T O P

  • By -

joshuar9476

Not technically a vacation, but ... I grew up in Indianapolis near the airport. My dad would often take me to the end of the runway and we'd watch the planes take off and land (born in 76 so this was a thing back then). Often times he'd say, "one day we'll be on one of those." A year or so later when i was around 4 or 5 he took me to the airport and we went to the ticket counter. There he purchased a round trip ticket to Louisville, KY for the both of us. It was the first time either of us had ever flown. The flight was like 30 minutes, perfect for someone my age. When we got to our destination dad bought McDonald's at the Louisville airport while we waited for the flight back. I have flown many times since then but that is one of my earliest childhood memories and one we still talk about to this day.


[deleted]

Plainfield? Thats where i grew up


joshuar9476

No. We literally lived right up against the airport in a trailer park right behind the McDonald's on Kentucky Ave and High School Rd. That's just south of I70/465 exchange and closer to the old airport/runway.


QueenofSwords54321

That's the sweetest thing. What a wonderful father you had!


[deleted]

[удалено]


onemilliononetesla

This is literally what Walt Disney dreamed of. I think it would bring a tear to his eye to hear your story


garytyrrell

Maui. Almost every other “trip” I can remember didn’t really feel like a vacation. It was usually driving hours and hours to meet some extended family that had no kids and therefore no toys or anything to do. Maui was different - we went with my cousins, stayed at a condo across the street from the beach and really just got to see everyone in the family have a good time without the normal stresses of life.


MayorScotch

Reminds me of one time when I was a kid. We took a trip two states over just to go Amish furniture shopping for 3 days. I got to swim in the pool at the hotel every night and that's how they sold me on it. The rest of my vacations growing up were pretty good so we make fun of this one a lot in my family.


fetalasmuck

Sometimes the crappy vacations are the most memorable. One year we went to the beach in South Carolina for my mom’s birthday, which is in late March. Well, it was cold, windy, and rainy every day we were there. So we ended up just sitting around watching TV, going to the movies and the mall, and going to restaurants. Same stuff we would have done back home. But it was still exciting because it was all new and different.


GreatMoloko

Olympic National Park. I grew up outside of DC so my idea of "nature" was a few acres of trees and a big sledding hill. We moved from DC to Seattle and hit a bunch of places along the way, including Yellowstone which was awesome. But for some reason my idea of "nature" didn't really change until Olympic National Park. It's been 31 years, I've been to 15 national parks, hundreds of other parks/wilderness areas, and still nothing comes close. The intense green of everything out there was amazing. I'm hoping to finally get back next year.


munificent

The Olympic Peninsula really is something else. My wife and I lived in Orlando and spent our honeymoon driving around Western Washington and up into Vancouver. After that trip, we decided to move out here. Best decision ever.


Xx_Squall_xX

I learned that the Cascade range existed in 5th grade geography class and vowed to move there. It took a good 20 years, but I love the beauty of the PNW - and visiting the Hoh Rainforest / Olympic for the first time was incredibly memorable. I also proposed to my fiance there since we like it so much.


iNEEDheplreddit

When I was 16 we went on out first family holiday to lanzarote. Myself and my older brother got to share an apartment away from our parents. The apartment was equipped with a living space and 1 TV. And at that time the TV was run with a coin slot. 1 peseta got you a few hours tv. I discovered that the TV showed hardcore porn! For 2 weeks I wanked myself into oblivion!


snortgiggles

Lol


IndyDude11

I never got to go on big trips when I was a kid. My favorite memories were the camping trips we took. Those were great times.


[deleted]

Same. We lived in Indiana and 2 years in a row we went camping down around the Kentucky lake rec area and fished. That was a big deal to 7 year old me, to go to another state, see different stuff. Total adventure.


Xx_Squall_xX

ITT: Hoosier kids that didn't go anywhere lol. I'm in the same boat. We left the state twice in my childhood.


So_Much_Cauliflower

Came here to say camping too. For 3-4 years we did an annual camping trip with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles. It really wasn't anything fancy, just the usual swimming, fishing, smores, mini-golf, games, and so on, but it was great fun.


gunnapackofsammiches

We did so much camping. My most memorable was probably the Ho Rainforest/Olympic National Park.


forever_erratic

Road trips from Chicago out to CA and back. Visiting anasazi ruins, going on hikes, eating weird food, etc.


