Escape to the woods, maybe?

As a kid, my father and I took a vacation every summer which we could afford … to my father’s favorite destination: Porchview. Porchview was sitting on our front porch and watching the cars go by, and also included, was doing maintenance work on our house. I remember every summer I painted the concrete floor of the front porch and the wooden side porch floor either gray or deep red. And I held the bottom of the ladder for my father who was up four stories painting the wooden siding of our house. I didn’t have any vacations other than Porchview until many years later.

What will you do for a vacation you can afford this summer? Here’s a Vacation Wish List for you:

1) Of course, there’s Porchview if you have a porch or you haven’t been evicted yet. You will feel an accomplishment in fixing up the outside of your place and grooming the front/back yard.

2) Relatives? Rather than trucking you and the kids and fostering yourselves on a blood-relation you can’t stand and who can’t stand you, swap homes instead for 2 weeks or a month. You and your family can take over their house while they take over yours.

3) Check your state parks and apply for a week’s stay in one of their cabins. Those parks that have rented cabins (dirt cheap) available should be looked into and applied to now. Right now. First come, first serve. However, if you are going to stay indoors and do nothing but drink beer and roam your flashlight over the walls and ceiling, forget it; such cabins are not for you.

4) When you receive your fix-the-economy government rebate check, call around to the nearby hotels and see if they have a special rate for you and family for just one weekend. Hang out at their swimming pool; get a nice tan.

5) If you are near a city with great vistas (like San Francisco) go to any hotel’s lobby and sign up for one of their sponsored sight-seeing tours. You need to sign up and pay in advance the day before the tour. You don’t need to be their hotel guest to do this. First visit their lobby in person to gather advance fun trip data.

6) Purchase an all-day transportation pass, if your place sells them; then ride all the city buses. It’s cheaper that way than the regular sight-seeing buses. And with the all-day pass, you can get on and off anywhere. First check out your visitors’ Center to get a free map marked with places of interest.

7) Spend a day at your local zoo.

Go for an small airplane ride, helicopter ride or hot air balloon ride. Call the local airport for information or call the reference librarian at your local library for information on these local venues.

9) Go shopping with your rebate of $300 until you drop. Which will be in 20 minutes for $300 worth.

10) Go to your state or local park for an all-day picnic. Leave the kids home with a baby-sitter.

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