The Miss Elaine-ous Life

random acts of life, family and photos

Summer Vacation Carnival!

by

The summer vacation was pretty much a given in my family while I was growing up. Every year Daddy would take a week or so off from work and we would drive somewhere, whether it be Colorado, California or even the Texas coast. My parents would load up the truck and camper with all the neccessities and we would be on our way, down the open road.

I was born in California, towards the end of the 9-year stint that my family was there while my father worked for IBM. We moved back to Texas when I was 16 months old but my parents adored Cali and there were two big trips back, one when I was 3 and again the summer after I turned 12. I obviously don’t remember the first one very well, but the second trip was quite memorable and included side trips to San Francisco and Disneyland (pictures to follow).

Probably THE most vivid memories come from one of our trips up to Colorado, in which my paternal Grandmother or “Granny,” joined us. I believe I was 8 years old and my brother Larry was the only one of my three brothers to go with us. The other two were too “old” for vacationing with the family anymore. I wonder why (stay tuned…).
So, we drove up to Colorado in the camper/truck combo while my grandmother kept a notebook in which she wrote the name and population of every. single. town. we passed through. She was diligent, let me tell you. This was a woman who hadn’t done a lot of traveling outside of her small town in Texas so this was quite a thrill for her.

Daddy had the wild idea to drive the camper/truck up a mountain. On a dirt road that was very steep. My grandmother was praying the rosary the entire way down. The next day – our brakes went out on the truck. God Bless! Can you imagine if they had gone out the day before? It’s possible that I might not be here to blog about this right now. Just think what might have been if my Granny hadn’t been praying the entire time (scaring the you-know-what out of her granddaughter by the way!) We were however, in the middle of absolutely nowhere when they did give out (another off-roadin’ trip of Dad’s) and had to wait quite a long time for a passer-by to “rescue” us (this was before cell phones!). We had no brakes. In Colorado. Yeah, not good.

If I recall, it was during that same trip that we had some really “interesting neighbors” at the K.O.A. where we camped. It was a husband and wife team and he was having a little trouble getting his fire started. But with a little help from some erratic lighter fluid usage, he went from no fire to WAY TOO MUCH fire in 0 to 3 seconds. After things calmed down and we realized we were not going to have to evacuate our camp site, we laughed and laughed at him. A lot.

When we got home from that trip the empty kegs were still on the patio from the party my brothers had thrown. Geez guys, couldn’t you at least have gotten rid of the obvious evidence?? No WONDER they didn’t want to go with us. {wink, wink} Our matching brown ’80’s sofas never smelled quite the same after that. I can’t remember what the punishment was but I do believe there was some yelling, if memory serves…

Unfortunately all the pics of that trip are buried somewhere at my parent’s house but I will share some other random ones below.

I am gonna say we are in Colorado in this one, but on our way to California, and this is probably 1978. I LOVE my brother Steve’s knee socks – same ones as shown in my previous post. And where are we posing, like in the middle of the highway? Hello people, not safe! I am sure Daddy was all about the mountains in the background. Look, SNOW!

I am guessing my brother Chris took this one since he is the only one not in the picture. I have absolutely no idea where we are, but I was only 2-ish so give me a break. I love my Mom’s handbag in this one. Hmm, I wonder if she still has it…. Oh and check out Daddy’s famous “burns.” Where’s a razor when you need one?

Here I am during one of our MANY trips down to the Texas beach. I don’t look very thrilled but I do remember loving that swim suit. I mean “Can-I-please-just-sleep-in-it-too” LOVING It. Not sure why now. I think this is probalby ’82 or ’83.

This was on our way down to another trip to “the coast,” as we always called it. The drive from Austin down there is BOR-ING so fields full of cotton became quite interesting. This was taken during my chubby but tan days. Loving the mullet – aren’t you?

Here are my parents at Disneyland in 1987. I love how happy and carefree they look. We had a great time on this trip, in which some of us drove (mom, dad, my oldest brother Steve) and my other two brothers, Larry & Chris flew in. We were all together again for vacation. Even Steve’s then “girlfriend,” who is now his wife of almost 20 years, flew in for a couple of days!

