I was thinking of the Summer vacations I had as a kid growing up and came up with a few that really stood out.
Despite, as a Southern Californian, I had easy access to the beach and ocean, the vacations I really remember were the few that my family spent in the High Sierras. My folks loved the trout fishing, but for me it was the wonder of the massive mountains, the beautiful streams and of course the beautiful air and the smell of the pines and sage.
It was always an adventure just getting to and up this mountain range. Some early memories are of all the big trucks (for their day) stopped, in long lines with the colored orange and red top and edge lights glowing, along the Grapevine going down in to the San Joaquin Valley waiting for their brakes to cool down so they could safely continue their descent down the twisting incline from the pass to the valley's floor. These early vacations were always taken in our family 1940 Packard 120 Touring Sedan, and while she was a great car whose stamina and endurance was well tested on three transcontinental crossings on pre and post W.W. II U.S. highways, she always needed to stop to cool down and have her radiator replenished on the steep winding roads that took you into the High Sierras! I still have pictures of my Dad and I front of the old Packard waiting for it to cool down enough to add some water. Tis kind of delay was common in those days as was a water bag hung off the front of the car, whose evaporation cooled water was kept ready for the car and her passengers.
I didn't have much patience for trout fishing in those days, so while my parents were trying their luck I would explore the areas many sights, smells and totally different environment from where I lived in Pasadena. To this day, having had many vacations since, these childhood vacations still stand out as the best of my life!
The best vacation I went on as a child was our month long road trip all up thru Canada, over to Alaska, back down into California, over to Vegas for a week, then home. My parents bought a brand new chevy half ton conversion van just for the trip. They had a tv, VCR, and nentendo (this was 1991) installed in the van for my sister nd I to stay occupied. Was an amazing vacation. Even as a kid I learned a lot. Then the week we got back, they traded the van for a brand new 92 Miata. Lol. Was good times. We went on vacations every year after that, but only for a week or two. Now that I've got a life of my own with my fiancé, all our vacations are pretty much about taking cruises. She hates road trips. Lol
Thank goodness I grew up before mobile entertainment. I love road trips more than anything and love traveling the country. With my mother being from California and my father in MA, and me growing up in MA, I had been cross country in a car about 5 times before I even had my license. And have been at least as many since, along with trips to Florida many times and many places in the Midwest.
The road is all that I ever needed to keep me entertained. And if I ever am married with kids, they'll grow up the same way. Enough time for games and TV when at home...
I think, though, my favorite trip was when I was 9. I flew out to California with my family. After 2 weeks, they flew home and I stayed with my grandparents. They had a Winnebago truck based motorhome. It rode on a GMC chassis and had a cab over the driver's compartment.
We went from Oakland, CA to the MI UP. Along the way, I got to see Mt Rushmore, the Badlands, Wall Drug, Yellowstone. I got to fly fish in Idaho. I helped on a farm in Minnesota. And on a farm in MI. We took over about 2 weeks to get out there and stayed out in MI and MN for at least another 2 weeks. Then drove back to Oakland. At the end of the summer, I flew back home...by myself. On TWA. And I got my junior flyer pin.
But that Winnebago was just so cool. If I ever got an RV, it MUST be a cabover type with a window! Nothing like floating down the highway with the top vent and side windows open with my nose almost pressed up against that forward facing glass...
^^^ I think it is a shame that so many parents are more interested with electronic entertainment of kids when they travel by car, than in engaging the kids in what they see out the window. I know that kids, today, are capable of much more than playing with some interactive game or watching some more brain pablum from Hollywood, but I fear the parents aren't imaginative enough to engage with the kids and help them enjoy the real wonders that road trips can bring. My wife and I were talking the other day, and we both agreed that the best times we spent growing up was not on trips to the movie theater or trips to Disneyland, but the vacations we really remembered were the trips to a lake in New Hampshire, or a week at Cape May learning about the ocean and seashells. I remember a week that I spent with my best friend and his grandmother at the beach. She had rented a house that was situated on a cliff overlooking the Pacific at Laguna Beach. It was a long walk down what seemed endless stairways to get to the cove below, where we could search the tide pools and test ourselves against the breaking waves. Even today I can still smell the scent of the salt air and the kelp that had washed up on shore. After a few hours of investigation and fun at the waters edge we would climb the stairs again, take a shower and wait for dinner ..... and especially the sight of the sun setting quickly in the sea to the west. Cartoons and computer games don't leave you with the gift of lifelong memories of the scents, sounds and sights that a vacation in the real world make forever yours!
My son takes his family to Disney World at least once each year, it never seems to vary. I know with all the services that a resort like this provides it makes it easier for the parents, but I fear for my grand children's development of a love of what is new and different and a zest for a variety that makes life even more exciting! I have told my son of these concerns, but his wife just wants to continue repeating the same old experiences year after year ..... sad really!
I think, though, my favorite trip was when I was 9. I flew out to California with my family. After 2 weeks, they flew home and I stayed with my grandparents. They had a Winnebago truck based motorhome. It rode on a GMC chassis and had a cab over the driver's compartment.
We went from Oakland, CA to the MI UP. Along the way, I got to see Mt Rushmore, the Badlands, Wall Drug, Yellowstone. I got to fly fish in Idaho. I helped on a farm in Minnesota. And on a farm in MI. We took over about 2 weeks to get out there and stayed out in MI and MN for at least another 2 weeks. Then drove back to Oakland. At the end of the summer, I flew back home...by myself. On TWA. And I got my junior flyer pin.
But that Winnebago was just so cool. If I ever got an RV, it MUST be a cabover type with a window! Nothing like floating down the highway with the top vent and side windows open with my nose almost pressed up against that forward facing glass...
Summer, 1953. All summer - 10 weeks. New Providence, Bahamas. A maternal relative's winter home. Nothing to do but fish, catch langouste', play with an aluminum boat and sit on the beach at night with a bunch of local English and Bahamian kids, eat raw conch salad. Bike into Nassau to the Ironmongery for chalk line, sheet lead and loose fish hooks for making hand lines. Cherry bombs were dirt cheap (and they go off underwater). The El-Bo Room had excellent ice cream cones.
Long summer weekends camping with Mom and Dad + 2 sisters, on a company-owned dairy farm in Centreville, VA just above Bull Run. .22 rifle, creek, run the big John Deere tractor, scream around in the hayloft, be lazy.
I was raised on a Cotton Mill Village. My folks got only 1 (one) week off a year.
I went and stayed with my aunt and uncle for a few days the week of the fourth.
He was a part time farmer and worked in a mill also.
I didn't know what a road trip or a vacation was till I went in the service.
I spent the morning at HB for the Jr. Guards pancake breakfast, good time.
I loved the long drive through the desert from So. Cal. to one of the furthest points of Lake Powell from us, Bullfrog Marina. Then spending a week on a houseboat, no TV, no AC, a ski boat, BB guns and some friends.
The summer camping in the Swiss Alps with my Boy Scout troop. I would have been 11 or 12. My dad was stationed in Germany, so it was only a bus ride to the Scout camp. This was in the 60's, no cell phones, video games etc., we worked on our merit badge skills.
Fly-in fishing trips all over Alaska in my Cessna 180 floatplane.
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