Song Lyric of the Day:
Goodbye and it starts to snow / In the streets of Mexico / Goodbye, I am left alone / In the streets of Mexico
Glenn Morrison (featuring Islove) / “Goodbye“
Yesterday when I wrote about my hopes for 2016, I forgot to include a big one: family vacations. As in: I hope we can take little day trips here and there. Because that week-long, possibly exotic family vacation in a location ideally far, far away? Probably not happening any time soon.
The other day Coraline asked me when we were going to the beach again, and I had to tell her I have no idea. Granted, the beach is very low on my and Rich’s list of dream vacation destinations — we’ve never been beach people — but we know she loves it, which makes us enjoy it more than we normally would. I would REALLY love for this to be the year we take Cora to Walt Disney World, but again, I’m not holding my breath.
Granted, a family vacation is a first-world problem, and even being able to take paid time off is a privilege, not a right. Until we can afford to take a real vacation, though, Rich and I are looking forward to taking little day trips with Coraline. We’ve decided to focus on a 2-4 hour driving radius of Knoxville, which opens up some decent possibilities. So where will we go first? I’m leaning toward the Lost Sea — it’s not that far, and the last time Rich and I visited was way back in high school (at the latest). The anthropology nerd in me is also dying to go to the ETSU & General Shale Natural History Museum, which I’m pretty sure Cora would get a kick out of (thank you, Night at the Museum movies). This list of family-friendly day trips on the Knoxville Moms Blog is also rife with possibilities.
So what’s the upside about staying close to home? Plenty of time to plan and save up for the big family vacation we hope to take someday.