Childhood Vacations

Someone asked me recently what my favorite vacation as a child was. I didn't really know how to answer that question. You see, for most families, vacation is something that happens once or twice a year, an event planned months in advance that includes travel to places unknown. Not for my family, though. It was not uncommon for my dad to decide on Thursday evening that we were going to North Carolina for the weekend. It didn't even have to be a 3 days weekend. And we lived in South Georgia...it's not like North Carolina was just a hop, skip, and a jump away. We would leave on Friday afternoon, drive as far as we could, spend the night, wake up early and drive the rest of the way, spend Saturday and Sunday going to all of our favorite places and finding new ones, and leaving Sunday afternoon for a long ride home. These trips were great fun, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

We rarely took special vacations, and if we did, they usually coincided in some way with a conference my dad had to attend for work. One of the things that amazes me about working with college students is that every now and then I'll come across a student who has never stayed in a hotel before. This always catches me by surprise. I mean, by the time I was 10, I had stayed in my fair share. They weren't always the best, rarely 5 star. I do remember this one time getting to stay at the Ritz Carlton at Amelia Island because of a meeting my dad was attending (one of our family vacation, ahem). I remember it because they put dark chocolates on the pillow, and I found the housekeeping cart and raided a few extra chocolates. I also remember coming back to our room one day and finding a fruit basket. My dad wouldn't let us touch it. Some insurance company that was trying to woo him for his business had sent it. My dad had no intention of using them, so he didn't think it was ethical of us to enjoy the fruit. That was so not fair! Most of my hotel stays were places like the Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn. As long as they had a pool, I was good to go. And a TV in the room...we weren't allowed to have such at home, so hotels were great for that reason alone. My friend Teresa's little boy is so excited this week because they are going on vacation to Charlotte. Now, Charlotte is only about 45 minutes away, but it makes it vacation because they are staying in a hotel. Just think if parents realized this about kids. They could save lots of money on vacations by just going to the next town over and staying in a hotel. Their kids would never know the difference!

Now, before the hotel stays, in days where my parents were either poor or cheap (a little of both I think) there was camping. Knowing what I know about my mom now, it is hard for me to believe she ever did this willingly, but she did. I wish I remembered more about this days, but honestly, I only have bits and pieces. I was so young. What I do remember is that those are some of the best times of my childhood. Speaking of saving money...but I don't know that it would be such an easy sell for today's youth. There's no technology (at least in the type of camping I'm talking about), you go to bed early, wake up early. The fun is in learning to set up the tent, hear ghost stories from your dad, laughing when your parent's air mattress deflates in the middle of the night, trying to find the bathhouse in the dark, cooking outside, playing games as a family, and really just talking to one another. Wow, I think I want to go camping now!

I was talking with a friend today about cars today and all of the technology perks people look for. Don't DVD players and TVs keep kids and parents from talking to one another, just on trips from school to home, not to mention on long drives like vacations. Part of the fun on those long drives were all the games you played to keep yourself entertained, like the Find the Alphabet on the street signs game, I-Spy, or Cows (apparently this was a Day family thing that only works when traveling in rural areas with lots of cow pastures and cemeteries!). Catching up on my reading was also a great car ride activity. And listening to music together as a family. What fun is it if everyone can hear their own thing? My childhood would not have been the same without Psalty the singing songbook tapes. I still know most of the words to those songs! And when we had listened to all of our tapes multiple times, we resorted to singing together, you know the silly songs, the nursery rhymes. How sad is it that we will have a generation of young adults who will never know these simple pleasures in life.

So what was my favorite vacation as a child? Well, I can list a few.

1. Trips to Hendersonville/Asheville: I'm lumping all of these many trips together. One of the best parts was staying at the Holiday Inn with the indoor pool. It's not even a Holiday Inn now, and it looks pretty shabby on the outside, but as a child, it was heaven on earth! The also had an indoor hot tub. And it was right next to the World of Clothing. A trip to Hendersonville was not complete without a visit there, but I'm talking old school World of Clothing, not the current version. Oh, and shopping right across the street at the Picture Me outlet. So much fun to get new clothes every year! And eating at Jimmy's! I so wish that Italian restaurant was still in business. It was only the best place ever! I remember one specific trip where we went to the Biltmore House. We were going on a Sunday afternoon, after church (you see my family still went to church, even when we were out of town), and I didn't want to go in my Sunday dress. I cried and cried. I'm sure I was quite annoying to my family, and I've apologized profusely to my mom and dad now that I'm an adult. We also ate at the Deer Park Restaurant inside of Biltmore. Because I had such a sour attitude that day, I pouted that I would find nothing to eat. My mom promised me there would be a hamburger on the menu, but she was wrong. Truly, the only thing I would eat (or could pronounce) from the menu was Broccoli and Cheese soup. I think about that experience every time I see Broccoli and Cheese soup to this day! Every now and then we'd stay at some different place, a cottage or B&B. Those were fun times, too. Favorite trips often revolved around the Apple Festival in September and a visit to the Sky Top Apple Orchard. I still love going there, and lucky for me, it's only 45 minutes away!

