Silver Mountain Resort, Kellogg, Idaho
Webster’s Dictionary defines the noun vacation as a “period of rest, from work, study, etc.” Seems obvious, right? As with most words, vacation has different meanings depending on basic demographics, such as age, gender, and social status, as well as economic trends. The way people romanticize vacation changes throughout their lives. For example, my idea of vacation when I was 10 was anything with a pool within a one-hour drive. In my 20s, vacation was anything free, with or without water, as long as I could rock the right swimsuit. As an exhausted and full-time mom in my late 30s, I’m realizing vacation has way too many meanings and my definition of it would make me sound worse than a Bellevue housewife! Which brings me to summer vacation 2011.
For ten years, my hubby and I found it necessary to spend our summer vacations in Wisconsin visiting our families. When it came to planning for summer 2011, we both decided it was time to take a trip somewhere else, somewhere different, and have a real vacation. Initially when my hubby suggested the Grand Canyon, I blew it off and figured he’d forget the suggestion by the time we would need to book the trip. The closer we got to summer, the GC had become a huge point of contention, as I viewed it as too far of a drive with three children ranging in age from 2 to 10, whereas, the hubby viewed it as an adventurous opportunity to make memories and see something different from Wisconsin. We watched the Brady Bunch Grand Canyon episode with the kids—desperate for inspiration. I tried, but wasn’t feeling it. The more we’d mention said plan to friends and family, we’d get the same response: Why would you ever take a 2-year-old on a road trip to the Grand Canyon? By July, we settled for an August trip to and around Idaho—a beautiful state we had driven through many times, but wanted to further explore—beginning with a stay at an indoor water park resort in Kellogg, and concluding the expedition with Boise (see Vacation Lessons, 1).
Our day one of the big Idaho vaca was perfect. We had set out early, stopped as many times along the way as needed, took a ton of pictures, and appreciated the huge scenery. We loved the Columbia River and Thundering Hooves sculpture in Vantage, Wash., the rolling hills and sagebrush of Eastern Washington, the changing topography as we approached Spokane, and the unbelievable beauty of Lake Coeur d’Alene. We had arrived at the Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg, with plenty of time to take on the lazy river and relax. Our vacation had a perfect start for four of us. But we quickly learned our 2-year-old son is terrified of water (see Vacation Lessons, 2). By 9:30 p.m. we were exhausted, tucked in and ready to crash, except for our 2-year-old son who was chatting up a storm with his sisters from his Port A Crib thinking he’d take full advantage of sharing a bedroom for the first time ever. Periodically he would shout, “Me no go back to wa-wa park!” He went to sleep at 11 (see Vacation Lessons, 3).
17 Minutes on World's Longest Gondola, Kellogg, Idaho
By day three we had taken the advice of the wonderful visitor center expert and toured some great, local attractions. First we toured an abandoned mine. Everyone seemed cool with it, therefore, I didn’t want to mention my fear of mines. We headed 500 feet into and 900 feet under a mountain donning some plastic “hard hats,” stopped along the way to learn a few things about rocks and minerals and made our way back toward the oxygen-rich entrance. We headed outside for some gold panning—a dream of mine since I was 5. We found gold dust, amethysts, jade, and any treasures we could fit into our tiny, souvenir Ziploc baggies. I even found my birthstone! From the mine we took a ride on the world’s longest gondola to the top of Silver Mountain, which had tested our senses to a different extreme, but provided a breathtaking end to an adventurous day (see Vacation Lessons, 4).
Leaving the resort life ended up more sad than we had thought. We decided to take a scenic byway out of town to help make the route to Boise more memorable. We had a huge breakfast, which we thought would be a nice treat. Along the winding scenic byway to St. Maries, I found myself clutching my left armrest to stop the minivan from plummeting into the lakes below, yet I loved the views. With our daughters quietly playing in the back our son was whining louder and louder in the middle seat, which wasn’t typical for our little trooper. I had looked back and noticed a familiar greenish hue on his face and began calmly shifting all travel items—camcorder, camera, game bin, EVERYTHING—away from his part of the van. I suggested to my husband to slow down a bit as our son didn’t seem to be feeling well. We were too late. He lost his McBreakfast. Our 6-year-old shouted, “That’s why I will never have children!” The rest of the five-hour trip to Grangeville—our mid-way stop on the way to Boise—just wasn’t the kind of memorable we had in mind. But we did decide to take highways the rest of the way (see Vacation Lessons, 5).
