The Vacations I’m Dreaming About for Our Family

 I am so glad that we finally started taking vacations.

For years, vacations felt like something other people did. We had reasons not to go, reasons to wait, reasons it wasn't the right time, or just the very practical reality of having a kid, bills, work schedules and approximately 900 things that always seemed more important.

But now that we've actually started traveling, I've realized something: I want to see things.

There are so many places in the United States that I would love to experience with our family. And I'm not necessarily looking for vacations where we spend seven days sitting beside a pool. Although, let's be honest, I wouldn't turn that down either.

When I think about the vacations I want for our family, I want them to be fun for Ava, but I also want them to be interesting to us. I want her to see animals in their natural habitats, walk through places she's learned about, experience different cities and cultures, and come home with stories she actually remembers.

I want vacations that are entertaining and educational without making them feel like school.

Here are a few of the trips currently living rent-free in my head.

Alaska

Hear me out.

I know I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I know I complain about winter. I know that Alaska is basically volunteering for more cold.

I hate the cold.

And yet, I really, really want to go to Alaska.

Specifically, I want to see the bears catching salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve.

One of our family's favorite movies is Brother Bear, and Ava has always been fascinated by animals and nature. She can spend an unreasonable amount of time watching animals, asking questions about them and wanting to know what they're doing.

There is something completely different about seeing a bear in a zoo versus standing safely at a viewing area and watching a wild brown bear fishing for salmon in Alaska.

That is the kind of experience I mean when I say I want our vacations to be educational.

I don't necessarily need to take Ava to a museum and make her read every plaque. I want her to see something she has only ever seen in books, movies or documentaries and realize that it's real.

I also really want to ride the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway in Skagway.

The scenery looks absolutely ridiculous, in the best possible way. Mountains, forests, waterfalls and those huge Alaskan landscapes that make you feel very small.

My only concern is that I know my child.

There is a very real possibility that I will be standing there thinking, This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life, while Ava is approximately ten minutes in thinking, Okay, but what are we doing next?

I guess that's part of planning a family vacation, right?

I don't need every single activity to be something Ava would choose for herself. I just want there to be enough things that everyone gets something out of the trip.

I'd also want to see some of Alaska's fjords and coastal scenery.

And, obviously, we would have to eat crab.

If I'm traveling all the way to Alaska, I am eating crab. Sorry, not sorry.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is my husband's big grand vacation dream. 

And yes, I know Yellowstone has been in the news recently because of a serious bison attack. I'm not trying to diminish what happened or pretend that wild animals are Disney characters.

If anything, situations like that reinforce how important it would be to approach a trip like this responsibly.

A Yellowstone vacation with a child would require us to be very intentional about wildlife safety. We'd need to follow park rules, keep our distance from animals and stay on designated trails and boardwalks around thermal areas.

Because the whole point would be experiencing nature and understanding what that entails in its entirety. 

I'd love to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, Old Faithful, and the geyser basins.

And then there's another layer to Kyle's super exciting vacation.

He has this vision of us renting a motorhome and driving across the country to get there.

And I kind of love it.

I grew up road-tripping across the country, so there is something nostalgic about the idea of packing up the family and driving toward somewhere completely different.

A motorhome would give us the combination of two things I already love: camping and road trips.

We could drive through different states, stop when something looked interesting, sleep somewhere different each night and actually watch the landscape change as we traveled west.

Then we'd eventually pull into Yellowstone and spend several days exploring.

For me, that might be one of the best parts of the whole trip.

It's not just getting to Yellowstone.

It's everything we'd see between home and Yellowstone.

Tennessee

Tennessee is one of those places where I think, We were supposed to do this already.

When Ava was little, during COVID, we talked about taking a trip to Tennessee. We made plans, imagined what we'd do and then, like a lot of things during that period, the plan fell apart almost as quickly as it came together.

I'd still really like to go.

Nashville is at the top of my list because I want to see the Parthenon.

Yes. The Parthenon.

In Nashville.

Apparently, someone looked at Tennessee and thought, “You know what this needs? Ancient Greece.”

And I respect that.

I'd also love to visit the aquarium because, honestly, who doesn't love a good aquarium? Because if you can't walk around quoting Finding Nemo at the aquarium, we may not be your people.  

I'd want to do Dollywood, too. That one feels like an especially good family activity because Ava could have the rides and entertainment while we enjoy the scenery, food, and atmosphere.

And because I'm apparently incapable of going to Tennessee without turning it into a giant checklist, I'd want to see the Grand Ole Opry and Graceland, too.

And then, to appease the millennial gods, we obviously need to visit the Titanic Museum.

I was raised in the era of Titanic being one of the biggest movies on the planet. I feel like visiting a Titanic museum is basically a millennial pilgrimage.

A Tennessee trip could also be one of those vacations where we don't have to choose between “kid activities” and “adult activities.”

We could spend one day at Dollywood, another exploring Nashville, another doing the aquarium and museums, and another just driving around and seeing what we find.

That's exactly the kind of vacation I want.

Chicago

This one might seem silly because Chicago isn't exactly an exotic vacation destination for us.

But Chicago has always felt special to me.

I lived there briefly. Kyle lived in a Chicago suburb. So there's already a little bit of personal history attached to the city for both of us.

I'd love to take Ava there and show her the city.

I'd want to walk through Millennium Park and see “the Bean,” go up to the Skydeck at Willis Tower, visit Wrigley Field and, most importantly, spend time at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The Art Institute is probably my favorite part of Chicago, and I would love to see what Ava thinks of it.

I'd especially love to visit around Christmas.

I want her to see the city decorated for the holidays, walk around downtown with all the lights and decorations, see the Macy's holiday windows and experience Christkindlmarket.

I remember Chicago in the summer having this feeling that there was always something happening.

There were musicians playing in coffee shops, festivals in the parks, people everywhere, restaurants and little things happening on seemingly every corner.

That's something I love about cities.

You don't necessarily have to schedule every minute of the day.

Sometimes you can just walk around and discover something.

And I think that would be a really fun experience for Ava.

She is growing up in a small town, so there is something valuable in letting her experience a city with thousands of people going about their day, public transportation, museums, skyscrapers, street performers, a variety of restaurants, and completely different neighborhoods.

I think that's what I want our vacations to be

I'm realizing that the vacations I dream about aren't necessarily the most luxurious ones.

I don't need a five-star resort or a private villa.

I want experiences.

I want to watch Ava's face when she sees something for the first time.

I want to eat food we've never tried.

I want to take approximately 700 pictures because I can't help myself.

I want to drive through states I've never really explored.

I want to see animals in the wild, stand in places I've read about, wander through museums, ride trains through mountains and walk through cities decorated for Christmas.

And yes, I want to do things that Ava will enjoy.

But I also want her to grow up understanding that vacations aren't just about amusement parks.

They're about being curious.

They're about seeing how other people live.

They're about history and nature and food and art and geography and occasionally standing in front of something enormous and saying, “Holy crap, look at that.”

I think those are the kinds of memories worth spending our vacation days on.