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Swans and Slides
Remembering Simple – and Real – Family Vacations
By Karen Edmisten
As another summer approaches, I'm planning our next vacation. Well, "planning" is a little exaggerated for what I have in mind.
Knowing that the glamour of a hotel pool is remembered long after museums are forgotten makes the basic plan easy. "Location, location, location" is my kids' motto. It's just that the only part of "location" they care about is the part in which they swim. A hotel close to home, once again, will be the ticket.
I have to admit to occasional fretting that as they get older our kids won't take the same delight in our no-frills getaways. But that's a bridge we'll cross if we come to it. For now, they're still delightfully easy to please. They still love family walks, swimming together, going out for ice cream and the silliest things – like cranking up the air-conditioner until it's deliciously cold and snuggling under blankets just to justify hot chocolate in July. There's nothing like it, and nothing like doing it with your favorite people.
Our family vacations may not be, objectively speaking, "real" ones, but the joy that's born of being together beats all the promises made in the most fetching resort flyer. And hey, it's not every day that you ride a 25-foot bumpy slide and flee from swans. Now, that's something to reminisce about.