Vacation

It’s vacation time again and I’m thinking about all the souvenirs I collected on vacations past. Some I still have and others have traveled elsewhere, but it’s fun to remember them all.

The summer I was 12 my family took the longest, most memorable vacation ever. My dad spent all winter planning the route we would take, every site we would see, every motel we would stay in, almost every meal we would eat. Finally it was time for my two sisters and me to climb into our 1959 white Chevy station wagon, with a grill that looked like a giant steel emoji grin, and hit the road. Our journey took us from Tennessee to California and back in a huge loop through at least 10 states. Adventures and back seat squabbles abounded! But back to the souvenirs.

For years the bookshelf in my room held my treasured souvenirs from that trip. A favorite was a Native American doll from somewhere out west with a real suede dress, headband with feather, and her own metal stand. She was stunning. Next to her sat a three-inch high porcelain oriental doll from China Town in San Francisco. Never mind that I got to see my first stage musical, South Pacific, while in that city. I got to buy an oriental doll in China Town! But best of all, standing next to her was the small bronze donkey with “Pikes Peak or Bust” printed on the side.

Couldn’t decide on just one color so I went with all!

Yes! I bought it at the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado, never imagining that 17 years later I would move to that state and then spend the next 47 years of my life (so far) living at the foot of America’s Mountain. Pikes Peak or Bust indeed!

Without a doubt I’ve spent more on souvenirs from adult vacations, so they may be nicer but not as memorable. I do remember a trip I took to Mexico with my two sons during my single parent days when I purchased souvenir Christmas gifts for all my family back in Tennessee from vendors on the beach. I shipped them all off, but at the last minute I decided that since the boys would be with their dad for Christmas, I would go to Tennessee. I hadn’t imagined actually having to watch my distinguished, always well-dressed, Southern-gentleman dad opening his multi-striped serape from Mazatlan!

A print from our honeymoon in Maui, a sculpture of a Native American man and his wife from South Dakota, and two oil paintings from Taos have always found spots in our homes. I still have silver jewelry from another trip to Mexico, porcelain rabbits from the flea market in Santa Fe, a menorah from Israel, and Murano glass jewelry from Venice. Yet as the years went by and our home got smaller, most of the souvenirs I’ve collected recently are smaller as well—magnets, shells, or post cards for the most part.

Recently we attended a 100^th birthday party for a neighbor. Her family displayed a board containing post cards from all the places, all over the world, that she and her husband visited. It was really a display of memories. After all, the memories of each trip we take are the best souvenirs of all. Get out this summer and collect some more!

Also published in The Country Register, July-August 2024.

This is a classic column just as appropriate this year as the year I wrote it! Recently filed it in The Country Register, too. Come along with me!

When I put the topic for this column on a list of topics weeks ago, I expected to be nursing a sunburn as I wrote it. My husband and I were planning a midwinter beach vacation then.

Priorities being what they are, we didn’t make it. Instead, I keep bumping into other people I know who’ve just gotten back from Mexico or Hawaii. One tan, relaxed-looking friend just returned from Tahiti!

Instead of writing about my beach bummin’ days, I’m bummin’ about not going to the beach. Instead of giving you an account of lazy afternoons spent stretched out on the sand, I’m stretching my imagination to take a seaside vacation to Mexico in my mind. Want to come along?

Are you packed yet? You don’t need much. Put in a couple of bathing suits so you don’t have to pull on a wet one the day after wearing it. Old, faded suits will do.

You need a pair of shorts and a T-shirt for each day we’re there. Add a sweater or sweatshirt for cool nights in salty breezes, a long skirt or sundress for one nice dinner out, a pair of flip-flops and a pair of nicer sandals for shopping excursions, and you’re ready. (Toss in some suntan lotion and block but forget about makeup…this is a vacation!)

At the airport waiting for our flight, you ask if I have my ticket. Of course! (I went back and got it after leaving it on the kitchen counter.) You looked pretty silly arriving in the snow in that straw hat, but I’ll wish I had it when the sun’s beating down on my head.

Comparing books in our carry-on bags as we wait to board, we realize we both brought Beach Music, so I give my copy to an anxious-looking woman next to me on the plane. One decent book and one mindless romance each is all we need—then we’ll swap!

Finally we arrive! As we walk down the steps from the plane onto the tarmac I look at you and we laugh. It’s like we just walked into a steam room. A breeze stirs the palm trees lining the runway and you grab your hat just in time.

After a bumpy bus ride we check into our hotel (sure, I’ll take the bed by the window), change into our suits, and head for the beach. The chairs are all taken, so we stretch out a blanket on the sand and collapse. Ahhh…this is what it’s all about.

You go for a dip in the ocean. I don’t mean to laugh at your hopping across the hot sand—but it’s funny! Soon you’re back and the smell of salt water on suntan lotion fills the air. (Hey, you’re getting wet sand on the blanket!) Tomorrow I’ll swim, too, but today…I’m vacating.

As the sun starts to go down we pull on our T-shirts and get a couple of overly sweet drinks. We claim a couple of abandoned beach chairs and sit watching the orange sunset appear behind the rock formations out in the water. Silently we absorb the soothing sounds of the surf punctuated by the calls of the gulls as they head home for the night.

I feel better. How about you?

Savoring Souvenirs

A Winter Beach Vacation