Where do you vacation with your family?

We have a weekend place at the Jersey Shore in North Wildwood N.J., commonly known as the "Irish Riviera".

What's so funny about is that all of our neighbors down the shore are the same people we know from home who have shore homes.

It's almost like going on holiday with 100 of your closest friends.

 

We live in the old gold mining area of the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Range. One day vacations mean
1. Going to the river for the day
2. Going across the state to visit grandmother
3. Heading to San Francisco to the Exploratorium or Golden Gate Park (zoo, museums, etc.)
4. Visiting Stinson Beach and then going inland a short drive to the gorgeous John Muir Redwoods for a quiet walk.

Longer vacations

1. Up to Mt. St. Helens, visiting Mt. Shasta, Crater Lake, the Columbia Gorge, and many friends on the way.

2. Exploring the lava tubes at Mt. Shasta and camping there for a couple of nights

3. Heading down to Monterey to the aquarium and then to tidal pools a little way off to look at whatever we can explore and find there. One time I held an extremely tiny baby squid in my hands!

We don't go to theme parks -- much too expensive for me. And the kids will sometimes go with their friends, saving me the headache and noise!

Desire for the next year or year after: Grand Canyon and friends in Arizona.

We used to do a lot of camping out when the kids were younger. Lots of places are cheap when you stay at campgrounds for lodging! And, with six kids, cheap was big! So mostly we explored the state of California and then Oregon and Washington, too. Wonderful times.

 

Vacation? What's that? Just kidding, it's just that it seems that with my brother and myself working in the summer (dad too) that we didn't get a vacation. I went to camp for a week and my mom went to New York. My brother went to a wrestling clinic in Kentucky. When we go on vacation, we go to St. Augustine, since it's my dad's favorite place.