Their goals are pretty simple - time away from the hum-drum of life, time spent with those you care about, and often, time spent visiting a cool place.
I'm still enjoying our recent trip to South Dakota and I still catch myself smiling when I remember a particular sight or look at the many pictures we took or hear the "visit South Dakota" commercial playing on local TV here in Kansas City.
Yep, it was a pretty cool vacation to a pretty cool location. The fun (and memories) of Yankton, the "corny-ness" of the Corn Palace, the solitude of the Badlands, the campiness of Wall Drug, the majesty of Needles Highway, the awe inspiring sight of live bison (not buffalo!), the history and spiritualism of Crazy Horse, the beauty of Devil's Tower and Spearfish Canyon, and the patriotism of Mt. Rushmore.
These sights and images were pretty special and I hope you enjoyed them as I did.
But sometimes, a vacation can be even more. For me this trip was a chance to re-connect with my family and to watch my family re-connect with each other. I know I'm getting more and more sentimental in my older age - but it was the time together we just experienced that meant so very much to me.
While the places and stops of our trip were all outstanding, there were so many, many more things that I'll remember and cherish from this trip -
- Listening (and for some, singing along) to 90's Hits on the radio
- Packing, and repacking, and repacking again all of our luggage with the hope of defying all knowledge of spatial matter to fit those damn golf bags in the van
- Allowing me to "relive" so many things in Yankton - the Bowling Alley, the Ice House, Murdo's, the house I grew up in, and all the others.
- Watching you all look in wonder as we peered out at the Badlands or looked up at Devil's Tower
- Having dinner at the house those few nights - I love sitting down together at a big meal and having the conversations go every direction as we eat, laugh, and enjoy our company together and of course, watching the sunset from the top of the mountain
- Watching Alison and Brady share a laugh and a memory - it's been way too long
- Taking engagement pictures of the happy couple! Yes Andy, get used to it!!
- Loving all the pictures everyone took and shared and the continual Facebook posts to the world proclaiming our vacation
And the list goes on and on.
I hope you remember this trip as fondly as I do. I also hope you do something similar with your families years down the road. I promise you'll enjoy it just like I did.
Thanks.
