There’s Something About Family Vacations!

When our kids were growing up most of our family vacations were days at the lake, sometimes an entire week with relatives or friends. But we did take two memorable family vacations. One was all the way from Arkansas to the 1972 Seattle World’s Fair. Teresa was just a baby and I can remember driving forever with a few stops at motels.

My mother and some sisters lived in Washington at that time.

The second family vacation was four years later, to Yellowstone National Park.

With five of us in our vehicle, someone was always erupting with exclamations, as they pointed to gorgeous scenery. I finally got so tired of hearing “beautiful” and “pretty” that I made a rule, “An adjective can only be used one time to describe any scene or animal.”

I also suggested we see how many letters of the alphabet we could begin words with. This made for creative descriptions from my grade-school children.

They used the word “awesome” to describe a wide valley. There were the “momentous” snow-capped mountains, “curious” trees, “velvety” fields of wheat, “inspiring” scenery, “billowing” clouds, “marvelous” animals, “lonesome” lakes and so on.

Trips were always fun (no TV), a time to relax and enjoy. One summer Jerry and I took our son Billy, who had just graduated from college, to a favorite place, “precious” Colorado.

As we three rode in the front seat of our pickup with its cab-over-camper, one of us was always pointing excitedly at a bird or animal or unusual site. By the time our eyes could focus on the pointed-at object we’d often be long past it.

I suggested, “Let’s try something. Hold up one finger if the object we’re pointing at is close, two fingers if it’s to the left and three fingers if it’s to the right. Four fingers can mean it’s up high.”

“And five fingers can just mean we’re waving,” Billylaughed.

I thought often of those trips when Jerry and I traveled alone to Alaska in our motorhome, long after our kids had left home. Those words ran through my mind as we drove the flat lands of Oklahoma, twinkling wheat fields in Kansas, colorful Colorado with its lovely snow covered mountain peaks peeping at us as we passed by, the dreaming grazing antelope in Wyoming. I fell in love with the blue skies and wide-open landscape of Montana.

We traveled through giant bluffs in northern Idaho into Washington’s giant evergreens and rolling farmlands that had been snatched from the desert through irrigation, with its cute apple orchards.

Crossing the border into Canada we traveled the Alaska Highway amid indescribable beauty. I thought of all the words I could use to describe the country and its wild animals, astounding waterfalls, big valleys, colossal hills, fantastic rivers, gigantic natural lakes. We saw great herds of bison, a red fox, ugly moose, caribou, wee chipmunks, white swans, resplendent flowers, dall stone sheep, deer, bears, the list is endless, and indescribable.

Our traveling days are over but I especially enjoyed all those trips we took to Alaska. We toured Danali National Park and actually saw its peak (most don’t because of the fog). We flew to Barrow, the northernmost point of North America on the Arctic Ocean. We spent time in Wasilla, Anchorage, Fairbanks and many other Alaskan towns.

I still contend there is no place like the Ozarks but I’m glad for all the memories and pictures I have of God’s vast land. Because nature makes and keeps me aware of the One who created it all. There are no words to describe the Creator of the universe.

Marie Wiggin Putman, one-time Gravette resident, shares her thoughts with our readers twice every month.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 07/21/2010