Summer "vacation"

I used to LOVE summer vacation. It was what got me through the school year! My parents were both teachers so when summer hit, we loaded up the family van or Scout (depending on where we were going) and set off on an adventure! Sometimes we'd spend a month or two camping and 4 wheel driving in New Mexico and/or Colorado. Sometimes we'd leisurely drive up to the Jersey shore. We'd stop and see all kinds of interesting things on the way.. the Natches Trace, Civil War battlefields, a number of museums, Kitty Hawk, old abandoned gold mines, ghost towns, all kinds of forests, lakes, rivers, etc. If there was a historical marker, by gosh, we were going to stop!

I've run through the very corn field that my great-great-great grandad hid in while fighting in the civil war. I've watched fireworks on July 4th while laying on the lawn in Colonial Williamsburg. We out ran Hurricane Bertha in North Carolina, only to have her catch up to us in NJ. I've survived a bear attack on our campsite (though the ice chest didn't fare so well). I've explored abandoned mines, mills and log cabins. I've camped in a creepy old abandoned ghost town... on the trunda...which we found out the next morning is illegal. Once, we came out the dead end of a supposed dead end 4 wheel road. I've been to just about every rest stop from Colorado to New Jersey.

We've had adventure after adventure and I feel so fortunate to have had the upbringing I did. I can only hope to be able to do some of these things with my kids someday! There is so much to see and do in this great country of ours!

There's no real point to this post. I was just thinking back to when "summer vacation" meant something. Now, we're lucky to get a week off at a time to rush off and do something. Half the time though, we're so exhausted from the GO GO GO of life, that all we want to do is stay at home and take care of projects/chores/errands. I guess both have their place though.

What got me started thinking about this was this http://www.oddee.com/item_96462.aspx HOW STINKIN' COOL ARE THESE!??!?! I so wish I could visit them! Anyway, it reminded me of some of the ghost towns I traipsed around as a kid.

Now all I have to do is convince Josh to become a teacher so we can take long summer vacations again!!