Favorite childhood trip
 

Thinking back (waaayy back, for me), what is your favorite trip that you took as a child? How old were you, and what do you remember?

Mine was a trip to Padre Island with my parents when I was about 10. When I was growing up, we only took one vacation a year -- and it was always a driving trip to see my grandparents in south Texas. We never spent more than one or two nights away from home, and always stayed at their house. (The first time I ever stayed in a motel was on my wedding night!) Anyway, one year, my parents decided we would drive on to Padre Island. I remember thinking we were really far from home. For some strange reason, I remember passing lots of gas stations with the prices in huge numbers -- 17.9, 18.9, 19.9 cents per gallon. (Funny I would remember that.) At the beach, I remember walking out on the pier to see a shark someone had caught. Mostly, I remember running through the soft white sand looking for shells, with my Dad telling me to be careful and not step on one of the many jellyfish lying on the beach. That was the "big" trip of my childhood. I loved it, but so far, I've never made it back to Padre Island.

My second favorite was riding the train to Houston at age 12 with my best friend, who was 9, and her grandfather. This was the first time I'd ever been on a trip without my parents, and I felt really independent. We went to a Houston Astros game, then rode the train back home that evening. My friend's grandfather worked for the railroad, and even though he wasn't "on duty", I remember he had to help escort an unruly passenger off the train, which I thought was pretty "cool".

What was your favorite travel adventure as a child?

Great thread!

My mom was a teacher and had the whole summer off. My dad was a golf pro and never even had a day off all summer. Once my sisters got to be teens and I was 6 or 7 yrs old, my mom started taking us on a camping trip to somewhere different every summer. It's difficult to pick the best - The Black Hill and Yellowstone was fabulous but I guess I'd pick this one... Mom took us on a tour of the east and back through Canada. We went with friends who had a daughter my age, which for a 9 y.o. girl is the best! We started with Boston (walking tour), and then Cape Cod to the beach. In Mass. we also visited my mom's friends and went sailing with their sons who were sailboat racers. From there, we went to the cottage of family friends on a lake in Maine. They tried to teach me to waterski and to this day (30 yrs later) I have never tried to waterski again! LOL Next, it was Quebec (walking tour) and Montreal (walking tour). Last, we stopped and visited friends in MI and boy did we leave a ring in their bathtub from all the walking tours! :)

We didn't travel as a family, primarily due to money considerations, which is one of the main reasons I'm so crazy about traveling now with my children while we still have them with us.

We did live in central Florida for six years and my parents were WONDERFUL about taking us on day trips all over the state. We did everything - all the touristy stuff and all the outdoor adventures. I'll always be grateful for that.

I was 11 1/2 years old living in Texas at the time and my Grandparents came from California to visit. They were on their way to New York and Michigan to visit family and asked if I wanted to go to. I remember always getting the front seat of the gray hound bus with my Grandma. I remember going to the Statue of Liberty and going all the way to the crown. I remember Niagra Falls, meeting second cousins my age and spending the night in a tent in their back yard, & going to a amusement park. I remember riding a double decker train all the way back to California. There are many, many other memories of that trip.

My parents never really took us on a vacation. We lived in Texas and would go to visit my Grandparents in California EVERY year for the 9 years we lived there BUT WE NEVER stopped anywhere that was interesting.

Utahtea

We lived in Hawaii when I was a child and when it was time to move back to the US (not a state then) we took a great huge ship (I was seasick for the first of many times) and upon arrival in San Diego, my dad bought a car and we drove to North Carolina.
It was a great adventure, I do remember all of us wearing red plaid shirts..hey! it was cute then!! and driving over mountains and through deserts.
Those long Texas highways, past oil rigs , eating wonderful Mexican food in Longview Texas, breakfast in Mississippee at a diner that was also serving breakfast to the town jail.
Then arriving in Charlotte, meeting my new grandparents for the first time.
I think that trip stands out in my memory as the biggest and with the most impact on my young life.

What a great question!

My family has always spent summers on Pawleys Island, SC so my earliest memories are chasing my sisters on the beach.

Trying to catch crabs with chicken necks off our deck in the marsh, fried shrimp, 4th of July fireworks, no AC, falling asleep even though I tried to stay awake, the taste sweet ice cold cokes in the bottle and salty boiled peanuts, the smell of marsh mud, the first watermellons of the season, sunburns and the smell of Noxema. Wow. So many smells, sounds and tastes bring me back to my childhood.

My parents had a business so only one could go on vacation at a time. My grandmother loved camping, so Mom and Grandmother would pack up my brother and me and we'd head out with the Apache pop-up camper.

My favorite trips were always to North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway. My brother and I would have a blast! Hiking, sliding down Slippery Rock (ccccold, but fun!)

Grandmother was pretty cool... she always liked to have a little nip at night but the parks won't let hard liquor into the parks. She'd hide it in a little milk of magnesia bottle she'd cleaned out real well...LOL! It was a family joke to smell the milk of magnesia before taking a swig, even if we weren't camping!

I loved our summers camping! A great childhood memory.

Great thread... thanks, dwoodliff for starting it!

