Family Vacations …

As the summer winds down and school starts back, did you take your kids on a family vacation? I decided to take my vacation later this year because for the first time in 16 years I don’t have a child going to grade school. I have two in college so that is a change for me for sure.

I can’t help but reminisce on my family vacations as a child. Those are some of my sweetest memories, from camping at Cope Hollow to day trips to Standing Stone State Park. We camped in tents with all my cousins, and this is where I learned to swim and fell in love with Dale Hollow Lake.

We took a lot of day trips and I remember driving to Standing Stone State Park and wanting to ride the paddle boats so bad. We rarely ate out, we had picnic lunches with bologna sandwiches and those big cheese puffs and it never tasted better! Having great parents and three sisters to share everything with made it the best of all!

We went to Cave City one fourth of July with my family from Indiana and spent the day at the park where they have the chair lift and the Alpine Slide. We got the bracelet to do it all and that was a great day! My dad always took us to buy fireworks for the fourth of July so you had kids running around everywhere with those loud fire crackers and bottle rockets.

I never went to the beach until my senior year of high school, but I never felt like I missed out on anything! My memories of my childhood staycation/vacations are just as sweet. Now I take every trip or opportunity that I can.

We may never remember what we got for Christmas last year but I think experiences are what I remember the most! So go out there and plan your next family vacation, I know I am!

Tammy Waid McClellan

Standing Stone State Park – Hillham, Tennessee