#52 Stories--Story #42

What were your most common childhood vacations like--road trips, visits to Grandma's house, camping trips, weekends at the lake of beach?

As a child our family "vacations" were generally a road trip to see my grandparents in Washington state or a visit back to my parent's high school reunions.  They were friends with classmates in each others' classes so they regarded those reunions for either a reunion for both. They always has a good time. We also sometimes took these trips and included a visit to  cousins that we only saw every year or so.

Our family included my dad's parents for most of my growing up years, and because of their infirmities, we really didn't vacation that much.  I recall one big trip to Disneyland with another family in our ward, but I don't remember much besides the trip probably cost too much and took too long away from home and work for my parents--especially my dad.  I know he didn't like crowds, or expenses, or too much silliness.  He still doesn't.

On many occasions, we did spend weekends at drag strips not too far from home where my dad would be racing.  I liked those because we were often left to our own devices--I collected coins from under the bleachers, spark plugs from the pits area, rode bikes all over, and then returned to the camper or trailer for lunch or dinner.  I think we learned to make our own fun on these kinds of weekends.

On our visits to my grandparents' house I remember visiting his animals with my grandpa and   learning to sprinkle salt on the huge banana slugs and watching them dissolve. I loved hearing my grandpa talk to his dogs or horses or cattle.  But it was a place that I never felt really comfortable.  The water was always bad and smelly, with bath tub stained with rust or other minerals. My grandma made me a little nervous because she was a little unsteady mentally. I knew she loved us, but I wasn't ever sure she knew us apart when we were all there together.

For fun things--Frontier Village, beach, or lakes, etc--we did a lot of those things with friends and their families. Sometimes my sister and I would go with Mom and meet our cousins from Palo Alto and do fun things with them. The only camping I remember doing was at Girls Camp--but it was decidedly not normal camping.