Making Memories Where We Are
Travel. Wait, what does that word even mean? It’s been so long since I’ve traveled I almost can’t remember our last real pack a suitcase vacation. I bet a lot of us feel that way after the year that has just passed. Many families have been home and kind of grounded from travel. If they have traveled it’s been mostly with the members of their household. As I watched how people were affected by that and how they responded to having to stay home rather than travel or forego the multi-family beach house, it got me thinking. I started thinking about how it didn’t feel all that different to me. I thought about how I’ve been watching families experience travel and vacations from the pages of my social media accounts for years, while seated on the same couch cushion of my sofa. It dawned on me that this past year gave other families just a taste of how families like mine often function.
Every member of my immediate family loves to visit and explore new places. There are various reasons that our opportunities to vacation have virtually come to a standstill, one of them being finances. The cost of therapies and such can add up, and really do a number on your disposable income. Another reason is that certain invitations to travel that were once there, are no longer there. None of the reasons, though, are the needs of our exceptional child directly. Our family could easily accommodate those. Families in our position know how to make the correct arrangements and preparations.
If this is your situation, please know that you are not at all alone. For our family, regardless of these hurdles, we were determined to still get out there and experience wonderful times outside of our home. We’ve really found great ways to work around the obstacles and continue to see new places and find what we like to call “adventures''. Our adventures consist of day trips doing anything we can find with the one requirement of being back home by bedtime. I’ve become our resident adventure planner, and my family has come to depend on these day trips. So much so, that the first thing I’m asked on a Friday afternoon is, “Where is our adventure this weekend, Mom?”
They may not be the same as a week in some fancy resort, but our little day trips have really added to our life experience. You don’t have to miss out on getting away, just because of your family's differences. It can just look different. We’ve visited landmarks and historical spots that I never knew about. We’ve had beautiful days in state parks and on the beach. We even found an app that guided us through a driving tour of Washington DC! I do my best to plan every detail, so I can pack our minivan chock full of anything and everything we will need for the day. With certain food restrictions among us, and special diets, I stock the backseat with a cooler full of approved, but exciting, choices for snacks and meals. We really make a pretty big deal out of these trips. I tuck in special blankets and use fun pillowcases, to help make that van seat cozier than just a typical weekday trip to the grocery store.
I think it all boils down to finding the joy right where we are. I don’t mean physically, but more where we have found ourselves right now in life. Travel does not need to be extravagant to be memorable. Sure, it may be a while before we’re planning our family adventure to DisneyWorld. In the meantime, though, I can’t think of anything more joyful than the look on my children’s faces as they hop into that loaded up Honda Odyssey bound for a day spent discovering and making beautiful memories.
Written by BreAnn Tassone
