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Barb.b
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| Posted: Sept 18 2012 at 6:29pm | IP Logged
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OK - best family vacations you have gone on.
Barb
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Sept 18 2012 at 7:06pm | IP Logged
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We've done very few vacations that are something other than to visit family. We've been really really enjoying going to Black Powder/Mountain Man Rendezvous. And we did go camping on the coast once which was lots of fun. Visited free places, went to a lighthouse, went to the beach, and the big thing was dh and the kids old enough went out fishing on a boat.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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mom2mpr
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We also spend most vacations traveling to visit family. But my favorite vacations were:
-Got our own condo on the beach in FL, next door to my childhood friend and her family, for a week in January. Kids had playmates and tired themselves out playing outside all day, we enjoyed the sunshine, did a field trip or two, we shared cooking and clean up for dinners, and alternated condos for dinner. The best part was the kids passed out at at 8:30 pm and we had some nice, adult time to hang out and have a wine cooler, or two. 
It was sooooooo nice! Oh, and we could help each other have a date once or twice during the week.
-last year on the way home from a family event far, far away  my dh made us drive and extra 6 hours to visit Acadia National Park. He said we would not be that close in a long time and we got engaged there and spent our honeymoon there(and I spent about 2weeks every summer there for many years). It has a special place in my heart and even after having been to other national parks, is still my favorite. It was just the 4 of us, very rare to ever be away just us, and we got a little cabin, only spent 5 days, but enjoyed ourselves so very much. We enjoyed showing the kids all the cool stuff to do there, hiking, biking carriage trails, lakes, ponds, the ocean, rocks, lobster, sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, etc. but THE best part was it was just us. really neat and such a memorable time.
Those stand out as the two best family vacations ever.
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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SeaStar
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Rented a house off-season for a week in the Outer Banks of NC.
The house was gorgeous and cheaper than a week at a low cost hotel.
No crowds that time of year- we had a ball.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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CrunchyMom
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The only vacation we've done other than visiting family was a weekend in Williamsburg, VA...just before we left to visit family
BUT, we loved it! And we'd love to go back. 
We did go and stay at a beach house rental with my family a few years ago. I spent most of the time cleaning the rental and cooking. Pretty much like being at home  The beach WAS lovely, and part of the stress was staying with and getting to know "new" family since my Dad was newly married since my mother's death and her daughter/grandchild/SIL were there in addition to my own siblings/BIL/niece. It was okay, just didn't feel relaxing like a vacation.
My husband's employee just got back from a cruise with her husband. Her kids are grown up, but her husband always takes her on a cruise, not because they love cruises, but because he wanted it to be relaxing for her.
AND, perhaps that is the difference between a *real* vacation and a *family* vacation 
But all that to say, I really liked staying in a hotel in Williamsburg with a nice dining room where meals were included and I came home from a fun day out to find a made bed and a clean bathroom. 
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Lindsay
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JennGM
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SeaStar wrote:
Rented a house off-season for a week in the Outer Banks of NC.
The house was gorgeous and cheaper than a week at a low cost hotel.
No crowds that time of year- we had a ball. |
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This will be our 3rd year doing just that. Love no crowds, love the cooler temps. We have a small family, and the work was minimal. Lots of eating out, a real vacation.
Disney World -- I was opposed for the longest time, but we went when my first one was 3 (partly to visit family). It was a true vacation because I didn't need to think of anything -- they catered to my son's food allergies so well, it was such a treat!!!!!!!!!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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lapazfarm
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Rented a house in Key Largo for a week or so (long before we moved there). Loved snorkeling, fishing, jet-skiing, enjoying the beaches, quirky shops, museums, great fresh seafood, fruity drinks under the Tiki hut. The Keys really have something for everyone.
Rented a cabin on a lake in Willow, Alaska for an entire summer before we moved here. What can I say--it was Alaska. We went everywhere and did everything for 2 months. And still there's more. So much more.
