My husband decided we needed to take a family vacation. Not one that focused on visiting one set of relatives or another, but a REAL just-the-four-of-us vacation. Of course we all jumped on the idea like fleas on a dog. Originally, we decided to go to Southern California for a week then drive to Arizona and New Mexico where Husband has a few relatives he hadn’t seen in forever. No, we weren’t going there *just* to visit them. We had plans to see the Grand Canyon and other wonders of the Southwest.

Then we realized we’d be four Alaskans traveling through the desert. In June. Yeah, not a good idea. The wildfires kicked up about then and we put the kibosh on that direction.

Option Number Two: Stay in SoCal for a while then travel up the coast to Monterey.

Ahhhh. Much better. And cooler. So that’s what we did. Oh, and we did take a side trip to visit his family in eastern Washington for five days. When you live in Alaska, you look at the idea of “while you’re in the area” a little differently 🙂

Rather than give you a long travelogue of our adventure, here’s a down and dirty look at the trip.

Days Gone: 21

Air Miles Traveled: 4,000+

Airplanes Traveled in: 6

Rental Car Miles: 1,300

Foot Miles: Too many to count

Blisters: 4

Attractions/Museums/Parks: 15

(including: SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari, gobs of museums at Balboa Park–loved that place!–Universal Studios, Disneyland, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium)

(now you understand the Foot Miles and Blisters 😛 )

Hotels: 7

Pools Used By Kids: 1 (I still don’t understand how that happened)

Beaches: 1 (ditto)

Tubes of Sunscreen: 1

Pairs of Sandals Broken: 1

Lost Sunglasses: 1

Souvenir Hats Purchased: 3

Souvenir Hats Lost: 1

Souvenir T-Shirts Purchased: 14

Friends Visited: 5

Agents Met: 1

Happy Tourists: 4

We returned relaxed and tanned (except for DD#2 who is so very fair-skinned) but happy to see home again.

Not only did this vacation give us the opportunity to get out of our small town, but I think it brought us together as a family. There were never any moments where I wanted to leave my kids or husband along Highway 1, and I hope they were good with keeping me in the car as well. We enjoyed ourselves and each other immensely. Which is the point of a family vacation, isn’t it?