A Link Up: It was the Best of Vacations, it was the Worst of Vacations...

Wow... so all this reminiscing of our vacations has made me really want to take one!  We were a bit amiss in making summer plans this year!  Between intensely focusing on our Girlie and her Graduation in early June... and looking ahead to October, where I will be attending #Allume (and my Honey is coming along - making it an Empty Nester Vacation too!) - we just didn't think about -or budget for- a 'real' vacation!  

I hope in all this talking of trips and hitting the road and making memories - you have realized that it really IS more doable than we often think! A family vacation doesn't HAVE to require passports and plane tickets... honestly - the whole idea of Staycations is really quite intriguing! Those are the types of things we like to do all the time... pick somewhere within a days' driving distance and do something fun... find free things to do around your city and get creative!  It's amazing what you can find to do if you act like a tourist in your own town - big or small!

Today is the Link Up - and after all my story telling - I hope to read some of yours!  

In the spirit of a Link Up - I will share just one more Vacation with you... 

This one was taken circa 2007 - and it was the first vacation that we had gone on - just the three of us - for quite some time! We had found a rhythm in vacationing with our best friends.  Our kids were best friends too - and we ALL loved the beach - so that had become our destination and we all loved it!  But between that, and just inviting a friend of our daughters' (or of ours!) to come along with us on trips, it had been too long since we had connected as a threesome.

We are blessed to live smack in the center of a beautiful State!  We are in the desert - but we don't have to drive for long in any direction and we can find rural communities, lakes, mountains, rivers, big cities, beaches... you name it!  One area that none of us had really ventured into was the Olympic Peninsula where we have a rain forest, beaches, - just beauty ALL around! We built a huge chunk of living into one long weekend and we hit the road!

We rented a house in the outskirts of Port Angeles... gorgeous... secluded... relaxing! We went in to town and walked the pier, enjoyed downtown, ate out and played on the beach... 

We hiked up around Hurricane Ridge, and we walked around in the Hoh Nat'l Rain Forest... 

We hung out at Lake Crescent and Rialto Beach and enjoyed the adventure of the Olympic Game Farm (with waving bears... and Bison that sort of want IN our car!) and roamed around the endless Beauty of Lavender Fields...

We came home exhausted but more in love with our gorgeous State - and with our gorgeous family - and really - isn't that the ultimate goal of Family Vacations?

I'm sure some of you may have had more Worst than Best... I think that happens if you happened to take Vacations more often - the chances increase, right?  But I hope like me - you find in reflecting back - that maybe there was a little bad in even the Bests... and that there is a little good even in the Worsts!

Now it is your turn to share... invite us along to remember the highs and lows of cramming in a moving vehicle in search of making memories and bonding (and not killing each other!) Share a story of a vacation when you were a kid... or one you've taken as an adult... 

For fun - add a Dream Destination at the end of your post or in the comments below - somewhere you would LOVE to go if money was no object! Me? Easy peasy... I would go for at least 3 months in Italy! (Yes please! One day!)

It was the Best of Vacations, it was the Worst of Vacations...  
(Now you go...)

Speak Life. Be Love. Shine On.
~Karrilee~

All photographs copyrighted by Karrilee @ Blessed Memories

To read the complete series, Click HERE...

each post is linked at the bottom!