….Ahh! The Family Vacation…

Just got back from a week camping with my son Jason and his family. 7 days communing with nature – and using every excuse possible to eat out instead of cooking over a smoky fire. I “forgot” the pots and pans. This worked so well that I plan to “forget” them permanently in the future.

We went to Ithaca and hiked several gorge trails and visited an interactive science museum. Did a lot of swimming and read 2 books – “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow and “The Reserve” by Russell Banks. I need more thinking time about both of them…

The best part of family vacations is – family. I LOVE having adult children. It is so great to see that all those family vacations with the kids fighting and whining in the back seat have resulted in well-adjusted adults who value family time and are passing on the joys of family vacations to our granddaughter. She hardly whined at all – and since she is an only child, she had no one to fight with.

My best moment…. Laughing with my son until the tears rolled and my face hurt. He and I share the same rather skewed sense of humor. At the end of one of the gorge trails, we were sitting on a bench with a memorial plaque. The plaque contained the name of a husband and wife with a Polish last name, followed by the phrase “What a Country” and was signed “Love, Your Children”.

I said to Jason – “This is what I want instead of a headstone when I die – a nice bench like this with a beautiful view and a plaque.”

Jason’s reply? “Great idea Mom – we can inscribe it “Fart Here!”

I just lost it. I’m laughing as I type. Between screams of laughter, we decided to clean up the inscription a little. We settled upon a much more poetic version: “Sit ye here and fart awhile”. It has a certain ring to it – don’t you think?

Anyway – reluctantly we decided that we should probably find something altogether more solemn and respectable. I know – boring. But Jason has promised that he will put the bit about farting on the back of the bench as a little reward for anyone industrious enough to look beyond the surface.

So … if you see a little bench somewhere with a pretty, inspirational phrase – be sure to look a little further to see if there is a less polite message hiding out somewhere.

5 thoughts on “….Ahh! The Family Vacation…

  1. Jacquie,

    I LOVE the park bench idea. I’m changing my will tomorrow to stipulate my heirs honor such a request!

    Doug

    Oh, I am with you on loving having adult children. What a joy to know such great people are relatives.

  2. Where did you camp in Ithaca? I am going to the SLMS Leadership Retreat @ Cornell in a couple of weeks and my family was thinking about camping in the area.
    Oh, and it sounds like our families have very similar senses of humor. 🙂

    Molly

  3. Thanks for all your comments. As I told Cathy, getting comments is like Christmas morning.

    I am glad that Doug likes my bench idea. I am thinking of other related ideas. More to come, I think. If my wandering mind doesn’t meander off somewhere else…

    Plus – now I know that I should talk to Anne-Marie about “Little Brothers” and I am enjoying 2 bloggers I never knew before – Molly and Cathy.

    Thanks everyone!

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