I grew up in the cold, grey Midwest (explaining my mania for the Caribbean, I think!). Back then, going to Florida in the winter was something only "rich" people did, and was not even a dream for middle-class family with four kids. But going in the summer was at least a possibility.

So, when I was 13, my family and two other families (cousins, and close-enough-to-call-ourselves-cousins), with a total of 7 kids, drove to Florida and met in the Clearwater area, where our families booked apartments across the street from the beach. Since the adults were so happy to see each other, the kids pretty much had free reign to do whatever we wanted -- under the "supervision" of the two oldest, me at 13 and my "cousin" at 13 1/2. The parents would give us lunch money (there was a lunch counter next door to where we stayed), and we were on our own, as long as we didn't go in the water without adult supervision. Since we arrived at the tail-end of a tropical storm, the Gulf of Mexico had huge waves, so this was wise.

I mostly remember the vacation as being idyllic and fun, but a few memories stand out:

- Everyone thought my "cousin" was weird because she ordered hot tea at lunch instead of southern-style iced tea (she is Canadian...); likewise, we didn't understand french fries with gravy.

- As a die-hard Cubbies fan, I was thrilled that we got WGN on the TVs in our units. I had no idea what cable TV was about (my parents in the Midwest don't have it to this date), and didn't have a clue that my hometown WGN was a "superstation."

- I absolutely HATED Disney World. I hated waiting in line. I hated the limited number of Green Tickets (or however they rationed the good rides in those days). I hated that every time me and my teeny-bopper cousin found a cute boy, my younger sibs or parents dragged us somewhere else.

Amazing what a naive 13-year old finds notable. I ponder, 25 years later, whether today's 13-year olds have the same relative innocence. Most of my peers seem to be raising kids for whom a Disney trip every winter, a car at 16, designer clothes, cell phones and computers, and an Ivy education are entitlements...

I'd forgotten about those ticket books Disney gave out! I hated the fact that you only got a few E-tickets!

For those who don't know, Disney gave out ticket books with A-E tickets instead of admission price covering all rides. The E-tickets were for the best rides hence the name "E-Ticket Ride".

Thanks for the great thread! This is bringing up some fond memories. I do remember those Disneyland tickets. We went in 1956-57, and it was on a train (the ElCapitan) from Illinois. That was a special trip. We visited my grandparents who lived near LA. We took a trip every summer. But it took a lot of saving to make the CA train trip! My dad worked, mother did not. And he just worked in a factory, but we traveled every summer for a least a few days. Sometimes to Wisconsin or Ark, to go fishing with a family that lived down the street. Fond memories, for sure. It's strange that I got the travel bug from those short summer vacations, and my sister HATES to leave our hometown!!!

And, Scarlett, I loved your story about the cross-country trip in the car when you moved from HA!
Carol

I would just like to say that I do know how to spell Mississippi :D

Thanks, Carol~

When I was a child, our trip destinations were usually dictated by whatever teachers convention my parents needed to attend that summer.

Our best trip, though, was when I was 15. We went on a long road trip, beginning in Kansas. Highlights of this trip:
-- New Orleans, eating ice cream out in the rain.
-- Orlando, although Disneyworld was too hot and crowded for me.
-- Cape Hatteras, very cool
-- Washington, D.C. I still remember my mother trying to drive in that traffic!
-- Wheeling, W.VA. Not a typical vacation highlight, except that my mother, on a whim, bought a huge amount of expensive china that we packed up into the back of the car to take home.
-- Gettysburg, PA. Even then I was a history buff.

Great trip, many good memories.


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Fun thread!

My dad retired when I was in the second grade. Within one week, he retired, bought a brand new 98 Olds (the model, not the year) loaded us in the car and we spent eight weeks driving from Florida to California and back.

My dad had worked for an international company that had offices all over the US. We had to stop at every single one on our route so he could check them out!

My most vivid memory is going to Disneyland ( I remember the e-ticket rides also--I still have a book of those tickets). When Disney World opened they had long done away with individual tickets but every once in a while would stay open late with only the "e-ticket" rides open. Eventually they gave up the "e-ticket" promotion because very few people knew what they were talking about!

I also remember when we stayed in Aneheim (sp?)that we ran into friends from Florida staying at the same hotel.

Every summer we went to Cape Cod and hence my love for the place. But one winter when I was in fifth grade, my parents took us to San Juan for a week in February. I thought it was so exotic and a bit scary. But I loved it. I've been back several times since then and get a kick out of remembering what I saw through a child's eyes.

Oh i love reading everyone's adventures! Keep them coming!

For years we were the original version of the griswolds, complete with different station wagons, some that didn't have a/c! My parents were major travel and national park JUNKIES so we traveled everywhere, including Out West road trips for many years. Each night we'd schlepp in and out of motels, seeing all we could see and do wherever we went. We'd have picnic lunches, enjoy lots of produce from local fruit stands (no granola bars back then), my sis and i both kept travel journals, would fight, played waitress in the motels each night, would fight, did each others hair, would fight, read lots of books, would fight, bought each other souvees (souvenirs) would fight, would whisper and conspire about friends at home, would fight.... ;)

Our best trip Out West was our last, and it was six weeks long. It included several days at disneyland where at age 12 (!) i was thrilled to get my pic taken with pooh, who is still a fave ;)

Back then we stayed mostly in howard johnsons or holiday inns (maybe thats why i love holiday inn express!?) Who remembers the clam rolls at HoJo's?! Ewww.

