Love Lounge: What were your childhood vacations like?

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I once saw a newsclip on one of those morning shows instructing parents on how to plan theessential family vacation. A mini television to dangle down like adisco ball. A pint-sized laptop perfect for your pint-sized five-year-old. Evensome hand-held video games disguised as “learning tools.” It's an electronic wonderland. All so the little tykes would have something –anything – to occupy the long and treacherous trip to grandmother’s house.
Iscoffed and quickly changed the channel. For some 20 years,my family and I descended on the Deep Southnot by plane or train, but by our good old-fashioned family Ford. It was barefrom the start. A couple suitcases, a pack of snacks and a few blankets and matchesto stay warm should the car breakdown on a snowy, icy Tennessee road.
We didn’t have atelevision or a camcorder to lose ourselves in a fantasy world. Ourtelevision was America,just a stone’s throw away through the car window. We marveled at the barrenlandscape of the wintry Midwest and clapped with glee as we saw the firstpatches of green grass peek through the northern Alabama red soil. In the early yearsof our travels, we didn’t even have a CD player in the car. To pass the 20-hourtrip, we’d sing everything from The Twelve Days of Christmas (the way it’ssupposed to be sung – each person sings one of the 12 days) to my mom’sspectacular rendition of the Broadway hit On The Street Where You Live.
In fact, the mosthigh-tech gadget in our tight yet lovable quarters was rather low-tech bytoday’s standards. A simple ‘80s tape player. And we didn’t even use it to listento Paula Abdul or Phil Collins. My sister and I sat in the back seat recordingourselves onto a blank tape. We’d laugh, sing songs (I’d sing loudest andproudest, of course) and sometimes even interview each other. A few years ago,my mother found some of our “early demos,” and we discovered our sessionsoccasionally broke out in raucous fights, but even through the bitter words, welaughed a sweet, hardy chuckle.

See, we didn’tneed to be “occupied” or “distracted” to enjoy the family car ride, andmy sister and I didn’t end up climbing the walls of the car by the time wereached the sunny shore, either. In fact, we all looked forward to the ridehome. It was the happiest time of the year. We knew we’d be together. And atthat moment, we knew that was all we needed.
What were your family vacations like when you were growing up, friends? Did you end up fighting with your siblings in the back seat? Or did you fight for the window seat on the plane? What's your favorite vacation memory? I'd love to hear all about it! xoxo
[Photos from one of my favorite movies]