Spring Break

My youngest has started her spring break.  Due to my employment status we are staying home.  This is unusual for us we usually go some place for spring break.  Financing being what it is we can afford to go window shopping at some of her favorite places.  I hate to use the when I was her age card but, I must. Things were definitely different back in those days.  Once my wife and I established ourselves financially and had our first daughter we could afford to do something for spring break.  My parents were not so lucky.  To us spring break meant that we could spend a couple of weeks with our friends playing all day instead of going to class.  When we got older it meant we could drive to White Sands, Cloud croft, Ruidosa or Elephant Butte for a couple of days.

I felt guilty about not going anywhere during the break while all of her friends are going to exotic far away places.  Then I thought about all the fun we had when I was her age just playing in our yard with all my friends.  I think this is what made all of us such good friends.  You know the kind of friends that you never forget and remember when you are feeling down.  My brother and sisters were in the same boat and more often than not we banded together with our friends to make the days not only bearable but lots of fun.  Even when we got older we didn't have to go to South Padre Island, Cozumel or Guadalajara.  We went someplace we could afford and where we could all go just for a few dollars each.

We are spending the week going to do some of our favorite things.  We are doing inexpensive things that doesn't require travel.  Things like going to the ceramic shop to paint small knick knacks that get placed in places of honor around the house, or sent off to grandmothers.  We went to the pet store to visit all the different pets that they have there puppies, large birds and her favorite ferrets  Today we are going to the music store so she can play the bongos and admire the guitars, keyboards and other instruments.  Tomorrow if the weather is nice and the ground dry we will go to the dog park with the dog.  There are so many things to do that she really enjoys here in town that we will have an adventure a day while she is on break.  Hopefully she will be able to brag to her friends of all the in town adventures she had while her friends tell her about the places they visited.

My thought is this: when we can afford to go someplace we go.  When we can't we stay here and have adventures that are just as fun.   I have really good friends in places that I would love to visit and at some point I will.  I will take my family to those places and we will have adventures there when we can afford it.  Life is good when you have adventures.