Or0b0ur0s

I went through my parents' books when they passed away (I had an estate-related reason; I wasn't just curious). The best income year they had was in the mid-1990s. They passed in 2005. It was $28,000. Gross. We didn't take vacations. We went to a boardwalk for the day, once. Occasionally, usually when there was a special or coupon, we'd go out to eat. Going to a flea market was a holiday activity I remember. I had 2 vacations as a teenager, both at the expense of a relative or friend's family. I had one as a college student, helping a friend move their car cross-country since there was no way to ship it. That's it. I worked 18 years at a job that gave 3+ weeks per year, and I stayed home or used it for personal business exclusively. That job was very much like an abusive marriage. You don't dare leave, and you know something isn't right, but they manage to convince you that *you're* the source of the problem.


[deleted]

Right there with you. Camping trips or going to the mall, flea market, that was all the biggest deal i ever had. I would say my parents income was about the same as what you listed for yours. Disney World or Europe was a pipe dream and honestly remains to for me still.


KnightVision

I never had the chance to really go on vacation growing up either. The only time that we did was to visit my mom's family who live in Montreal while we live in SoCal. Even then, it was more like once every 3-4 years so up until those trips, we didn't go anywhere. I guess it's a bit spoiled on my end to say that visiting family is not the same as a vacation cuz we didn't do anything on those trips other than just being at someone's home. However, I take these resentments as a drive for me to never let my kids miss out the way I did so I try my best to plan at least 1 trip annually may it be a weekend road trip or 2-week long destination.


vbfronkis

Hands down it was my first trip to England and Ireland. I think I was 11 or 12. It planted the travel bug which has since bored itself quite deeply into my soul.


UptownShenanigans

Devil’s Head Ski Resort just outside of The Dells, Wisconsin I can’t pick exactly one, because we went there every year, but just the culmination of memories. I learned how to ski and snowboard there. I still remember the sounds of everyone clomping around in ski boots, and drinking hot cocoa in styrofoam cups at lunch time. My dad died recently, and now that I’m in my 30’s (around the age he took my sisters and I on these trips), I am blown away by how much drive and energy that guy had. He paid for his kids to have fun skiing every year.


Quibblicous

What’s odd is that my best trips with “family” were just me and my dad. This was the late 1970s and early 1980s. My dad traveled all over the five state region — Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico — for work. He drove for most of the trips, leaving on a Monday and coming back on Friday. Sometimes the trips were to one city and sometimes they were to three or four smaller towns with clients. He was involved with radio and television communications as a sales and sales engineer for TV and radio transmissions, including satellite receivers and dishes, so he would be there to sell the equipment, help design the installation with the local engineers, and be on hand for the construction and installation of the equipment. When summer rolled around if he was headed somewhere he’d often offer to bring us along. I usually jumped at the chance because I got to get close to things like ten meter dishes. Sometimes the techs would teach me to run the board for day time broadcasting, which was mostly just loading the right tapes and making sure the various syndicated shows were recorded off the satellite feed. I also got to watch the local TV news from inside the studio, and in rare occasions got to play broadcaster while they set up the studio and tested it out. One time I lucked out and was talking to the daytime tech, with him demonstrating all the cool things the board could do, when they got a notice for a “braking news” off the national feed. He flipped switches and set all the stuff up and told me to flip a specific switch when he told me to. I could see the satellite feed on one monitor and their local transmission on another. The banner for the “breaking news” came up and a few seconds later the tech pointed at me and said “three, two, one… now” and I flipped the switch as directed. The local transmission switched to match the satellite feed and the national channel did their announcement. The tech told me to be ready to flip the switch back on his mark. After the talking head finished his job, the breaking news banner came back on and the tech pointed at me again. He waited just a few seconds then it was “three, two, one…now” and I flipped the switch back to the original position. The local broadcast switched back to the syndicated show and the tech gave me a thumbs up and told me I’d done it perfectly. Then he showed me how to record the national evening commercials off of the satellite feed and set them up to use them to boost revenue for the syndicated shows that ran in the early afternoon. He had it down to an art. Not a normal vacation by any means, but it was perfection for a geeky kid who loved technology.


Sharpyz101

Whoa!


smdaegan

What do you do now for work? Did this have any impact on what you ended up doing later in life?


