Family Vacations

[low-key]

did you go on them when you were a kid ?

we went on one every year, I know time rewrites every line, but they bring back some of my favorite memories

 

[SookieStackhouse]

Yes, I have fond memories. Florida was my favorite!

 

[low-key]

Yes, I have fond memories. Florida was my favorite!

California was mine but loved all of them

 

[Feralpeg]

Not really. We would go to my grandparents for a weekend or a holiday. We went to Chicago once and New Orleans once because my dad had to go there for business. He would work half a day and we would do something in the afternoon. Both trips were like long weekend trips.

My dad didn't really believe in vacations. He was a work-a-holic. In addition to week days, he worked every Saturday morning and some Sunday mornings.

I didn't go on my first real vacation until I was 30. I went to Hawaii with my sister. My first trip to Florida was at the age of 35.

 

[low-key]

My first trip to Florida was at the age of 35.

really, did you think after that vacation "Im moving there someday"

 

[Buckalew11]

we used to do road trips from NJ to FL (Miami) and NC (Statesville because that's where my dad's people are from).

In FL we'd go to Monkey Jungle, Cypress Gardens, Lion Country Safari, MK, the beaches and Miami. I loved FL as a kid. This was way back from'65 to '75.

From NJ to NC, we'd stop at all kinds of places. Lots of historic places.

I loved family trips.

After we moved to TN in '75, we went to the beaches of NC and SC. Great memories.

Some bad memories of long trips sitting between 2 older sisters with no air conditioning. lol The little one always gets the middle hump.

 

[low-key]

Some bad memories of long trips sitting between 2 older sisters with no air conditioning. lol The little one always gets the middle hump.

we traveled by car way out to California, and the a/c broke in the Mojave Desert

 

[IDoDis]

We used to do road trips, but not until we were each around 8,9 and 10 years old. My dad passed away when me, my brother and my sister were all ages 2 and under, so I can't blame my mom for waiting until we were older. Before that though, we always went camping (in tents). Those are some of my favorite memories.
My least favorite was a trip to Florida (no AC in the car) a few months after Disney World opened. Loved Disney, but I almost lost my life on that trip by nearly drowning in the ocean. Luckily I was rescued.

 

[Feralpeg]

really, did you think after that vacation "Im moving there someday"

Not that trip. It wasn't until I started taking trips to Florida with my daughter that I knew it was the place where I wanted to retire.

 

[december]

Nope. We camped in a big green tent at a local (20 min from home) campground when I was really small, and went to the gulf coast for two nights when I was around 7. Then we got a dog, and my mother got a good excuse to stay home. She hates traveling, and so does my husband. We went to Gatlinburg for 2 nights for our honeymoon 23 years ago. And that was it.

In 2006 at the age of 33 I decided to just start taking my kids on trips with or without him. My MIL had taken my kids to DC and to TN, and I was determined that all their vacation memories wouldn't be without me. I told him I was going to WDW, and he could go or stay. He stayed. My MIL went with me on that trip, I took the older kids by myself to WDW in 2007, went with dh's whole family (but not dh) to CA/Vegas in 2008, had a new baby in 2009 so no vacation, and went to WDW twice in 2010. We are going again this summer, without dh of course.

 

[KimR]

We went to Florida when I was 10, and the rest of the time we went camping. Thurs - Mon every week in the summer. Camping. In tents. No electricity, no plumbing. I HATED it. I think I was the only kid who actually looked forward to school starting and I hated school - I just despised camping more.

 

[Jennasis]

We went to WDW every year for as long as I can remember. My dad always had a convention in Florida every year for being the top salesman at his company, so we'd make a family vacation of it.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Nope. The only "vacation" we took was to visit the grandparents. Then when I was 16, through my mom's job we were able to go to Ireland for 2 weeks - our first "real" vacation and it was awesome! When I was 18 I got to take a sort of "working vacation" to Europe for 6 weeks as part of a travelling choir. Then my first trip to WDW was on our honeymoon. After that trip, DH decided he wanted to work there someday, and 4 years later he did.

