Vacation By: Karen Pilarski

Me in Jamaica

I was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. While most parents took their brood on cramped road trips in the summer, my large family stayed home.

There was never any money to go on vacations and we did not always have a working vehicle.

Imagine two perky parents and two grumpy kids in the backseat. Now picture seven more kids in that backseat.

Fighting over who would get to sit on the hump while one of the little ones puked on a cooler.

My dad with no patience and steam coming out of his ears. My exasperated mother appearing to ponder jumping out of the moving car at any second. Wails of one kid accusing another one of 'looking at them.'

Most summers the kids played in the yard or around the neighborhood. Milwaukee always had small church festivals and State Fair, Summerfest, Bay View Water Frolics.

I still enjoyed summers going to the candy store as kid or leafing through Teen Beat magazines as a teenager.

I didn't feel as if I was missing out. Honestly unless a kid was going to Disney World, they were stuck going on some lame trip their parents picked out.

My husband gives me a hard time about the fact that I don't like to camp or take road trips. He has titled me "vacation snob."

I went on a road trip with my husband's family before we were engaged. We drove to South Dakota. The kids were Kung Fu fighting me as they slept.

His brother 'bogarted' the trip and the children got into screaming matches. I was forced to go on boring excursions.

People complained (mostly me) and my husband refused to pay money for a hotel room on the way back. We ended up spending the night in the car at a deserted rest stop.

The only good aspect of the trip was I was semi proposed to on a golf course overlooking a parking lot below. My husband to be looked at me and said "Uh, should we get married?"

2010 DC Trip with Kids

After I was married I finally had my first airplane trip to New York. I was scared beyond belief but I did it.

I have my father's impatience so getting somewhere quickly by plane was fine. I enjoyed our vacations together.

We even took the kids on some trips (by plane).


I love the giddy feeling before a journey. I make lists of what to pack, what we want to see when there and looking up reviews on Trip Advisor.

Since I'm a huge nerd, I stalk the Accuweather for the ten day forecasts.

When life gets too hard and a need of scenery is evident, a trip far away is just what the doctor ordered. Butterflies flutter in my stomach right before taking off.  The rush of adrenaline as the aircraft rumbles.

The calming sky with puffy clouds and drinking a ginger ale while in the air is comforting. I love the small package of five pretzels.

We loved flying AirTran, American Airlines and United. We would research on the web looking for a excellent package deal.


Due to finances, we haven't been able to do those type of trips. My husband insists on doing a trip to the Wisconsin Dells.

For our honeymoon we stayed there. We had a great time. As a kid I went to the Dells for day trips with friends or a few of my siblings. It just gets stale and redundant to always go to the Dells or Door County.

Personally for me, anywhere in Wisconsin is not far enough. I need to have a space cushion of at least two states in order to feel 'away.'

I'm so desperate to travel, I go on the Travel Channel website and enter in vacation sweepstakes. If someone wants to take pity on me and gift me plane tickets I would be over the moon.

Actually if airline prices would decrease that would help my cause immensely.

Although running from problems doesn't solve anything, seeing them become tiny like ants from above helps.

What I love most is the the chance to take a vacation from being myself. 

 

 Vacation by: The Go-Go's