Grangeville was nice. We got to clean out the van and scrape up enough change to do a lot of laundry, including the car seat cover. The girls couldn’t wait to swim again. The heater must have been broken in the pool. When the motel employee walked in we mentioned the coolness of the pool and she reminded us, “That’s what the hot tub is for!” We missed the resort life (see Vacation Lessons, 6).
The rest of the leg to Boise was beautiful. We loved the sandy beaches along the Salmon River. We discovered McCall—a town situated 5,000 feet above sea level on Lake Payette with every tourist trap imaginable. We had tried booking a night there, but everything was full. We ate lunch and hit the beach before heading back on the highway. We fell in love with the Payette River and the white-water rapids. We saw hundreds of rafts full of adventurous families making memories. We were jealous and wanted to be them (see Vacation Lessons, 7). But we had Boise to look forward to and we needed to bottle up all of our excitement for our final destination!
We finally had made it to Boise—south of the mountains, north of Nevada and far away from the rivers. We found our hotel without a hitch, unloaded all of our belongings in the 97-degree heat and collapsed into our air-conditioned hotel room. We swam and then we listened to our son chit-chat again until 11 p.m.
The next day we took a tour of the one suggested tourist attraction: The Old Penitentiary. We had gotten there nice and early before the temps would get too hot. Five minutes into our tour our 2-year-old son fell off a curb and broke the fall with his head… on a rock… at an old prison (see Vacation Lessons, 8). We ran him back to the “gift shop” to seek medical care and realized, a: medical care didn’t exist, and b: with a quick trip to the restroom and a few Band-aids, he didn’t need stitches. All I could say in my head was, “Thank God we didn’t go to the Grand Canyon!” We hightailed it out of the Old Penitentiary. We asked some locals what else to do in Boise with children and found out there was nothing to do in Boise with children (see Vacation Lessons, 9). We swam some more and made attempts to walk downtown in the 98-degree heat. After day two in Boise we had decided to end our vacation a day early and take the 8-hour trip back home.
The Cascade Mountain Range East of Snoqualmie Pass, Washington
When we got home I tried to hide my excitement. Everything looked different. I mentioned how it seemed we had been gone for a month. Our 10-year-old rebutted, “I felt like it was two days!” Summer vacation 2011 was memorable, meaningful and different from Wisconsin. Our girls loved the swimming and family time the most. Our 2-year-old loved sharing a bedroom with his family at night and making us laugh until 11 p.m. My hubby loved being off from work, with his family and exploring new territory. Me? I loved panning for gold and finding my birthstone. I loved staying in a clean, high-end resort for the first time and booking a massage to have some me time. I loved not caring how I looked in a swimsuit. I loved not going to Wisconsin. I loved being away from home for six days and missing it enough to feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when I saw the giant Cascades again. Most of all I loved learning about my family and what matters most to each one of them. To my family, Idaho was a vacation. And that’s all that matters.
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Vacation Lessons:
1. Never plan the most exciting and pampering experience in the very beginning of a family vacation. Moving forward, everything else looks and feels pretty down-hill from there. Lesson: Save vacation pinnacle for the very end. Anyone could have told us that!
2. Find out if your entire family will enjoy the vacation activities such as swimming before booking a vacation which revolves around those activities. Lesson: Just because older sisters are mermaids and on the swim team doesn’t mean water parks are for everyone!
3. Practice having a toddler sleep in a room with family before trying it in a hotel room. Lesson: Toddlers love a late-night audience during bedtime.
4. Don’t save fear conquering for vacations. Lesson: When conquering fears such as mine exploration or record-breaking gondola rides, don’t ask tour guides too many questions. The answers could make matters worse, or distract the tour guides.
5. Don’t assume everyone is free from car sickness. Scenic and winding byways trigger car sickness. Lessons: Practice winding roads with all family members before vacation to rule out car sickness. And bring plenty of plastic bags in vehicle during road trips.
6. Sometimes transitioning from resort to motel can be shocking. Lessons: When booking hotels, ask questions such as, “Is the pool heated?” or “Does the hotel smell of dogs?” or “Is there only one hotel in your town?” Camping is always an option.
7. Never miss out on something really cool along the way during a road trip. Lesson: Research all recreational opportunities and fun cities well in advance and plan them into the vacation before they’re booked solid by all the cool people.
8. Do not tour old prisons. Lessons: Old prisons are dangerous and depressing for all ages and not well-maintained. When researching vacation destinations, if an old prison is listed as a city’s one tourist attraction, take it as a hint and change the destination.
9. Always do vacation planning homework months in advance and make a plan B.
10. Never take a 2-year-old on a road trip to the Grand Canyon.
