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On a spur of the moment trip this past 4th of July weekend up north to Mercer to go four wheeling, I thought about how I would love to take my children (when I have some) to go up to such a great place. There was hardly any cell phone reception and the place we were going to stay at didn't have any running water. It was quite the adventure. It made me remember all the great places my parents had taken me when I was younger.
Growing up on a farm outside of Belmont, my parents always made time to take me and my older sister on family vacations. Before us, they took our brothers to many of the same places. It seemed like we went everywhere. Not only did we travel all over Wisconsin, from Door County to Eau Claire, and to most of the state parks like Governor Dodge and Yellowstone but we also went to Minnesota and Missouri, especially to Hannibal where Mark Twain's books were based. That was one of my favorites.
My dad's large family was always keen on getting together and renting a cabin (or three) up in northern Minnesota and then in northern Wisconsin to make some great family memories. My dad recorded all these family adventures on the "new" video camera, that was the size of a small suitcase. One memory that sticks with me was during the night at Big Turtle Lake in Minnesota, three black bears tried to get into the dumpster that was right next to the cabin. It was loud. The dumpster had been padlocked shut because it was an occasional occurance.
When we went on these trips, we never had any electronic devices such as a DVD player, Gameboys, Kindle or Nook or games on our phones. We had the imfamous road games, such as finding license plates from each state or I Spy. I have always had a book to read.
I feel that if you go on a vacation, you leave all that other stuff behind. Vacations are to get away from your regular life and go on an actual adventure which includes the outdoors, getting closer to nature and all the mosquitos you can handle.