Wanderlust, 2009

Notes from our vacation (July 18 to July 26, 2009). At times it seemed like the vacation from hell.

July 22th: I sit in God's country. The land that I love. Waiting in a hotel room for friends coming to visit us. We are in Lake Tahoe, California side, south shore. God's country. Yes, but I feel more inclined to use the term "vacation from hell". I have been sick the last few days, coughing, weak and tired. Started on Saturday, the first day of vacation. I slept in the car the entire first day. An eight hour drive.

July 18th: We stopped at the Manzanar Historic Site and I was too sick to really process the events that took place there. I wanted to see it and show the kids but I could not fully take in the place. I want to say enjoy but that word doesn't some how belong in this discussion.

Manzanar Historic Site is a place dating back to the World War II era. This was one of the nine (?) Internment Camps around the country where Americans of Japanese descent were sent during the war. I am not going to debate the issue here. The reality of it was that it happened. I wanted to show my kids that fact. I think they got something out of it. I think they understood. I don't want them to agree or disagree, I just want them to know. I know K___, my 19 yo daughter, spent a lot of time reading the placques and looking at the collection of pictures. I had driven by the historical marker for the past 30 years and I think I only stopped once or twice. I am glad I made the effort this time to tour the newly opened information center. It was very enlightening. I wish I had felt better to fully immerse myself in the history. I think I shall mark this place for another stop, another time.

July 19th: We arrived in Lake Tahoe on Sunday afternoon. I was starting to feel better. Once a year we try to live like millionaires. We save all year long to be able to afford a vacation to the place or places where we fell in love. Over the years we have taken our children to 11 different states and countless historic sites, monuments, parks, and just plain fun sites. I thought that this is what I was supposed to do as a dad.

I remember my dad packing all of us, mom, dad, + seven kids in the back of a station wagon on our yearly vacation. I can name all of the places we went, all of the places we saw. And I try to show my kids the same thing. Problem is, a child's memory is not always as accurate as fact. My dad recently told me that we, as a family, rarely took a yearly vacation. But I remember...

I look back and think. But Dad...we went to... And then it occurred to me. Dad was right. We took a trip to Washington, D. C. in June, 1972. I remember waking up in a campground in Northern Virginia. June 17th, 1972. I was listening to the news on my transistor radio, one of the few luxuries that I was allowed to bring. The report was that burglars had been discovered at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel building. I remember that trip. The monuments, the Smithsonian, the Capitol. I think that trip we also made it to Gettysburg and Hershey, Pa.

Another trip we took was to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mt. Rushmore. This was actually a family reunion trip that we took to Minnesota. So, out of the ten years that I am remembering we took two trips. And then there were two vacations that my parents and younger siblings took where us older teenagers stayed home.

Whether we took yearly vacations or not, the trips that we did take were so influential on my development that they gave me this wanderlust that I experience today. I cannot be satisfied staying in one place. I need to move. I need to experience new places and things. I have seen this beautiful country and I know there is still much more to see. I want to give that gift to my children.

To wrap this all up, I was extremely disappointed in this years vacation. I contracted a small cough the day before we left and that developed into Pneumonia on the first day, I am sure. The next four to five days I was feeling crummy. I didn't feel like doing much of anything. In Tahoe the air is thin. I think this exasperated my lungs and caused the pneumonia. I had wanted to go hiking with my son. That plan was scrapped. I had trouble breathing in the thin air. I had wanted to visit with some old friends. That was scrapped because I wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to expose them, given their own health issues. It was a disappointing vacation.

My wife, ever the optimist, said that it was enough to just be in Tahoe. I can agree with that. We sat by the lake one day, having lunch and visiting with Sacramento friends. We enjoyed the lake, the views, the breezes. It is where we fell in love. It is what I consider the beginning of my life. I shall always enjoy going there, in spite of everything else.

D.