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Swans and Slides
Remembering Simple – and Real – Family Vacations
By Karen Edmisten
The kids and I recently reminisced about summer vacations past.
"I loved that cool boat ride!" said one of them.
"And the zoo!"
"No, wait! What about that gigantic slide? It was awesome!"
"And that was the year," giggled my oldest, "that I was attacked by swans!"
I couldn't contain my smile. They had been delighted with that vacation. My husband and I had been too. It had been fun and refreshing, jam-packed with activities and laughter – the very definition of "quality time" and family togetherness. What it hadn't been, objectively speaking, was a "real" vacation. It had lasted just three days, had been spent only two hours from home and had cost us next to nothing.
Why so many terrific memories? The answer, like the trip itself, was simple. That "vacation" was composed of unadorned, pared-down-to-the-bones fun. We had focused on relaxing and enjoying each other's company, goofy jokes and philosophical musings rather than on the externals of time and destination.
The cool boat ride was a simple ferry in a city park (it cost us a quarter apiece). The zoo was the same zoo we always visit – we have a year-round family pass. The awesome slide? Another city park with the best big, bumpy slide in town. There was also a peaceful lake, complete with swans to feed (and flee, which my oldest daughter had done along with her dad when one of the swan mommies got particularly protective). The activities were so deceptively simple that even we look back and think, "Is that all we did?"
