I would have taken more vacations with my family, except for one thing - lack of vacation funds. I was a stay-at-home mom with three young children under six. We stretched every penny out of my husband's paycheck just to stay in peanut butter and diapers. But we still could have taken many exciting and fun-filled vacations for practically no money.

We would have started by choosing a destination. Maybe we would have started with the United States, choosing a particular state we wanted to visit. We would have gone to the library and chosen books about that state. We could have learned the location of the state, the distance from our home, and how long it would take us to reach that state via car.

We would have chosen places to visit in that state and attractions we would want to explore. We could have written the Chamber of Commerce and received brochures. We could have asked for pen pals in that city. We would have learned about foods and recipes native to that area. We would have perused pictures of the area's landscape and compared it to our own. We could have learned customs and even idioms particular to that area. We would become so familiar with our destination that we could hardly wait for our "vacation day."

On vacation day, we would have a room in the house designed as our "destination spot." We would draw and hang posters picturing the terrain or cityscapes of our vacation locale. We would prepare the recipes we had received, and enjoy them the way the natives do. We would be entertained by participating in some of the local customs of that area. We would even create our own postcards to send relatives telling of our adventure. Our vacation would be complete with our photos and scrapbook of our mini vacation.

We wouldn't have stopped with just exploring the United States. We would have ventured beyond our borders, to the other continents of the world. We could have ventured beyond the confines of our planet, even to destinations that existed only in our imaginations.

By the time our family had extra funds for vacations, my children were heading into teenager-land. Everything they were learning about geography was in school. It was a lesson to be learned, not the experience of a family adventure.

My children are grown, and are becoming well-traveled. They all have stamps in their passports. I wish I had started their passports earlier, even if they were made of construction paper and crayons. We could have traveled together and made our own unique adventures in our own home. After all, it's not always where you go that matters, but who goes with you that truly makes the memory.

About the Author:

Luanne Davidson is the proud mother of three adult children and wonders what might have been if she had done a thing or two differently. She writes her "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" column each Thursday.

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