Tell about a favorite vacation from your childhood

Most of my childhood-vacation memories are really just bits and pieces. Unfortunately, I think I was a little too young to remember a lot of the family trips we took. But, I do remember:

Setting our helium balloons loose in a park before our flight home from a trip to Chicago (I think I also left my Thumbelina doll on the plane, too. Still haven't completely recovered from that trauma.)

Leaving my shoes in countless campsites

Seeing Mount Rushmore and the Bad Lands, The Golden Gate Bridge, Great Salt Lake, an island in a lake in Canada that looked like a person laying down on his back

Being left behind at a gas station

Arguing, laughing, sleeping, playing with my sisters in the back seat

My parents cooking meals over a campfire

Not wanting to get out of my warm sleeping bag in the chilly morning but knowing there'd be hot water on the fire for cocoa if I did

Hiking; exploring; horseback riding

The excitement of staying in a HOTEL for once....and it even had a POOL

Hours and hours and miles and miles in the car

Singing songs, playing I Spy, tracking license plates from different states

Stopping at state lines for the obligatory photo opportunity

Wake-up ducks in San Diego

Disneyland, Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios

Lists, lists, and more lists

Learning all about the Donner Party

The Florida Keys

The feeling that, no matter how great the vacation was, it was always good to be back home.