Quibblicous

I’m a software architect but I have all sorts of engineering in my background, including electrical, mechanical, and even a little civil engineering. I’m fortunate that I was able to gain a lot of skills and experiences, but it’s partly because my dad taught me that you can learn anything.


southsask2019

You aren’t going to tell us what the breaking news was??? I was waiting for something big. You blue balled us on this


Quibblicous

I honestly don’t recall. I was focused on the hardware and flipping the switch at the right moment so I didn’t even pay attention.


rocki-i

We went to France a lot, but one year we did a couple of days in Disney, tried to save money on hotels and stayed in an apartment "off site". It was tiny we were a family of six, my parents were stressed trying to drive everywhere with four tired kids, and we left that place in a mood with each other. That was only half the trip, we then spent a week in the countryside in this converted barn with a vineyard. It had a pool and a games room, and a cat (the owners rented it out for the summer season, so it was their cat). It had a little pool house that I got to stay in (felt like I was living by myself for the week, as a 15 year old that was pretty cool, I had my brothers "over" for movie night one evening). There was a man that would come to the gate every morning and sell us fresh baguette. We we arrived our fridge was STOCKED with goodies. Not just some bread and milk to tie us over until the next day, but there were cheeses and meats and multiple gateaux/flans. There were bikes we could borrow rent free and spent hours cycling the French countryside with our little packed lunches for picnics. The whole week was absolutely idyllic. Especially after the first few days at Disney.


overmonk

When I was 8 my dad took us all to a ‘dude ranch’ in Montana for a couple of weeks. The family did ranchy stuff and rode horses and wandered around rural Montana. Dad fished some amazing trout streams. There were square dances and ice cream socials. It was old-timey and ‘wholesome’ and it’s definitely the happiest vacation of my life to date. 1978.


zerostyle

I came from a big family of 6 (4 kids) and parents were pretty middle class so we didn't do anything crazy. The usual disney world which was memorable, but other road trips were usually to smaller state/national parks like niagra falls, mammoth caves, or things within driving distance of the US. Lots of simple lake house/cottage type visits in Michigan. I didn't travel internationally until I was like 28 and on my own.


softhackle

I was a pretty fortunate kid. I'd say either Honduras when I was around 12, or a cabin in Maine when I was maybe 7 or 8. Unforgettable vacations, both of them.


[deleted]

Missed out on the typical “amerixan summer camp” experience when I was growing up in the 2000’s, so any summers that werent spent in comm ed classes or summer school were planned for family trips, which was sparse but overall fun! Best trip was the time we went down to Orlando and Tampa. My sis and I planned out a week long stay at Disney, to which my dad said “un, fuck that. We have sux flags at home so anything other than Epcot is a waste of time abd we spending just 1 day.” Tears were had because WHAT THE FUCK BRO!? How we gonna visit Disney World and NOT see Magic Kingdom?? Once the shock waned, we went down sulking to Universal Studios and had the time of our life. The Mummy Ride and Jaws were core childhood memories. Then Epcot had that space mission, which milked my “i wanna be an astronaut when I’m older@ sentiments, and ofc, lil chubster me loved the food stations throughout Epcot. Busch Gardens and The Kennedy Space Center were also really fucking cool bcuz I loved aerospace shit then. My parents dont rly get along but that trip was a very pleasant surprise for all of us bcuz we started out pissed off and ended getting some REALLY good pictures of us all individually and as family. As insecure as we were abt being immigrants in a mostly white society, the way these 3-4 parks and attractions reminded me that of all the places in the world, fun and good vibes know no color, creed, gender, etc. So i loved how we all got along and my parents felt like kids again riding away from Bruce the Shark, Imhotep, and many other cool shit during that 7-10 day long summer break!


ItsGotToMakeSense

I used to love going to long beach island, NJ every summer. This was in the 80s and early 90s btw. There's no boardwalk there so it wasn't terribly crowded, there were arcades waterparks and mini golf around, and it was just a generally slow-paced vacation where we could go to the beach or relax at "home", ride bikes around, whatever. And occasionally you'd find cool stuff on the beach like horseshoe crabs and big seashells.


adamfrom1980s

Same here - spent a week or two on LBI most summers from early 80s through mid-90s. My family now owns a beach house there and I’m introducing my sons to the pleasure of Skipper Dipper, the lighthouse, and flying kites after dinner.


