FamilyTravel

This week, I’m actually making my post from Salt Lake City, where we’re visiting our daughter, Carla. We chose to drive from Illinois to Utah, as we did last year, instead of flying out. I, myself, would rather fly. So little time is spent on travel which means more time spent at our destination. But on the other hand, so little time is spent on travel, which means there are so many sights left unseen. We also enjoy the “windshield time”, where we talk, listen to books on cd, and enjoy each other’s company with nowhere else to go. Tim has been itching for a road trip, and since he does almost all of the driving, a road trip it is.

We started to travel when our kids were 3, 5, and 7 years old. Our first destination was Camp Elohim, near Troy, Montana—a little jaunt about 1700 miles one way. Each of the kids had their own activity tub that held a variety of things such as coloring books, markers, small games, and toys of their choosing. It was a good size to fit on their lap as a “desk” or to easily slide under their seats. They started out as good travelers even at their young ages.

That trip was the beginning of our annual family vacations. For a while, it seemed that we’d go west one year and then go east the next year. We realized that, as a homeschooling family, it made sense to occasionally travel in the fall when other kids were in school since there were typically fewer crowds to deal with. We started out camping on vacations, and sometimes just sleeping in the van, but then decided that it was much easier to stop at motels. Camping was good if we were going to be set up for a few days, but to get everything set up and torn down for a quick overnight stop was more trouble than it was worth. And we were quite willing to stay at inexpensive motels. Once again, if we couldn’t find a place to stay within our price range, we’d sleep in the van. Or Carla and I would sleep in the van and the others would sleep on a picnic table or on an available large rock.

Through our family vacations, we managed to hit all of the contiguous states except Louisiana. We had plans to stay there and spend one last day on the beach, but the weather was bad so we headed north in Mississippi. We should have driven on into Louisiana and then gone north just so we could say we’d been there. We did take one last vacation with only the girls, and we ended up visiting Louisiana. By this time, Tim and Laura had already been there on a hurricane disaster relief mission trip. As a family, 4 out of 5 of us ended up going to all 48 states. We also went to, or through, 4 Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Ontario,  Quebec, and New Brunswick.

Travel is a part of who we are as a family. We had one minor car accident, a totally flooded tent, and a stern lecture from me to everyone about how the Grand Canyon might not give you a second chance if you fall. We stayed with our Congressman and his family when we visited Washington, DC. We went to Florida more than once, but never went to Disney World or any of the other theme parks. We stayed in a 3-bedroom apartment right by the beach for only $30 a night thanks to Tim’s time in the Air Force.

We took part in a seal rescue, enjoyed a kite-flying festival on a beach, went whale watching, and camped in a spot so windy that I had to cook in the tent (not recommended!). We had a private tour of a nuclear submarine that was docked for maintenance. We learned that the Omaha Zoo is a great place to spend the day when your transmission is being rebuilt. We hauled a miniature horse in the back of our van from Oregon to Illinois with a week spent in Montana on the way. We’ve enjoyed beaches on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Michigan, and numerous smaller lakes and rivers.

Although we would sometimes go to a museum or other man-made point of interest, most of our vacation time was spent enjoying nature. Water, trees and rocks seemed to be what drew us to them. Rocks to climb, rocks to collect. Digging holes in the sand, skipping rocks in the water, playing in the waves even if it’s cold enough that the kids’ lips turn blue. Hiking through forests, playing in creeks, enjoying the beauty and sound of waterfalls. Simple pleasures that are enduring memories.

I could fill pages with memories of so many vacations. I plan to focus on a few of those memories in upcoming writings, but I wanted to give a bit of an introduction on how travel became such a big part of our lives. I thoroughly enjoy our home and I am typically a homebody. However, travel is in our blood and there is so much to see and experience beyond the end of our driveway. The whole world is ours to explore.