 

[southern_redhead]

Yes, my family was far from "close knit" but my dad believed in the family vacation. It is one thing I can say I admire about him, he *wanted* a good life for us. Had it been up to my mother, I might have never left the state. She hates to travel. We went to Florida and Wisonsin (to see his family), for the most part. One of the Florida trips we did Disney (for an afternoon LOL) We also did a trip to Williamsburg one year. My mom got together with a friend and her kids (my friends), and we all went to the beach twice. Another time my mom and grandmother took me and one of my friends to Gatlinburg.

My husband grew up without vacations (and plenty of other things.) I had to force him on his first (but mine and the kids THIRD) family vacation a few years ago. Now, he loves them as much as I do. He really had no concept of "vacation" before that, though. He had always seen that week of work each year as the time when mom and dad lay around in front of the TV.

I've/We've taken our kids to beaches in Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama. We've taken family trips to Chicago, St Louis, Lake Michigan/Wisconsin, Little Rock, Cincinnati, and Atlanta - to be fair, many of these were places DH was working and I would drive the kids out over a school break...on his time off we would do the local things like museums and attractions. This year is our first trip to WDW, I can't wait

 

[marie1203]

I missed the days were I didn't have to pay for vacations . We moved a lot because of my mom's job and we lived for a while in this particular country that seriously had a holiday almost every month it was crazy. We used to go to the beach (3 hours away) on short holidays. We went out of the country at least once a year. Great memories some of the best of my childhood.

 

[torinsmom]

We went every year. The beach was a given(at least once each summer) My dad was an insurance salesman and would always sell enough to win a vacation somewhere. We went to Disney World, Miami Beach, New Orleans(World fair), and Stone Mountain, etc. Those are some great memories. I guess that is why I always do at least one vacation each year.

 

[indimom]

A few. About every 2-3 years. We visited the MK twice (along with Weeki Wachi and another park BG?). Colorado. DC. Blue Ridge Parkway. And a road trip to see Pikes Peak, the Mile High Bridge, Cliff Dwellings, Grand Canyon.
No beach trips because mom couldn't swim and there were four kids to supervise.

My hubby and I seem to have followed that pattern. A trip about every two years. Some just to visit family or camping, others more "vacation like."

 

[Pig Pen]

UGH, yes...but they were a lot like National Lampoon vacations. I was the oldest of 5 kids and we would all cram into the car (no car seats nor seatbelts back then) and swelter for days. We had zero money so we either tent camped, or stayed at the cheapest motel we could find and EVERYONE stayed in one room...3 little kids in one bed, mom and dad in one bed, and me and my sister on a cot. We had to pack a cooler and make our own sandwiches. No drive thru for us.

We rarely vacationed at a "destination" but would visit relatives and we were farmed out to different houses for the duration. My cousins were all either nerds or outlaws so I got an education either way.

Probably my favorite vacation was the one time we rented a lakeside cottage. I remember we cooked a lot on the grill and I cut my foot on glass in the lake. I also remember watching my first horror movie (there was actually electricity and a tv!).

I also remember a tenting vacation to Maine that wasn't too traumatic...except for getting in trouble for pulverizing crackers into the backseat upholstery. Hello? There are five of us back here choking down a package of dry crackers! Mishaps will happen!

 

[Pikester]

Growing up we (Mom, Dad, me and little sister) didn't have a lot of money so any vacation was done on the cheap. I remember going to Salisbury, MA and camping by the ocean. Parents had a big black van with no seat in the back so the four of us just slept in the back (long before the days of seatbelts.Heck the van only had a drivers and passenger seat). We were there with some other family memebers who had a camper. I think we were just in the parking lot. Went to Maine and stayed in the cottage of one of my Mom's friends. Also shared a room with two other families at a hotel in York Beach, Maine one year. Did a day trip once a year to Canobie Lake Park in Salem, NH. Good times.....good times.

 

[MIGrandma]

Yes, every other summer we drove from Michigan to Texas to visit my Dad's family for a couple of weeks. Lots of wonderful memories from those trips.