Almost every year when I was growing up we went to Fort Stevens State Park near Warrenton Oregon. Everyone in our family of 4 loved it. Dad rented a travel trailer and we would bring it up from Toledo and camp out for the last 2 weeks of August. We would go to the ocean and nearby lake almost every day having the hard decision to make of which one to go to. Mardean, my sister, and I also loved to go to the nearby town of Seaside and walk up and down Broadway and the Boardwalk. We had lots of fun meeting guys our age and flirting! Mom and Dad loved it too because they had grown up in the area and still had friends there so they got to see and visit with them. Mom’s Mom and Dad lived in Warrenton so we got to see them a lot too, they often come out and roasted a hot dog for dinner with us. I first got a hula hoop at Fort Stevens and learned to drive a car on the beach there.
Mary Lou
When thinking about our family vacations, my first thought was that we didn’t go on many. My father was a school administrator, and the summer was his busiest time of the year with purchasing, hiring, and budget development keeping him busy. He also was in the Naval Reserve and was gone for two weeks each summer. As a family, our summers were also dominated by daily swim practice and traveling to other towns and cities to compete in AAU swim meets.
But when I thought about it a little deeper, we did go on several family vacations. My earliest memory is camping at Big Basin State Park. I was about six or seven years old, and my brother, Grant, was just a baby. My parents had arranged for my father’s parents to take care of Grant while we were gone. Much to my parents’ surprise, they announced they would be joining us instead. I thought it was cool that Grandpa and Grandma were coming with us, but I’m sure my mom didn’t share my feelings. I most remember seeing deer for the first time. There were several within a fenced area, and I used all my film taking pictures of them with my Kodak Brownie camera.
Another family camping trip I remember is going to, is Carpentaria, near Santa Barbara. It is a State Park right on the beach. There were no reservations, but you had to be at the park early in the morning for a lottery of the available campsites. We had to stay in a motel at least one night before getting a campsite. My mom set up quite a kitchen/pantry area with wooden fruit boxes and canvas sides and floor. Besides going to the beach all day, we were introduced to hula hoops. All the kids at the campground had them, and soon we did too. When we returned home, we were the first ones in our neighborhood to have them.
We went camping in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite when I was in high school. We each could bring a friend. My mom had worked at Tuolumne Meadows as a waitress during the summers to earn money for college, so she had fun reminiscing old times. I had a great time hiking over granite to alpine lakes and learning how to fish them. At one lake, we spent more time trying to catch grasshoppers than fish, but it paid off in the end.
I remember thinking how lucky I was to live within eight hours of Disneyland. We made the trip to Disneyland twice as a family while I was growing up. The first time was about 1957. The big attraction for me was Space Land. We took a trip into outer space, and upon our return, the pilot pointed out the hazy atmosphere and gave it the new name of “smog.” When we returned for a second visit several years later, our eyes burned from this smog. I returned to Disneyland as a teenager with my friends for several years each summer, but I wouldn’t call it a family vacation.
Brian
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