What's not to love about vacations? The prompt for today from NaBloPoMo is What vacation spot to you return to again and again?
I'm not so certain I can narrow it down to a single spot. It's not that I take so many vacations or that I travel a lot. In a way, it's the opposite.
So many of my vacations have been special or magical for unique reasons and so many of them made memories or gave me a fondness for that place that I want to go there again.
I think maybe for me, it's not about the place, but about the people I'm with.
Shocking, I know.
My vacation memories begin as a child, camping with my immediate and extended family. Each trip was almost like a holiday gathering in the summer with swimming. What could be better? I have camping memories of being with my parents best friends and their kids too. Now, a life time later, we kids are all still lightly connected and friendly.
My next vacation memories are trips, just short ones, but trips with The Mr. and sometimes our friends, like sailing the Chicago to Mackinaw race year after year. Mackinaw is a lot like Vegas. :)
Time keeps going and my vacation memories now include my kids. Short trips and long car rides. Always with too much stuff, someone vomiting and some spectacular event that leaves you shaking your head and saying only with my kids, only in my family, only in my life. And those are amazing memories. I'm thrilled to keep building them.
And lately, in the last decade of my life or so, I've been able to add to the mix, girl friend get aways. They're usually super short trips filled with food and drinks and laughter and tears and girl friend promises and way to many pictures and memories. I cherish these. They cost too much, they leave us breathless returning to our families with chaos ensuing and they usually make no sense at all, but they are worth every second.
I've been to a lot of places on vacations and made a lot of memories. I've taken photos, sent post cards and bought the tee shirt. I've had the sun burn and the hang over and being lost and awful hotels and and rained out camping in the laundromat and been on that plane on and on and on. Almost all of the places had something wonderful and amazing about them that would draw you back, but my vacations are about my people.