2. Nantahala Village: Now I know this seems awfully close to Hendersonville and Asheville, but this was one of those rare planned vacations. We spent several days there. We stayed in a stone cabin, went horseback riding and my sister's horse almost went off the mountain. We went gem mining! It was a great vacation, and one I've never forgotten.

3. Illinois: When I was around 13, my mom got a call one Sunday morning from a lady who told her she was her sister. She also told her she had a total of 8 other siblings. This was news to my mom, and we planned a trip that summer to meet these new family members. Their family home was in rural Illinois, so everyone gathered there for a weekend. I got to meet my biological grandfather for the first time and found out I had lots of new aunts, uncles, and cousins. I remember catching fireflies in jars, eating watermelon, playing until it got dark and we were forced to come inside, hearing their family stories, and marveling at how much my mom looked like her new found sisters. It was a great trip and introduced me to a whole new side of my life.

4. Oklahoma: I turned 7 in Oklahoma. My dad had to go to a meeting in Texas, so my mom and her friend, Ms. Sue, drove us out to Oklahoma where my grandparents were living at the time. I remember seeing a guy driving in circles on the road on the way and learning that Ms. Sue was deathly afraid of driving/riding over bridges! We had so much fun there. One of the best memories is when my cousin Michael, who was either in his late teens or early 20s at the time was given the task of babysitting us kids while our parents and grandparents went for a walk. Michael decided to take us to the park down the street. It had been raining that week, so around the merry go round a the park was a big moat of water. I got on and Michael started running around, making us spin. I fell off into the water. He was so scared that my mom was going to be mad that he made us rush home and try to give me a bath before they made it back. But as we came up the road towards the house from one direction, my mom and everyone was coming up from the other direction. He was so funny about that, and the funny thing was, my mom didn't seem to care!

5. The House Boat ride: My parents decided that we would rent a house boat and spend a few days floating down the Suwanee River. I guess they were trying to help us feel like Stephen Foster! What made this so exciting was the fact that we got stuck in the middle of the river one afternoon on a sand bar. We had to spend the night there. I still have this clear image in my head of my dad getting up really early that morning to dig us out with a broom handle!

6. Bardstown, Kentucky: This was a place we went several years in a row and one of the places we would camp at. We always went to see the outdoor musical drama of the Stephen Foster story. We went back just a few years ago. It was as spectacular as I remember as a child! The ladies in their pretty dresses, dancing with umbrellas, singing some of my favorite songs such as Beautiful Dreamer, Old Dog Trey, Old Folks at Home, and more! These trips helped solidify my love for musical theater and my need for my life to be like a musical!

7. Philadelphia: My dad served as the president for a local civic group one year, and he had to attend the national convention of this group. So, that became our family vacation. We rode the train all the way from Georgia to Philadelphia. We did all of the touristy things, stayed in a really nice hotel (paid for by someone else where the hamburgers were more expensive than the ones on the train), ate breakfast at Burger King every morning, and had the best clam chowder ever made at Wanamaker's Department store. I love American history, so this trip was perfect for me. I've been back to Philadelphia several times, but nothing will ever beat that first trip.

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that stand out the most. The crazy thing is, they didn't include trips to big expensive amusement parks and weren't very far away from home. Some of the best trips were when we just got in the car and drove, not really knowing what we were going to do that day. Most of the best trips were our weekend adventures to the North Carolina mountains. I wouldn't trade these days for anything. I wouldn't want cruises or trips to Disney World or weeks at the beach year after year. Part of the fun was the unknown. Most of the fun was simply being together as a family.

So mom and dad, thank you! Thank you for making vacations so fun. They may have been simple. They may have been cheap. You may have gotten sick of watching us at the hotel pool for hours on end and frustrated when we didn't want to do anything but go back to the pool and play, but you did it anyway. You exposed us to new things. You took us places that would teach us to appreciate God's creation. You took us places that would teach us to appreciate history. You took the time to help us appreciate one another. Thank you!

My favorite vacations as a child, and there are many, are my favorite not because of the destination but because of the fun and the time with family. I appreciate my parents for helping me understand that.