your prayers and pleas...

The value of family vacation…

Traditions are very important to family and one of the best is annual vacations.  Some families have set vacations they take every year; to a lake house or resort or camping at a favorite spot.  However, the venue really doesn’t matter what really matters is the time spent and memories created. 

Being the youngest of five children and having a significant time between me and my next older brother, I really didn’t have the opportunity to participate in family vacations with my siblings.  However, there are a couple that I took with my father and mother that are quite memorable.  Both of them in fact occurred after high school graduation and before starting college.

The first was actually my graduation trip.  Yea, I know, graduation trip with my parents!  Well, I was not into the go out and get crazy thing and a trip to Texas was not a bad deal in my mind.  I remember staying up all night after graduation and hitting my farm work around 06:00 so we could get everything done before our planned 18:00 departure.  Oh, that was a long day and I was tired.  I remember telling my father that I wanted to start the drive.  Fortunately, he declined my offer and I curled up I the back seat.  I think we were well into New Mexico before I ever opened my eyes.

This trip is memorable to me because it was one of very few that I took with my parents that as not a business trip for my father.  It was really a vacation.  My father traveled a great deal and as I was the only child at home I would often accompany he and mother on his trips.  While those were “fun” at times, they were business trips and dad was busy.

In San Antonio we visited military bases and museums and had dinner on the famous River Walk of San Antonio.  I found a lovely glass piano and wanted to buy it for my girlfriend.  I decided not to because of the cost but later decided to have it purchased and sent and arrive, well, broken.  Oh…  On the return drive I took over in the early morning hours and coming out of Spanish Fork Canyon I was traveling at a speed that had recently been prohibited by Executive Order.  I got off with a warning because my parents were just waking up in the back seat.  Oh, lucky on that one.

Later in the summer we took another “vacation”.  Well, half business trip and half vacation.  Dad had meetings in Portland, Oregon and then scheduled a salmon fishing trip for us after his meetings ended.  I remember this vacation because spent one on one time with dad.  We left Portland and traveled to the mouth of the Columbia River, stayed in a ramshackle hotel room and got up to board out boat at 3:30 AM.  It was dark and cold. 

Our excursion actually took us out into the ocean where we plied our skills to catch the “big ones”.  Well, our salmon haul did not exceed our limit, we didn’t keep the sharks we caught and while I learned firsthand what the term “fish or cut bait” meant, dad also had a great time feeding the fish (Losing his breakfast).  An important note on the fish is that my last Sunday at home before serving my mission for the LDS Church we ate the “big one”.  I can still see in my mind’s eye it sitting on the table in the dining room. 

Well, as I became a father I continued the tradition of not doing vacations unless there was a business trip attached.  However, there are a few that I think mom and I got right as parents.  Perhaps the best was our off season trip to Disneyworld.  I am not sure if the has any good memories of that trip, or memories at all, but for me the memories bring great satisfaction. 

You see, we have been a one income family and for most of the growing time of our family we had what we needed to make ends meet but not a great deal more.  So, to make this trip happen we delivered newspapers to earn extra money and then we really got creative.  We packed two boxes of homemade bread, granola and other items so we could afford to eat.  We had an apartment with a kitchen so we would go to the parks early, come back for a midday meal and then go back to the parks in the evening.  We swam in cold swimming pools, virtually never waited in line and overall had a great time.

Are there others, yes!  Trips to England and for Marquie trips to Asia, (Yes, I was working on many of them), a fun trek in a motor home to Bryce Canyon where I learned more about cooking with Dutch Ovens and other jaunts, including a husband and wife vacation on the Atlantic Coast.  I guess the more I think about family vacations, the more I realize how important they have been in my life.

Now, as mom and my circumstances have changed, I wonder how we will hold family vacations.  Will they focus mainly on our children and visiting them, will we travel and vacation just the two of us?  I guess we will just have to see how the next chapters of family vacation are written.