Vacations At A Glance

Until 2003 we went on a vacation every single year.  Even if our vacation was just a five-day jaunt to a semi-local campground, we went.  And we had fun.  In fact, I don't remember a vacation that wasn't fun--it's just like that when you have a lot of kids of different ages.

When there were just two of them (the oldest two were two and four at the time), our daughter wanted to tie the baby to a tree so we'd quit having to chase him in a panic.  When she was a little older we told her the legend of the Woolly Swamp (and old Lucius Clay) while canoeing in a cedar swamp.  I don't know that she's ever revisited canoeing.  In 1998, we went to the Delaware River because that's where the three-year-old wanted to go.  Don't ask me who ever told her about the Delaware River.  We went to Niagara in late August of 2001.  (Note the date.)  What a blast!  Canada, the Maid of the Mist, Darien Lake Theme Park.  On the way home, this is is what my husband said:  "Do you want to head straight down I-81 or go east across New York and show the kids the NYC skyline?"  This is what I said:  "Oh, let's just go home.  We can show them the skyline ANY TIME."  Ouch.  In 2002, we rented somebody's camp on a lake in Down East, Maine (that's what the locals call it; we stayed on Cathance Lake near Machias).  Do you realize they have spiders in them thar parts that make noise?  I was awakened in the night by a ginormous spider scratching its feet on the lampshade next to my bed.  Thank heavens it was the lamp SHADE and not the knob I reached for to light the room.  The lobsters there are ginormous, too, so that more than makes up for the spider problem.

In 2003, our vacation was spent sprucing up the farm we bought as a second home.  In 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 we did the same thing.  By 2008, we lived on that farm and had too many animals to leave for any length of time.  So, we have not gone anywhere (far away) as a family for many years.  But, we have managed stolen weekends for camping and taken day trips to local attractions.  It is almost as if we have been prepared for a crippled economy.  I'm not sure the kids really care if we go anywhere BIG and FAR AWAY.  I know they'd like to visit cool places but their focus seems to be that we do things together.  So when we go, we do our best to leave home behind where it belongs, and focus on enjoying each other's company.  In a few weeks, we plan on pitching a tent in our very own pine thicket.  I can't wait!  We just have to all make a deal not to bring cell phones and not to go home.