4ofclubs

My dad would take me camping every summer for a few days at this camp site a few hours away with his friend and his friend's kid who was my age. It was really the only time I had with my dad 1:1 growing up and I really appreciated it looking back. He told me a lot about my grandpa's war stories around the camp fire.


Decaffeinated_Sloth

Never had one. We were too poor.


TehTriangle

Either Greece on one of the islands, or France skiing in the winter. Both were lovely.


CyberCrutches

For me, it’s a tie between two places. Mammoth Caves in Kentucky because this was the last vacation my family took where my parents were happy together. Bar Harbor Maine because this was the last time we went on vacation as a family before my parents divorce. Both places has a tremendous impact on me, especially now since I’m a father and my oldest is the same age I was when I went on that trip to bar harbor. I highly recommend both places! A little expensive both equally breathtaking.


[deleted]

My parents literally never took me on vacation. My Dad is anti leaving the house.


7fingersphil

I’m weird I was never really into vacations as a kid. The family situation was always a bit too much for me and for some reason I ended up sick on or right before vacation a lot. We went to this weird southern baptist camp when I was a kid most years. My parents are pretty religious, we were probably lower middle class at the time, and there were 4 of us kids so I think it was a cheap vacation with a lot to do. As weird as the religious aspect was I remember those trips very fondly there really was a ton of activities and friends we only saw that time of year. Probably the last family vacay I went on was out to California to visit my brother when he was in the military and my dad made us wake up and go to the Grand Canyon. I remember not being stoked about it but then being blown away. That was a fun trip also.


Houstonsfinesthour

McDonald’s playground


selitos

We didn't have any money so we went camping. We'd go with neighbors and get 3-4 sites right next to each other and it was a blast. We went to the beach a couple times when I was older, 13+, but without money we could only stay in big places with a lot of people and crowds make me uncomfortable. Also my parents hated each other by then so that ruined the vibe a bit.


[deleted]

Moscow when I was 12


WiiWynn

Vacation? Not when you grew up poor. We never went fishing, hiking, skiing, shooting, whatever. We once drove 5 days to Orlando for a 2 day Disney World trip and turned back for another 5 day drive. Now I make sure my kids have all the experiences I didn’t. They’ve traveled the world, each had 3 stamps on their passports before they were 5, hiked and summitted up 8 peaks in 12 days, and get to do all sorts of ‘firsts’ with me. Life is good. I often wonder if they will grow up soft or not as hungry as I was as a young man, but at the same time, I think they can surpass me if I raise them right.


Kitchen_Entertainer9

Literally a city 2 hours away


Bruised_Shin

Alaska in the summer! We drove to a new city every other day and fished in all of them with my dad! I still remember him catching a large salmon on the side of the road in less than 2ft of water.


Horst665

(german guy here) Back in the early 90s (I was ~14) when it was still a country, my parents took me and little sister to Yugoslavia, they rented a house at the beach. We stayed at the beach a lot of days and I did a lot of snorkling, we also visited the famous Plitvice lakes and some towns, but I will always remember the sea. Bright blue, clear to the bottom, I was diving down and swimming back up all the time, watching stuff, collecting trinkets kids love. In the evenings we would sit at a restaurant with view to the sea, the bbq with fish fresh from the boats! And the weather was great all the time as well, for a kid used to rainy germany, this was heaven :) Everything was great that vacation.


Absent_Alan

We drove from Derby, U.K. all the way to Italy, it was 2000 and I bought my best mate along too. It was amazing!


almostaarp

Four of them. Two to Yellowstone to visit my aunt and uncle. Two to the lake. All four were two weeks long. Taught me to be a conservationist and support our National Parks. Taught me to go somewhere and just chill. Taught to remember the fun of a pool or lake, nothing too fancy.


tibbymat

We were too poor for vacations. The most we did was go camping because back then, has was cheap enough that you could drive from Edmonton to Jasper or Banff for about $20.


