Facing the mountain: Planning a real family vacation

Vacations are few and far between for our family, mostly due to work schedules.

I suppose it also comes from a childhood of not really taking family vacations, except to Lake of the Woods for fishing throughout the summer and to Lake of the Woods for ice fishing in the winter. We had the occasional trip to the Twin Cities, but that was pretty rare. So, the other day, when our son asked if he could go to Mount Rushmore, I was super excited.

Mount Rushmore during Memorial Day
weekend 2007. (Photo by Anna Jauhola)

We'd read a couple books about Mount Rushmore, how it was made, what kind of animals live there, and he became more interested. I LOVE Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area. The history alone gets me excited. And for him to want to go there is super exciting.

My husband and I once took a trip to Mount Rushmore before we were married. He treated me to the vacation for my 24th birthday. We went on Memorial Day weekend and had the whole place nearly to ourselves. It was awesome for this enochlophobic -- one who fears crowds.

Now, I know a six-year-old isn’t particularly interested in the history of the place, but he is excited to see the huge faces carved in a mountain. And for me, that’s pretty cool.

I know when we plan our trip, he’ll be excited to see all sorts of other things too -- the caves, the animals, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, and so on.

We've taken a few camping vacations together, but our next vacation is a great goal to look forward to and a fantastic motivator to put money aside.