Budget Vacations

by Dina Sleiman

Today I’d like to share about an ultra-budget family vacation. When I was a kid, my whole family loved to go to the beach. And sometimes my parents would offer us a deal. “We can go to the ocean one more time this summer if...we keep things really cheap.”

Now my dad was a social worker. So when we said “really cheap,” we meant “reeeaaaallllyyy cheap!”

First, we’d smash all five of us into a little Toyota Corolla to save gas money, and cram all the luggage in the roof rack overhead. I remember my sister, Charity, sitting on a pillow between my parents on top of the emergency brake. Kids could get away with things like that back then. My gangly brother, Jonah, and I would often work out an arrangement where one got the floor and one got the seat in the back so we could stretch out our long legs. And we’d take off for the eight hour drive from Pittsburgh to Virginia Beach.

Along the way we’d play those annoying car games, and inevitably end up in a fight. My parents would stop and allow us each to buy one snack. My brother and sister would gobble theirs down, and I’d savor mine for an hour or more. Letting m & m's melt in my mouth one by one. Boy did they hate that.

Once there, we’d check into a campground and pitch a tent. Meals would go something like this: breakfast, a box of Hostess donuts and a carton of orange juice, lunch, 7-11 hotdogs, and dinner, hamburgers from a fast food joint. If we really went crazy, Dad might spring for a bag of marshmallows to roast over the fire at night.

But we’d spend day after day at the beach, swimming, boogie boarding, taking long walks in the sand, riding bikes, building castles, collecting sea shells. In the evening, we’d head back down for the excitement on the main drag. Window shopping and street performers. Maybe even a ride on the trolley. Then late at night, we’d pile into our tiny tent. We’d crawl into our sleeping bags.

And we would sing.

Oh, would we sing! Favorite songs and old hymns. My father would take a deep bass melody, brother and sister matching him an octave highter, while Mom and I would swirl about them in intricate harmonies. Voices blending and flowing into the night beneath a starry sky. A family cozy in their beds, creating euphonious music and entertaining an entire campground. Which was a good thing, since once we stopped singing, Dad would snore like a freight train til morning.

It’s kind of like that commercial. “A box of Hostess donuts…$2.59. Five 7-11 hotdogs…$4.95. Singing with your family beneath the stars…priceless.”

So enjoy your family vacation time this summer, whether you go the luxury route or the budget plan. And because I can’t resist, and because I know it’s probably been playing in your head ever since you read the graphic at the top, one last thing.

(Warning, if you don't like heavy metal music, you may want to resist pushing the play button.  And for the record, I heard Alice Cooper recently accepted Christ. Hope it's true. :)