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Vacation Series: Part 1 - My Favorite Vacation Spots
By Bloggaman | June 23, 2008
In less than a week I will be taking my wife and kids on vacation for a week. I love going on vacation and I have since I was a kid. Doesn’t everyone love vacation? Does anyone hate vacation? With all this said I decided to do a three part series on vacation’s and what they mean to me. For part one I look at all the vacations I have been on, including when I was a kid, and I rate my Top 10 vacations of all time.
- Florida 1976 - I was just a kid and we went to Florida to spend time with my aunt and uncle. They were living in Ft. Lauderdale and we went to visit for a week or so. Swimming in the ocean was a new experience for me but the best was our trip north to Orlando and Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort on the Disney property. As a kid it was amazing. It was like a different world. I remember seeing a water slide through a rock and that just added to my amazement. I still remember many of the things that I did on that vacation.
- California 1985 - I will always remember this trip too. We were there for the 2nd year in a row. My grandpa had died the year before and we found out when we got to the Grand Canyon. Every time I think of the Grand Canyon I think of losing my grandpa. The next year my grandma went with us and we saw a lot of places. We left from Sacramento and went through Las Vegas, to Phoenix, down to Tombstone, we saw Old Tucson before heading to San Diego. After that we hit LA and then up the PCH to the Hearst Castle, Carmel, and Pebble Beach before heading back to Sacramento. It was a great vacation and I will never forget it either.
- Branson 2005 - My mom had given us a week of her timeshare and we chose Branson. We had never been there but thought we would give it a try. It turned out to be a very enjoyable time. We went through St Louis and hit the Gateway Arch and took a boat ride on the Mississippi. After that it was on to Branson and with the kids we spent a lot of time at Silver Dollar City, Celebration City and White Water water park. We did only one show, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, but that was enough for us. It was also so enjoyable because of the timeshare. We had plenty of room to spread out and we were comfortable. It wasn’t long after that and we bought our own timeshare.
- Illinois/Wisconsin 2002 - This was a trip of many cities. We started in Chicago with a visit to Santa’s Village for the kids. We spent some time downtown seeing the Sears Tower. After a couple days there we headed north towards Milwaukee and visited the Renaissance Festival at Bristol, IL before heading to Milwaukee. We had planned to visit the Milwaukee Zoo but the temps were in the high 90’s so we passed and instead headed to the Wisconsin Dells and the water parks. After spending a couple days there we headed further to the Stevens Point to a cabin owned by my aunt and uncle. We enjoyed the lake, did some boating and fishing for a couple days before heading back home.
- Washington D.C. 2000 - This was a business trip with a small vacation at the end. My future wife went with me and she would find things to do as I was working. We had a few days after I was done to enjoy our nations capitol. We have said we wanted to go back because it is a great city to visit. There was so much to see but we didn’t come close to hitting everything we wanted.
- Milwaukee/Lake Geneva 2007 - A lot of our trips focus on an ability to see the Cubs play if possible. This trip was no different. We bought tickets to see the Cubs play at Miller Park, the Cubs won too. Before the game we toured Miller Park and I would recommend that to anyone that loves baseball. We visited Miller Brewery, Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, the Zoo and also went down and walked along the beach. We stayed 3 nights in Lake Geneva to take advantage of a benefit we have through our timeshare.
- Minnesota 2006 - This was a long weekend which included a Cubs game at the Metrodome. We didn’t have all the kids but we did the Mall of America, and the kids were amazed by the size of the mall. We took the train down to the Metrodome and the kids enjoyed that. Minneapolis has a very clean and nice public transit system. The Cubs lost but it was still enjoyable.
- Florida 1993 - This was a trip with my ex-wife and her parents. They paid for us to go down to Florida with them and this was a very pleasant trip. Besides the Cubs I love to golf and on this trip I had the opportunity to play golf at Lake Nona and the Osprey at Walt Disney World. These are championship caliber courses which was a lot of fun. We stayed at a timeshare and that added to the comfort of the trip. A lot of golf, a lot of fun and a few of the sites.
- Chicago 2006 - Chicago is a favorite of me and the wife and this trip was truly enjoyable. It didn’t actually involve a Cubs game but we did spend some time downtown. We took a double decker bus tour on a great day and saw a lot of downtown Chicago. We drove up to Gurnee Mills and did some shopping there and also at one of the two Ikea stores. Chicago has some great food and we always have to get some pizza. Lou Malnati’s, Gino’s East and Giordano’s are a few that we have tried. At this point Lou’s is our favorite with Gino’s a close second. One of our next trips will include a trip to Pizzeria Uno and/or Due.
- Wisconsin Dells 2007 - Last year for Spring Break we took the kids to the Dells in March. There are a ton of indoor water parks and we found a great one at Chula Vista. We also found a great rate on a 2 bedroom condo unit and we were very comfortable. The kids enjoyed the water park and they got their fill of that. We also went downtown and did some shopping and on our way back we stopped at the House on the Rock. That wasn’t as fun but was still interesting, since I had never been there. It is worth a stop if you are close by.
That does it for my top 10 vacations. Many of them are recent but my top two come from my childhood. All trips have been memorable and I would do them all again. We have a lot of places we want to visit and the timeshare allows us to do that. Not all people like timeshares but with our large family it works well. One of these days I will tell you how we got our timeshare very cheap. If anyone reading this has a vacation spot they absolutely love please share it. I would love to know what others have enjoyed.
Tomorrow I continue the series with some trips we are planning for the future.
Topics: Travel |