Believe it or not--camping in the Okefenokee Swamp. Paddling around the swamp in big canoes and seeing all of the enormous alligators (amongst other amazing wildlife and plants) was a blast. Just be sure to go in spring or fall, not summer or the mosquitoes will carry you away. We went in march. Perfect weather.
Washington DC. We rented a camper-cabin in Smallwood State Park (Maryland, I believe)for a weekend. It was lovely to be so close to DC and yet be in this tranquil, woodsy setting. And DC of course is more than enough to fill a week or a month. Wish we could have stayed longer.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Chris V
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We're camping folk (... though sometimes my inner-tropical comes out and longs for a plane ride to Hawaii, but what we can afford to do and what we'd really like to do sometimes don't cross paths).
Our best vacations (for *me*) have always been the ones that I had the least expectations for. They are the under-planned ones, the slightly impulsive ones, and the ones where you end up finding a local dive in a hide-away town that turns out to serve the best food you've eaten in your life!
We camp in state parks (which typically offer a wide variety of recreational opportunities and geological marvels). Mostly, we stay within a few hours of home (so, for us, that is within WA, Idaho, OR, and Montana). But every once in a while we venture out further - our road trips have taken us to Yellowstone (going on nearly all backroads and intentionally avoiding interstates) - but we travel with our RV - so we have a built-in hotel, kitchen, and bathroom. We've gone as far as South Dakota one time. South Dakota was one of my favorite places ever. Again - I had the lowest expectations for that state and was blown away with the geological marvels, wildlife, and culture. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Often our vacations are weekend quickies to the coast - lighthouses, crab fishing, clam digging, wandering into the local pub for a pint, and enjoying small-town night life with live folk-music, and local bands. (...memories of yore ... before the kids. Oh, how I'd love to do the pub hopping again! ... all in good time...can't do that with the kids). Berry picking off old logging roads, taking a dip in a little lake off a short hiking trail, then laying in the sun as the kids collect sticks.
... these are the types of things we do. (Made possible, of course, with our camping amenities - the rv). It's really been the best monetary investment we've made, and has paid us back dividends with family memories and fun
We plan on making a drive up to Alaska to visit my BIL one of these years. And a cross-country trip to New England (a dream of mine).
One of these winters we'll splurge and make a trip to British Columbia and spend the weekend at Whistler.
And of course, taking the ferry across the sound to the neighboring San Juan Islands is a favorite too. ... there's something magical about visiting the neighboring islands in the Puget Sound (and there are A LOT of them to see).
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Chris
Happy Wife with my Happy Life
Mama to My Five Girls ('04~'07~'09~'11~'11) 
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Chris V
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Oh! I forgot another. If you're ever in the area (the very general area) you must go to Leavenworth. In WA state! ...ahem, not the state prison in Kansas.
Leavenworth is the cutest little Bavarian town. A must-see tourist attraction, and fun for the whole family. Check it out :: Leavenworth, WA
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Chris
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SallyT
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Oh, wow. In recent years most of our vacation time has been spent in visiting family. But occasionally we've been able to combine that with something more R&R-ish, mostly due to my mother's good thinking and generosity. For a couple of years now she's rented a house on Dauphin Island, off the Alabama coast, in the off-season (spring, not fall), and invited whoever in the family was available to come down and join her. Those have been *really* nice vacations: good family time with my mom on neutral turf, wonderful quiet beach, a lot of relaxation.
In the entire course of our family life, however, two vacations stand out as notable:
1. We lived in Utah when our two oldest were really small, and the year that they were 4 and 9 months old, we took a 2-week camping trip that started on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, then progressed to a campground in the High Uinta mountains, then to high desert near Rock Springs, WY, then the Flaming Gorge dam area (we toured the dam, which was big fun), and ended at Dinosaur National Monument. It was an amazingly relaxing trip, especially given that we were camping the whole time with a 4yo and a baby who liked to eat rocks -- during the weekdays we had campgrounds virtually to ourselves and saw tons of wildlife, as well as visiting interesting places like Browns Park, UT, which is at the end of miles and miles of gravel road near the UT/WY/CO borders. It was a kind of outpost with a general store, popular with outlaws like the James Gang, because no matter which state's law happened to be chasing them, they could always slip across a state line and escape.
