Early 50's--a camping trip on a beach of Lake Ontario. Sleeping in our truck. Awoke to the sounds of amphibious tanks coming out of the water!! Voices yelling "what are you doing here?" My father yelling "What the hell are you doing here?" We didn't get to stay!!!

I can't identify the very first destination, but I also spent time in the "way back" of a station wagon with my sister. We went camping ALL over the state of California, each and every summer. My first camping trip was when I was 18 months old.

From NY to York Beach and Old Orchard Beach Maine. We used to go almost every summer. I remember picking which lobster I wanted from the case, the lighthouse, and the VERY cold water in the ocean.

1961, at age seven, up the west side of Michigan. Holland, Sleeping Bear Dunes, For Michimilinack, Mackinac Bridge, Tahquamenon Falls.

My dad was in the Navy and we were stationed in Oxford, Mississippi (of all places). We drove from there to San Diego. I was 4 at the time and remember driving thru Texas. My brother and I were so excited to see our first Cowboy!

hey lcuy!
LOL - at how lame the ride became....

Oh no, my memory was faulty! When I read through all the posts, I remembered a trip to Lake George when I was 6. We actually stayed in a bungalow in Bolton Landing, and I got a Hula Hoop, which were all the rage that summer. I also remember eating at a fancy restaurant called "Alfonso's", and I wouldn't eat anything -- claimed there was nothing I liked, so I ate a baked potato. (Not so picky now!)

1963...Niagra Falls. I remember my Dad teasing me about throwing over in a barrel!

My first distinct memory of a trip was an extended family camping trip somewhere in the Sierras - off north 49 somewhere around Sierra City, probably Sardine Lake. My family always went up there. I think I was about 4. My uncle's family went with us and so did my grandparents. My mom and my cousins and I made hats out of these big leaves from some plants that grew in shallow water. We decorated them with flowers and twigs.

It was by no means my first camping trip - my parents took me backpacking as an infant - once. After that, my mom said she wasn't going backpacking with me until I could walk. My dad agreed because he didn't enjoy carrying most of the gear for 3 people - LOL.

I was 3 or 4. We rode on a shrimp boat from Biloxi to Deer Island. I remember being chased around the boat by a crab. My mother dressed us all in red and white so she could keep track of us. My father and older brothers still managed to get left behind.

Flying from Japan and heading to Las Vegas in '66 when I was 8. My father was moving to his final Air Force assignment. Stopped off in Honolulu for a week and stayed with an aunt and uncle on my mother's side. Got leis on arrival, got $5 from my uncle to spend each day at the beach (when burgers were only 15 cents). Glorious weather, nothing but playing at the beach all day, and feeling like I had all the money in the world.

Haven't been back to Hawaii since then. Will be going either later this year or sometime next year. My aunt and uncle have long since passed away, but I'll remember them fondly when I finally make it back to the beach in Hawaii.

Not counting trips to the lake (my parents bought the lot when I was 2), we drove from Wisconsin to Florida in a station wagon pulling a very small trailer.
We took 3 weeks to drive from home, through the Smokey Mountains, to the Panhandle along the gulf coast all the way to Key West and back up the Atlantic coast to St. Augustine. Then back home, camping all the way. I was 8, it was the 60's, and I'll never forget that trip. The first sight and swim in the ocean, dad caught a crab (which we ate), I picked up a starfish and dropped in on the innertube when I saw that the legs were moving.
So many memories, thanks dad.

Age 5, from our home in the Berkshires to the summer camp we went to each year in South Hero, VT...on an island in Lake Champlain. It was a 4+ hour drive when route 7 was just a two lane road and we thought it was forever long.

ggreen, your mention of spotting the Sagamore Bridge reminded me that the big moment in this trip was spotting a teeny bit of Lake Champlain for the first time. Burma shave signs. Counting Woody's. This began in the late 40's and my brothers still go each year as well as their children and grandchildren. The camp is that kind of place, generations have been going back since the late 1800's!

First memory was going to Lake Michigan when I was 3. I remember eating ice cream from vendors and I also remember throwing a fit when my parents didn't want to take me back to the room to go potty. I still can't pee in the ocean.

We went on 1 real vacation that I recall... to Carlsbad and around the ABQ area. I recall seeing a dead bat on the floor in the cave.
Other than that, we did the art show circuit every summer which was even more fun than vacations to us!
My father was a very talented metal scupter... we had a blast in the 60's and 70's. Art shows were so... "artsy" back then!

Montauk, Long Island--a week in a sleepy beach town in the late 70s, BBQ-ing chicken on the beach...and a large seagull picked up a piece of it right off the grill & took off with it...then we headed to John's Drive In for ice cream. Have been back every summer (numerous times per summer) since then!

the first trip i ever remember taking was a handguided trip to the restroom when i was about 2 yrs old,.to be potty trained.

Memories of my first road trip with Mom & Dad, Opa & Oma, and a very carsick Beagle.... We traveled from western Illinois to visit my uncle who was a ranger stationed at a fire tower somewhere in Wisconsin. Saw my first waterfall and got to pet a fawn, but the memory that stands out most clearly is being strapped to my uncle's back with a belt before being carried up the fire tower. LOL, I do believe that's where I acquired my fear of heights at the tender age of 5!

When I was 8 my family drove up the coast from LA, through Carmel to SF. The thing I remembered most was Chinatown, even though we have one in LA, and Alcatraz, which wasn't open to the public then.

The first big trip was when I was 10 and my grandparents took me to Europe. We went over on the SS Indepence from NY to Naples, and came back on the QE I, when it didn't have the I, from Liverpool, pre-Beatles, to NY. The things I remember most were a play in NY, Pompei, and the palace in London

Cross country, NYC to LA, when I was 7 years old. My recently widowed aunt had just relocated to LA from NY and we went for a visit. We took the southern route going and the northern route coming back. I remember the oil wells in TX and OK, Indian reservations, the Grand Canyon, roadside picnics, my parents taking turns driving, open roads, staying at motels with swimming pools, early morning departures, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, fighting with my brother in the back of the car, lying on the back seat with our feet out the windows, driving up the CA coast from LA to SF, cable cars, Yosemite and the "tunnel tree", Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Yellowstone and Old Faithful, Cody, WY, Chicago....and coming home.

My father recorded the whole trip with his 16mm movie camera and we did the entire trip in 3 weeks.