About a year ago we went on a family camping trip. The first and only camping trip with the whole family since my daughter was born. I’m not big on camping, but all three of my kids and my husband are big into the camping thing so we went.
We spent two nights in the Uintahs in Eastern Utah. And then we went to Vernal for another night and spent a day at the Dinosaur National Monument. Everyone was so excited to go spend some time away from it all. It should have been the first indication that life wasn’t perfect.
We decided to camp around a lake where my husband’s family used to go when he was a kid. No running water, no flush toilets, and the water of the lake was mildly stagnant. But that wasn’t going to deter us. We were roughing it, dang it.
The second day it rained. Not a drizzle, a really good float your tent away rainstorm. We stayed dry, but it was cold. Especially since we weren’t planning on being in cold weather. The third day was pretty cold also, but at least it didn’t rain. Before we left for Vernal we went to a nearby lake to get some more fishing in.
Vernal was very HOT!! But we got some site seeing in. We saw (and touched, holy cow it was so cool) dinosaur bones. Got to see some beautiful scenery. And visited the homestead of a lady homesteader (she was amazing).
Was this the perfect vacation? Absolutely not!! But then, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a “perfect vacation”.
In my late 20s I went on a girl’s trip with my roommates (and some others) to Puerto Rico. It was so much fun. But every time we went to the beach, I got eaten by bugs. I had a 2 year old have a diaper blow out in Disneyland. Had a totally messed up problem with flights after a cruise. No vacation is 100% perfect.
So do we stop traveling? Again, Absolutely not! If I think about all of the amazing experience we would have missed out on, or all of the beautiful sights we would never have seen, if we stopped traveling on the off chance it would end up less than perfect.
My whole point is, life doesn’t stop just because you go on vacation. Your car may break down. Or your plane be delayed. Or your kids fight. Or someone breaks a bone. Or any number of things. But those things happen at home all the time. It doesn’t mean we stop working or living or whatever.
On that horrible camping trip, we saw some beautiful scenery. We had fun (yes, we really did). I didn’t sleep for three nights, but I spent a couple hours in the tent with my daughter singing and telling stories while her dad and brothers went fishing. We touched a dinosaur bone (seriously, we touched the bone of a real dinosaur. So super cool). I watched my children get along with each other even though we were not in ideal circumstances. (All these photos were from that trip)
So I say: Go out. Enjoy the world. Look at all the beautiful things out there waiting for you to experience. Embrace the excitement around you.
Have fun and Happy Travels!