2. When we lived in England and had just had our third child (he was about 7 weeks old at the time), we rented a boat at Ely, on the River Ouse, and spent a week puttering downriver to a place called Hemingford Grey (if you know the Children of Green Knowe books by L.M. Boston, the house where those stories are set is right on the river in Hemingford Grey). It was the perfect vacation for a family with a new baby -- our "hotel room" with all our stuff traveled with us everywhere we went, and even when we got off the boat to wander around towns, we were never that far away from whatever we might need. Again, it was completely relaxing. The speed limit on the rivers is something like 4mph, so you just chug along looking at the scenery, until you reach a pub where you can tie up and go in for a pint and some food. The older kids, who were 8 and 4, had nature notebooks to draw in -- I have some sweet pictures of them sitting on the top deck in the sun with their notebooks on their knees, busily at work. If ever there were a vacation I would take again in a heartbeat, that's the one! It was not even horrifically expensive as vacations go, given that we were already in England, of course! Compared with train fares, lodging, food (we did cook a good bit on the boat), the cost of boat rental was pretty competitive. I'd *love* to find something comparable to do on this side of the pond.
Sally
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stacykay
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For total relaxation, fun-in-the-sun type of vacation, my family votes for Hilton Head, SC. We have gone there about 8 different times, renting a condo for a week, and it was wonderful! We have found the third week of May to have the best weather, and it isn't too crowded. We went twice towards the end of June, and it was HOT! Even the pools were too warm.
The other favorite trip my family loves, and we do it every other year, or so (as finances permit- which haven't been so cooperative these last few years, but I digress,) is to drive around our state. We LOVE the UP! There is so much to do up there, and it is just beautiful. We have also taken trips driving the lower peninsula coastline. Gorgeous views and lakes (including inland lakes, too!) Highlights of both include: Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, Torch Lake, Crystal Lake (just stunning!) Traverse City, St. Ignace, Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks, White Fish Pointe and the Shipwreck Museum, Tahquamenon Falls, lighthouses!, Marquette (the Children's Museum, freighters and looking for moose,) Houghton, Eagle Harbor, and Mackinac Island (had to mention that- my boys love the ferry ride.)
For campers, my 24yods highly recommends Isle Royale. My 17yods recommends canoeing the Au Sable (he did an 81 mile trip last summer.) Our local parks and rec naturalist highly recommends the Apostle Islands.
Sally, I would love to take your relaxing river trip! Getting to England is on my dream list!
In Christ,
Stacy in MI
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anitamarie
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My favorite vacation spot is the beach. My kids' (and probably my dh's )favorite vacation was Disney World . They thoroughly enjoyed it and want to go back. Me, I'll go to the beach. Ocean Isle Beach in NC is very family friendly. My sister goes every year with her 2 girls. We joined them this year and had a great time.
We may head out west next year. I've never seen the Grand Canyon, and my dh wants to visit some B&B's that specialize in astronomy in the southwest.
Anita
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cheesehead mom
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--Boston, love it!! Rented a house on beach outside of Boston and took ferry into Boston to see the sights.
--Washington DC, great family vacation spot.
Have fun planning.
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VanessaVH
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I second everything that Stacy said!! I love Michigan, the winters get a little long, but I honestly can't imagine living anywhere else!
I haven't done everything on the list, but pretty close if you count what I did as a child with my parents...
We did Chicago once when our 1st was 9mos. It was fun, but we decided not to go back until we have enough older ones to really enjoy the museums.
Toledo OH has an awesome zoo, and the children's museum is great too. (And the art museum has a Monet water lily painting!!!)
This year we did Bois Blanc Island (rustic island near Mackinac Island) and Mackinaw City. The boys love the fort, but I think they liked the mini waterpark at the hotel even better
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: best vacations