Back then you didn't need prior motel ressies but my mom would usually make them each morning before we'd leave that motel. In one southwest location she thought we were getting a holiday inn, only to arrive and find it was "Holiday" inn/motel. Since it was not too pretty, we left.

Another time in yosemite, we explored and stayed 'too late', hadn't found a place to stay so grabbed a place in the park. However, four of us ended up sleeping in two double beds pushed together in the tiniest room, which i think is today's yosemite lodge! My mom was upset there wasn't a private bathroom but was so proud of herself that she somehow managed to deal. (maybe thats why i can't camp?!) Before bed we roasted marshmallows and weenies at a bonfire outside the lodge. I don't think they do that anymore...where was smokey?! :)

The best part was that my dad and i were always buds and adventuresome, while my mom and sis were often wimps and would hang at the visitor center/gift shoppes. My dad and i did countless things they wouldn't do, like hiking much of bryce and zion, walking down to the base of crater lake, swimming in frigid lake tahoe, almost getting lost somewhere in glacier, walking across royal gorge bridge (before it was an amusement park) and on and on.... And we would always take a swim in the motel pool (requisite for my dad) wherever we stayed, regardless of the time we'd arrive or temp outside. He rocked, and i really miss both he and my mom, but am so very thankful they inspired my voracious sense of wanderlust!

My favorite was a trip to California where my mom was attending a woman's club convention. My dad, sister and I joined her in San Francisco. My favorite memories were drinking hot chocolate in Ghiradelli Square, the Japanese Tea Garden (my sister and I tried to replicate it when we got back to Florida and turned the back yard into a mud hole!). We drove down the coast and ate at a funky restaurant that had game machines in the basement and views of sea otters. And the Santa Monica pier - I won little stuffed animals that I treasured for years!

Raised in Upstate NY... When I was 9 or 10, we took a car trip to Miami, (where I was born.) I remember staying one night with my (wealthy) aunt, uncle & cousins at the Eden Roc hotel. That night we (cousins & I, two were much older) went to a concert to see the Beach Boys. The opening act was some unheard of band called the Grateful Dead...

My most memorable trip lasted 2 years and I wasn't happy about it at the time! When I was 12 and my siblings 9 and 6, my father (in what might be described as an early mid-life crisis)decided that he had had enough of battling traffic from Long Island into New York City and slaving away 9-5. Somehow he convinced my mother to sell the house and cars and pack-up the kids and go explore Europe. We lived on the Southern coast of Spain in the winters and traveled with a Volkswagon bus and trailer all over Europe the rest of the time. At 12 and 13, I was less than appreciative of this amazing journey. That I had spent time in the Louvre, Prado, and British Museum, and had explored cities and villages in a dozen or more nations didn't have the awe factor it should have. But some how a seed was planted.Today, I have major wander lust (with a special yearning for Europe!)that I "impose" on my own kids today. Hopefully they will someday be able to choose favorites from their childhood trips.

My parents didn't have a lot of money, but that didn't stop us from taking a one week road trip every summer. Usually it was to Maine, Vermont or Mass, but one year, we drove to Quebec City. That was my most memorable trip. I remember the poverty of the ragged little children who begged for pennies outside of a beautiful church, as well as the beauty of the Chateau Frontenac, perched above us (we could see it from the window of the modest rooming house where we were staying.) I have always promised myself that should I ever return to Quebec, I will stay at the Frontenac.

WendyLynn,

All I can say is Wow! What an experience. I'm completely fascinated with Europe. Have been three times to visit the "Big Three" cities (London, Paris, Rome) but I am yearning to visit Venice, Prauge, Vienna, Ireland and Switzerland. Architecture really gets me.

To answer the original question... the only trip I ever took with my parents, I was five years old. Had a small camper on the back of a truck. Went to the Grand Canyon, which didn't impress me a whole lot. I remember mostly arguing with my mom about not wanting to wear socks. But I LOVED Carlsbad Caverns. I remember specifically being impressed with the cafeteria in the basement and watching the bats fly out at night. White Sands also stands out in my mind. I also remember going to Mesa Verde, only I didn't realize until just recently that's where we were, and climbing ladders up into one of the cliff dwellings. Going up the ladder was fine but I couldn't climb down... Dad had to carry me down.

Mom remembers arguing with my Dad about him wanting to hurry and get home to cut the grass. I think I slept through that or just tried to block it out.

We (family) never took another trip out of state, or over-night for that matter. I took my first adult trip at the age of 21 to San Francisco with a co-worker who was going strictly for business but invited me because I had no real travel experience and I think she felt sorry for me. I was leary about what I would do with myself while she was in these business meetings but boy did I get over that quickly! Have had the "wander lust" ever since.