Monthly Musings: Summer Vacation Guide

Today I'm off to my last day of work (with students) for the year! Whoo hoooo!!! It will be a crazy day with lots of karaoke, a school wide BBQ, an assembly, and ending with our staff social. I *think* I'm ready for it! (And for those of you who read about the heat fiasco in our office in yesterday's post (see it here), my principal sent some angry texts on Tuesday night and it was fixed by the time I got in yesterday morning. HALLELUJAH!!! The contractor said he couldn't believe how hot the office was when he opened the door to fix it so we felt very justified in being frustrated.)

In blog world, it's time for Monthly Musings with Holly who blogs at Pink Lady and Patty who blogs at Good, Better, Best. This month we're talking about one of my favourite subjects -- vacations -- so let's dive in!

1) Share your summer trips for 2025.

As I've shared before, our family is hitting Europe with some other travel companions this summer!!! We're soooooo excited and I check my countdown every day! It's been a whirlwind of planning and booking activities but I think we're almost all done with that so now it's just time to focus on the excitement of the trip!!! I will be documenting on Instagram when we finally leave so you can find me there if you're curious.

 

Me and the kids in Paris and London, Summer 2022 

2) How do you manage the post-vacation laundry?

This all depends on what kind of trip we've taken. When we've taken summer vacations to Saskatchewan, my mom is great at letting us hog the laundry room on our last day so we come home with it all washed already! Otherwise, we pack all the dirty clothes into the same suitcases at the end of the trip. When we get home, those suitcases go straight down to the laundry room and I start washing clothes. One of my favourite moments of coming home after a summer vacation is sitting outside the first morning back, drinking coffee-hot chocolate with Dave in the back yard, and seeing the first load of laundry hanging on the line. (I may have more than one Instagram post dedicated to that *exact* moment!)

3) Most memorable summer vacation?

We've had a lot of great ones so I decided to poll my family on this question:

Dave: Hiking in Scotland with you last summer because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with amazing scenery and it all went really well.

 

Sam: When you and I went to Missouri and watched baseball games.

 

Rachel: When you took me to New York City and we went up the Empire State Building and shopped a lot.

I laughed so hard at their answers because clearly to have a memorable summer vacation you need to travel with just me!!! Hahahaha!!!

My answer would be either our Kenya trip in 2017, our road trip to the Yukon in 2019, or our first family trip to Europe in 2022.

 

The Yukon, 2019

4) Do you cook or eat out on vacation?

We tend to eat out on vacation. I cook enough at home that cooking on vacation just isn't fun for me. 

5) Are you an overpacker, an underpacker, or a just right packer?

I like to think I'm an underpacker or a just right packer. For our trip this summer, we're all packing carry on only because we bought cheap plane tickets and don't want to pay for checked luggage.

6) Beach, lake, or mountains?

I'm really happy with any of these three. They all have their own appeal to me and I really can't choose my favourite! We're hitting some beaches and lakes this year but, I don't think we'll experience mountains.

7) Road trip or fly?

We've done both of these kinds of trips and they each have their own appeal. One thing I will say is that I cannot do two road trips in a row. Since we did a big road trip last summer, I didn't want to do another one over March Break or this summer. Maybe by next March Break, or by next summer, I'll be up for another road trip!

8) Favourite vacation activities?

I like to experience anything unique -- our lobster fishing tour last summer is a great example of that. I also love to explore a city so our tour of Brugges in Belgium on our last European trip was really fun. I just really love wondering around and exploring new places and thankfully the rest of my family is on board with that. Let's just say, a couple of "Hop on, Hop off" city tours are in our plans this summer.

 

Lobster fishing, Maine, July 2024 

9) Best packing tips?

I really don't have great packing tips except you never need as much as you think you do. We discovered that last summer when we found out that the checked luggage for our flight was full the night before we left, and we had to pivot to carry on only for an 8 day hiking trip. We culled our stuff and, as it turned out, we didn't miss anything we left behind.

 

Everything I packed for our ten days in Scotland, which included eight days of hiking. 

10) Favourite road trip songs?

 For our road trip to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2016, we made a random stop in Darwin, MN to see The Biggest Ball of Twine. Thus, the song by Weird Al Yankovic became our road trip song. We all had it memorized by the end of our trip and even performed it at our church's coffeehouse! (You can find the song here and it's really worth listening to once (or fifty times, which is probably how many times we heard it on our 72 hours of driving that year! And yes, it's almost seven minutes long.)).

 Rachel and I at The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, July 2016

For our road trip to Florida in 2023, I almost ran out of gas. Thus, our road trip song became "Take It To The Limit" by The Eagles.

I always love "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane, but really, to me, a good road trip song is one which becomes the theme of the trip! For ever after, hearing that song will bring back those memories.

This was such a fun post to write. I always love talking about vacations. Don't forget, if you want a really memorable summer vacation, you need to plan a trip with just me! Hahahahaha!!! I'm really looking forward to reading all the other posts in the link up this weekend. Thank you Holly and Patty for always hosting such a fun link up!