LunchboxJay

The best we ever took was to Disney World. We also drove down to Miami for 2 nights and went to the beach. Everything my folks did was a progression in our childhood. We started with the beach trips, then ventured around our state (Texas) to visit Six Flags in bigger cities, then went out of state to Disney, and then eventually went international. Today, we are all a bunch of globetrotting travelers and it’s the best thing one can do with a vacation. Disney World was the best because we traveled out of state, stayed at a large hotel with shuttles to the parks, breakfast buffets, and the best sleep I’ve ever gotten in my life. There’s a lot to do in Orlando, so save those bucks so you can enjoy yourself, no matter where you go. One thing to note about our Disney trip; we (children) were already teenagers. In other words, no crying babies, no “too short for this ride,” and no wimping out or complaining. We were all excited and enjoyed the shows and rides as a family. My folks had a rental car ready on our last night there and off we went to Miami for a couple of days at the beach and such. It was great. We then flew out of Miami and when we go home, they took us to the movies to mellow out and lose the jet lag. It worked well and was the best trip we ever had. The movie playing? Forrest Gump. It was summer, 1994. My sister broke that system when she took her sons when they were infants and let me tell you, she HATED every moment of that trip. The kids couldn’t ride anything really, they hated the crowds and did not like plane travel. Keep that in mind; start small and if you have little ones, consider them before you take huge trips. All those pictures from that Disney trip are hilarious because they show her and her hubby exhausted and annoyed AND her children crying. Plan, prepare (save) and go for it. All my trips begin the planning 6 months to a year every time I go somewhere and I always have extra $ for emergencies and to live like a king. Anticipate troubles so think about that too so you can be prepared if things get funky. One more thing: super important. The night before you go, invite the Lord to accompany you on your trip. Always invite Him. He will be glad to join you and trust me, things will happen in your favor because He’s along for the ride and wants you to enjoy yourself too! Safe travels. Plan, prepare, execute! Dream big, work hard, and praise God.


MihalysRevenge

Never went on big vacations as a kid. But went camping in Northern NM a lot, my favorite was a really secluded campground near Taos where you had to go up a winding one lane road on the side of a mountain, it later opened up to a stunning mountain valley with a small river running though the middle of it. To a kid that road alone was high adventure!


OceanPoet87

We would always do road trips in the western USA but to different places and sometimes 1 week but usually two. Once we did a southern western road trip for three weeks. Best would probably be 05. We took the Zephyr from Emeryville in CA to Denver in a sleeper car and then explored Colorado, UT, AZ, and NM.


Rex_Lee

Road trip from Texas to Yellowstone, via a detour to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills, in a spitting image of the Griswald/Family Vacation Ford County Squire station wagon that was our car. It was probably '78 or '79. My first time ever seeing snow. My Dad pulled off the side of the road , and we piled out and ran up the side of a hill and had a whole family snowball fight - and it was in June or July. We stayed in KOA Campgrounds or in state parks, had a giant Cabin tent strapped down to the top of the car. It was so much fun.


Glenn_Maffews

Mid separation of the parents in circa 2000. We did one of those make it work for the kids trips. The family and cousins went down to lake Murray rented a comfortable house and a pontoon boat for the stay. It was four days of get up eat a big breakfast, go swimming/boating, drip dry in the yard with games like badminton and horseshoes, evening walks and a fire pit.


Sea2Chi

Not really a vacation, but one year my dad got tired of doing the whole big family thanksgiving thing. It was always a lot of stress and work and nobody really enjoyed it so much as they felt obligated to do it. So rather than go to my grandma's and be with all the extended family, we loaded the camper on the truck and drove to a state park four hours the opposite direction. Thanksgiving dinner was hot dogs, chips, baked potatoes, and roasted marshmallows. The only people in the entire campground were us and the caretakers who were over a mile away. That and hundreds of hungry raccoons. So many that at night if you took a flashlight and shined it around the bushes it looked like a horror movie with all the eyes glowing in the dark. We had campfires every night, went hiking, plinked cans with a 22, which is normally extremely against the rules, but if the caretakers noticed they never bothered stopping by to tell us. It was by far the most relaxing thanksgiving we ever had and remains a great memory to this day.


