Memory Lane Monday - Favorite vacation

I've been sitting here trying to think about my favorite vacation. Not that there are too many to choose from - we really haven't had a 'vacation' as a family yet and those from when I was growing up were also few and hard to remember nowadays. I remember a trip to Houston, two trips to Florida involving lots of sand and sun (not my favorite things at the time!) and a trip to Boston/Cape Cod/Toronto. Then there was the fiasco vacation to New Jersey with my dad and stepmom in 1995 which I'll have to address if there's ever a topic of worst, or most stressful, or 'help, get me out of here!' types of vacation memories. And of course, there was our honeymoon, but I don't really count that as a 'vacation' in the general sense.

For the past 20 years or so, my 'vacations' have involved work-related trips which, with finagling, allows time for sight-seeing or family involvement. We just haven't been able to afford to take a trip on our own yet. Otherwise, I travel to visit friends for a weekend or extended weekend a few times a year, and that's about as close as we get vacation-wise. Someday I'd love to do a cruise, or a Disney trip with my kids.

So after all of that (sorry for all the detail, but you got my thought process as it went along, LOL!), I think I'll have to talk about the trip that I took with my family when I was 11 - to Boston, Cape Cod and Toronto (we also hit Niagara Falls on the way back as well, if I remember correctly). I think I even have a few photos somewhere that I can dig up as well.

I know it was a work-related thing for my dad, but since he was a self-employed manufacturer's representative (salesman), he was pretty free to do whatever he wanted with it. We had a full-sized van so drove there and back and I remember sprawling out on the bed in the back playing board games and stuffed animals with my brother most of the trip. Those were the days, huh - no car seats, seat belts or portable DVD players! I shudder to think of it now - we were lucky my dad never got into an accident.

We stopped in Boston first and hit the market area, walked the Freedom Trail, went aboard the USS Constitution and saw a replica of a Boston Tea Party ship. We visited (and climbed) the Bunker Hill Monument. Here's a few photos from Boston:

(me and my dad on the replica Tea Party ship)

(love the pose, huh! Not to mention the knee socks... Ugh!)

After Boston, we went to Cape Cod. This was late August, early September and it wasn't warm enough for swimming of any sort. I remember visiting the guy that my dad had to do business with at his house and my first experience with eating seafood (I wasn't impressed at the time). The only other thing I remember is that our vacation got extended because a teachers' strike at home delayed the start of school and we didn't have to hurry home.

On the way home we stopped at Old Sturbridge Village and drove into Rhode Island (so we could say we'd been there, I guess?). We drove through New York State and into Canada - with the extra time we had, my parents decided to swing by Toronto and Niagara Falls.

I remember seeing the CN Tower in Toronto:




We checked the news daily to find out about the strike - and made it home easily in time for the start of the school year. Although I don't remember a lot of the details, I just remember how much fun this trip was and how I loved traveling to and seeing all of these different places, especially the historical ones. I wrote an essay about Boston for history class that fall and it was awesome being able to include details that I had seen in person.

I want my own kids to have experiences like these as they grow up - now that they're getting older, I think we're going to have to try to do some family vacations in the next few years.

Check out other Memory Lane Monday posts here!