Vacations Blog

Until a few years back, a vacation meant piling the kids into the back and hitting the road. But times change, and now you have a whole new bunch of requirements to fulfill before you can even think about the beach, a cold beer and some peace and quiet.

Beach Vacation

If you don’t want your neighbors and colleagues to look down on you, follow this list of ’friendly’ things that your vacation has to be.

1. Environment-friendly:- It’s bad enough that your vacation destroys your entire year’s savings. Don’t let your vacation be blamed for the destruction of the earth. Find a destination which cares about their surroundings, get a green hotel, try to avoid trips by air and don’t do stuff which will be harmful to the environment – like wasting water, and leaving trash and beer cans in the outdoors or on the road. Read More »

When our kids were small, there was no question about who paid for stuff. Air fare, entrance fees, food, lodging, and “Can I have it’s,” all subsidized by dear ol’ Mum and Dad. We made sure the budget accounted for that, so we tended to head toward less exotic destinations, which were less expensive to achieve. A trip to Maine, where we stayed with my family. A long weekend in Utah for some epic skiing. Road trips over to San Diego for three or four days. And we went camping a lot.

Me and the kids in Maine in '98.

When our son entered the military, and it was just me, my husband, and our daughter, we were able to branch out a little more. The three of us took a trip to Vancouver, BC, we spent a week driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Francisco, and we spent ten days in Hawaii.

My husband, parasailing in Hawaii in '03.

Then our daughter moved out, too, and my husband and I indulged in a couple of lovely vacations, just the two of us. A trip to Maine, where we stayed in the Old Port section of downtown Portland. A long weekend in Oregon. And, this summer, our Epic Road Trip to Yellowstone and surrounding destinations.

Me and my husband in Maine, '07.

Lately, my husband has been waxing nostalgic. The kids are grown, and we don’t spend as much time with them as we used to. We see them less often (as in, a couple of times a week – they each live within a few miles of us), and we have fewer opportunities to make family memories. So we’ve been talking about planning a family vacation, with our now-grown kids, and their significant others.

Read More »