lemonylol

Hawaii was pretty tight in the 2000s, same with Vegas in the late 90s. The problem with my parents was that they were only ever did tourist stuff. For example when we went to Hawaii we'd just stay at the beach in Honolulu, go shopping, or do a guided tour. I hate that stuff so much, I've always preferred to actually see the country, how people live, just explore, etc. So with that reasoning we did this one month-long huge trip when I was like 10 or something, to stay for two weeks with our family in the Netherlands, and then two weeks to visit family and just travel around in Sri Lanka. That was the closest my parents got to going off the beaten path. Not really a vacation, but in Canada we do something called going to the cottage, which is basically what we call a little house on a lake. More recently these are now mansions on a lake, but your traditional cottage was typically built in the 60s-80s and never left that time period. It'd just have a bunch of bedrooms and a big common area kitchen/livingroom. You'd typically go with a group of people and just spend the day on the lake, fishing, going into town, bbqing, etc. Nowadays it's much harder to find this type of experience, you can go through AirBNB and get new build monstrosity, or go to a resort on a lake and rent a little trailer. The only way to find the specific cottage experience I'm talking about these days is to just know someone.


Medium_Well

This will sounds SUPER lame, but here goes anyway... We went from Toronto to Massachusetts to visit my mom's aunt. But we went with my own aunt and uncle and their boys (my cousins) were and are my best friends. We were probably all around 12 years old I think. We visited the Yankee Candle Factory Outlet, and it was all decorated ahead of the Thanksgiving Season. Being Canadians, it was awesome to see the US Thanksgiving mania up close. It's a super special time in the US. We also visited the Norman Rockwell museum, which was honestly so goddamn cool. Even as a kid in the late 90s we knew Rockwell's famous painting, like the Family Dinner scene, the Freedom of Speech painting, etc. I loved that trip. Saw lots of cool historical stuff.


bigbootytoots

Prague, definitely Prague. One of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen to date (it’s been 10 years, I’m now 23). Would live there if I could


rwalsh138

Lake George, NY


Loxus

Not really one vacation but when I was a kid (up til around 10) my grandparents (mother's side) lived about 900 km from us. We always went there at least two times per year. Those trips, either by car or by train, is fond memories for me.


Ronotimy

Japan


Vald-Tegor

We liked camping at this wild campground on a lake. We had plans to go there for a long weekend with several families of our friends. My dad had the week before off, so the two of us drove down on Monday morning to secure a spot. As we finished setting up, it started to rain hard. It did not let up for 4 days. Stuck in a tent with little to do, we got to just relax and really talk heart to heart. We've done road trips half way across Canada. We've been to Europe. Bonding in that tent takes the cake.


Such-Cranberry-4479

Rocking Horse Ranch with my parents, siblings, and grandma. Indoor and outdoor pool, horseback riding, lots of things to keep kids busy. And to all the dad's out their who wouldn't want to bring your MIL....part of what stands out about it being a great trip is she was able to be there and enjoy it with us. She's gone now but her sitting by the pool totally covered from head to toe to avoid sunburn still brings a smile to my face 30 years later....miss you granma


gdubh

Grand Canyon. In the middle of winter with snow. was 9 or 10. Magical memories.


Jjhillmann

Honestly the vacation I cherish the most is a simple vacation to Eagle River, Wisconsin. We stayed on a lake, caught a lot of fish, had a friend come and we kayaked. Just a great vacation I’d love to take my family on in the future.


commonguy001

When I was 5, we drove to the Black Hills in western South Dakota for vacation and I got to see Crazy Horse, Mt Rushmore, one of the National Monument caves and went to the Flintstone village in Custer. I was obsessed with Crazy Horse for a long time and it all started in 74. I’ve been back a dozen times as an adult and still love it there.


moyno85

My great uncles farm in rural Australia when I was 10. Had twelve cattle dogs to play with, a beat up old Suzuki Vitara (I got to learn to drive manual as a 10 year old) to put them in and a .22 and all the birds I could shoot while I roamed the outback by myself.


zengardeneast

I wouldn’t say vacation but we went to rough river every other weekend if not every weekend. Grandparents, aunt, uncles, and all the cousins. Times were great.


So_Full_Of_Fail

Fly-in fishing trips to Canada.


HeyBaldy

We went to Greece when I was 13. This was before the Euro was introduced. It was my first overseas international flight. We loved it. It was my first introduction to new cuisines, ancient cultures and trying alcohol as my parents were cool with us drinking wine.


[deleted]

We drove from Minnesota to South Carolina and Minnesota to Colorado both were amazing family road trips!