Same trip – I took this picture of Larry, Dad, Mom and Steve in front of the beautiful Golden Gate bridge. Golly I love to visit California! And yes, the bridge is gorgeous but those clothes – WOAH! Check out Steve’s rockin’ bandana (I will be lucky if he ever speaks to me again after this post, won’t I?) Love you Steve!

Here I am in the rain on our trip to Washington D.C. in 1990. It was just Mom and Dad and I that trip and it rained A LOT. I think this is somewhere in Tennesse, on the way there. Yeah, uh… this was the trip where we had to illegally park by the Smithsonian so my father could run back in to see “Archie Bunker’s” recliner. Oh and Mom and I thought The Mall in D.C. was a shopping center and we were just a little disappointed to find out it was something else entirely. What can we say, we like to shop.

So there are some highlights from my family Summer vacations (this could go on forever, but most of the pics are still at my parent’s house). I only hope that Tim and I can provide such great memories for our kids, as we venture out with them each summer. Where are we going this year you may ask? I don’t know yet. Can you believe it? Hopefully somewhere in August.

Now it’s your turn to share your summer vacation stories. Can’t wait to hear about them and see some pics!

**Okay, so no Mr. Linky today. I may still try to do it tomorrow but I can’t even seem to get started on their site. Bummer. So, if you post about your summer vacations this week PLEASE leave your link in the comments! Have Fun!**

elaine

Comments

  1. I LOVE all the vacation pics! It’s very cool that your family was able to enjoy so many great vacations together, and that you have the photos to go with them.

  3. Is it bad that I am such a sucker for old family pics? I swear I have a few just like those. Just insert my family (and you can’t forget those knee socks!).

  4. These are all great stories to have documented. The pictures are too funny.

    I will have to see about digging up some old family pics myself.

  5. If I get a second I’m going to write up a story for tomorrow. I love this idea!

    Such fabulous pictures! I love your dad’s sideburns! And the knee socks! And your cute little outfit in the 2nd pic! So sweet!
    Ahhh, the good ole days!

  7. How cute were you in that darling little favorite swimsuit!? I loved the story of grandma praying all the way down the mountain – HA!! Thanks for sharing your story – so fun!

    Take care – Kellan

    PS – where do you live in TX?

  8. Your little blonde hair is just so adorable!

    Love those family pics, and boy your families did a lot of traveling! What a great post idea!

    Hmmm, wonder what I can come up with………….

  11. I got a kick out of your grandma praying on the mountain.

    Great vacation pics and it’s awesome that you got to have those experiences with your family. Makes good memories!

  13. omg I totally was JUST working on a summer vacation/memories post when I logged on and read yours! I’ll let you know when it’s up and ready, I want to dig out some of my old pics too 🙂

  14. okay, i am loving all of the old pics! i wish i had the patience and the time to teach my mom to scan and email pictures to me. next time i am at her house i am going to be very busy doing some scanning while the kids play with thier grandparents!

  17. I wish I had some old family albums here to share!

    Since my extended family lived all across the country, we hever took any traditional vacations, whenever we could get away it was to visit our family. My mom always drove the entire time, since dad hates to drive (now it’s the opposite – I’m the one that hates to drive).

    We actually had a very similar experience with brakes, except ours was in the mountains of TN. They went out literally just in time to coast into a gas station at the bottom of a mountain. Whoa. I have the same feelings as you about making it out of that alive. Thank God!

    It might have been on the same trip that we saw some Mama and baby bear cubs along the side of the road, and Dad told mom to stop the car so he could get out and see them and feed them our bologna sandwiches. Great idea, dad.

  21. I absolutely love looking at old photos. I have so many from the 70s with the same awesome fashion and hair statements!

    Great post!

  22. Some of my favorite memories are of family vacations–we used to love monday night slide shows of our vacation photos.

  24. I loved this Elaine! It reminds me of all the camping trips we took when I was a kid… we went to Alaska the year I was 5. Only my family would go North in the summer! It was beautiful though so I guess my parents knew what they were doing…can you tell I said that begrudgingly?

    🙂

  28. oops! I DID didn’t i!?! that was probably left over in my copy from when I link YOU on the post hehe 🙂 thanks for fixing it for me!

  30. I was laughing with the “how about a family photo in the middle of the highway” shot!

    And I can see how you would LOVE that bathing suit…tres chic, baby!!!

    Happy POW!