When I was younger my family would occasionally go on vacations- more like “vacation”. I was probably about 7 or 8 years old, still young enough not to know we weren’t really going on vacation. My mother was never a fan of the Mouse so automatically that was ruled out. My dad doesn’t like to fly because of his anxiety. When you live in the Midwest, have 3 children and don’t like to fly, vacations are kind of hard to do. Of course, we hit up The Dells every now and then and that was always fun. We’d also go camping, but that is another entry in itself. Trust me.

My parents favorite thing to do was pack up the car for a weekend and drive to some random place, like LaPorte, IN and we’d shack up for the weekend at a Holiday Inn. Ta da! Vacation! Of course at 7 years old, I thought this was the coolest thing ever. We’d get to hang out in a hotel room! Room service! Gift shop! Game room?! No way! And OMG a pool!

I remember wandering in the hotel gift shop thinking everything was so amazing. Rubber stamp sets? I needed them! I never got my rubber stamp set. The other thing I remember, was this little pewter treasure chest that had a necklace inside. I needed that necklace so bad. It was my souvenir. You would think after taking me to hotel in boofoo Indiana and telling me it’s vacation, I’d at least get some rubber stamps out of the deal!

After swimming, eating free continental breakfast and playing pinball to my little heart’s content we’d head home. Back to south Chicago. I know better now, but then my fake vacations were pretty cool.

I finally got to Disney World at 22 years old and again the year after, I’ll be making another trip there in June. It really is my favorite place in the world. I have San Francisco in July for BlogHer and then hopefully rounding out the year with another trip to Vegas in the fall.

What vacations do you have planned for the year? Fake or real.

Will you bring me some rubber stamps as a souvenir?