Tuesday, December 29, 2009
9:32 PM
Our One Family Vacation
My family went to Siks Fla_ggz Owvur Tecksas (spelled incorrectly on purpose) when I was really small. I don't remember my exact age at the time of our one and only family vacation. All I remember is that I hadn't started school yet and I was too short to ride a lot of the rides. I was also little enough that the night driving we did to get there unsettled me so much that I remember telling my parents, somewhere about halfway between home and Dalus (sp incor on purpose) that I wanted them to turn around and head back home. In order to avoid the heavy traffic of the area, my parents timed the drive so that we wouldn't hit the metro area until after 11:00 p.m. I had been out that late before but I had never been out on strange highways that late before and I remember feeling very uneasy and also lonesome for my own bed as my vacation excitement slowly drifted into long car trip fatigue. I rode the whole way while sitting on the arm rest of the front seat between my mom and dad. No one thought anything at all about small children riding in such dangerous places unharnessed back then. Our own children have never in their lives ridden in a car without a car seat (used well into their elementary school years) or a reliable seatbelt. They also were not allowed to ride in the front seat until they both were teens and even now that they are 17 and 14, I try to keep their front seat riding trips to a minimum. Times have surely changed. But I digress.
Realizing that the new adventure was a little daunting to their youngest, preschool-aged child, my parents agreed to turn around and head back home. Of course, they didn't actually do it. They just told me what I wanted to hear in order to help calm my fears. lol I remember that another hour or so on down the road, I caught a second wind of sorts, regained my vacation enthusiasm, and recanted my original request. When I told my parents that I had changed my mind, and asked them to PLEASE turn back around, they both laughed sweetly and let me in on their "secret", which was that we had never turned around in the first place. LOL I was so young and naive that it hadn't even dawned upon me that we had never stopped the car or turned around. I was sure that we were near home when I changed my mind a second time and was very worried that they would not change directions yet again. LOL
We finally arrived at the really cool motel that, at that time, sat right next to the park, which the jester and I thought to be muey cool. If I remember correctly, it was after midnight by the time we actually got settled into our room for the night. Having actually seen some of the park while driving to our motel filled the jester and I with overwhelming excitement. If not for the fact that we were both exhausted, we would never have been able to sleep that night. We couldn't WAIT to experience Siks Fla_ggz!
Because I was so young when we visited there, I really have very few concrete memories of the two days we spent at the park. But I do remember sporadic, seemingly disconnected things AND, I remember thinking that Siks Fla_ggz was the absolute most amazing, incredible, exciting place I had or would ever, ever experience in my life. It was, to Bernie and me, the trip of a lifetime.
Some of the random specifics I do remember are:
My dad letting me be the one to drive the little antique car, which was just like real driving as far as I was concerned. I was just in awe of that.
Getting on and off of rides that took us down the "river"
Getting and wasting a million pops. My parents wanted me to stay cool so they let me have as many pops as I wanted but then, we would jump on another ride before I could finish any of them. Drinks were not allowed on the rides so I kept having to throw mine in the trash. Even as a preschooler, I remember being very bothered by the wastefulness of that.
A really cute wallet and big pencil that my parents bought for me that had the Siks Fla_ggz logo on them. That logo made them very, very special to me. I have a vivid memory of standing outside of our house days after we returned from vacation, playing with my souveniers and being in awe of the fact that I not only owned those things but also got to buy them at the actual, real-life Siks Fla_ggz. That was a big, big deal in my preschool world.
Riding the carousel (That will always be my favorite childhood ride and I wish I could still ride one regularly today)
Given how much I enjoyed that trip, the amount of memories I managed to hang onto really don't amount to very much. But I guess that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things because I do still remember how much fun our family had spending time together on that trip and that is the most important reason for taking family vacations. My only real regret is that that was the last time our little family ever took such a trip. In fact, it was one of the very last times that we did ANY of the family things I always dreamed we would do. I'm thankful for those few priceless days, though. When it comes to the things that really matter in life, you sometimes just have to take what you can get.
*Bernie, I would love to hear what you remember about this trip since you were older than I at the time. I'm sure you remember a lot more that I've forgotten.