It is negative 4 degrees outside.  That is not the windchill Tat is the temperature in Fahrenheit in the Midwest for crying out loud.  That gets me thinking about vacations, preferably to somewhere warm.

My family was a vacation family Mostly, we went camping at The Cabin in the woods.  It was way fun when we were kids and didn't care about things like electricity or flushing toilets or not finding mouse turds on your pillow.  However, we did take some actual vacations to other places occasionally.

We always drove to ny destination anywhere we went.  The highlight trips I remember the most are a trip to the Smoky mountains in Tennessee, a trip to Washington DC and the outer banks of North Carolina, a trip to New Orleans, and a trip to Texas and into Mexico.  I actually may be thinking those trips were separate, but maybe we did Louisiana and Texas all in one.  Anyway, I have very specific memories f each.

Tennessee must have been a pretty early one, because memories of that one are a little sketchy.  I remember visiting some of my mom's relatives.  I was totally enamored with my cousin (2nd or 3rd or once or twice removed)  because she had a really cool rainbow painted across the wall in her room.  I also remember that there was an international grocery store or something along those lines,  My dad bought some smoke, canned octopus tentacles.  This product bore no resemblance to calamari.  I remember having little suction cups sticking to my tongue while we were trying to chew them.
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Ialso remember going hiking in the mountains.  While I am sure it was beautiful the thing that was the most memorable (sorry Paul) is that my brother really, really, I mean REALLY had to pooh.  and seeing as how we were on the (semi) pristine side of a mountain, there were no little rest stops in the general vicinity.  Eventually, my dad took him off the path and returned with a much happier, and more comfortable, little brother.