Out of all the vacations you've been on, what's your favorite, most memorable one...that was loads of fun for the family, and economical too?

(I'm fishing for ideas for this summer's vacation)

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Bob Howes
Framingham, MA

A reoccurring thought:

Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

This doesn't really count because its a vacation I'd like to take. I'd like to see Israel.

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How often have you wondered why Christ should set His heart upon such a one as you! --Octavius Winslow

Lon Wadkins (Jesup, Iowa)
New Covenant Fellowship, OPC
Independence, Iowa

Eastern Tennessee!
We've been 3 times now. The people are marvelous, the mountains are beautiful. Lot's to do in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville area. Dollywood is very family friendly as is the entire region. Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg is gorgeous. Townsend is the quiet side of the Smokies, you can get a cabin in the mountains for around 90 - 100 a night. There's a cheap trolley system that connects the three towns.

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Bob Vigneault (Bawb Vēēn-yo)
"We are God's children and He's the Father of all fathers and we need to obey him." Jean-Baptiste Vigneault (5)

The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog) MySpace (Music), MySpace (Personal)
Member of Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Standing in the middle of the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana. Fly fishing. But it wasn't really a vacation. It was an afternoon I took off.

Still, it comes back to me as one of my most refreshing memories. It was cheap enough, too. I bought my flies at the grocery store for about 25 cents apiece.

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R.Vic Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

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Wasn't cheap, but a week in Northern California in a cabin under the redwoods....cool.

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church, Poplar Grove, IL * http://maranatha-sbc.org/

"I want to assist churches and to assist pastors in training pastors. But, after fourteen years of service in this capacity, I am absolutely certain that the finest theological seminary on earth is absolutely incompetent at replicating the actual life of a Gospel congregation. I want to train a generation of pastors who will train pastors, and I want to help them in that task." --- Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY

Those sound like some pretty nice vacations.

We were originally thinking of flying down to Orlando next month and going to Universal Studios, but the cost for the flight, hotels, car, tickets, etc. was just a little more than we wanted to spend.

I haven't run it by my wife yet, but I think I may have found a fun place to go, that's much more budget-friendly and within driving distance (a couple hours). Its a place called Bay Side Inn, right on Lake Winnipesaukee in NH. Nice accommodations, a beach on the property...and motor boat rentals!

I'm sure the kids will have fun either skiing or tubing behind this:


If I decide I want to try tubing and maybe do a little fishing, this is a little more my speed:


...and my wife always wanted to go on a cruise. Can't afford the ones to the Bahamas, etc, but there's always MS Mount Washington:

Grand Manan Island in the bay of Fundy (New Brunswick). Smallish island only reached by ferry (aprox 1 hour). Only about 3000 people, no "touristy" type places just beautiful sceanry & whale watching. Cabins, camping (incl cliff-side sites if you don't have small kids) & small motels.

Only a short distence from the US border, aprox 1/2 hour from Calis Maine.

It's a great place to relax.

I agree east TN is a great spot too, but the in-season crowds in Gattlinburg/Pidgon Forge are terrible. Anyone who goes to east TN should stop in Chattanooga to see Rock City. Really it is kinda nice & owned by a PCA guy as well!

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Kevin Rogers
Sovereign Community Church, PCA
Moncton NB

have you tried tellico plains and bald river falls?

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Jonathan Qualls
member
christ community PCA
Clearwater, FL

I love the west. Grand canyon, bryce canyon, monument valley, four corners, zion, arches, carlsbad caverns, yellowstone, yosemite, and the best is the aliens at roswell, NM.

I can't take economical vacations, if I am going to travel and stay away from home (which I love my home) then I've got to go all out.We took our daughter (she was 22) to Disney and stayed inside the park at one of their resorts.

I feared I wouldn't like it and that it would be too "childish", but I very much enjoyed it and want to do it again soon (it's been about 2 years). We are talking about going again with friends of ours over of Christmas break.

We stayed in the Board Walk Villa and it was very, very cool.

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Adam Leavelle
Westminster OPC
Roaring Spring Pa.

http://www.myspace.com/aleavelle
"Speak wisdom to a fool and he'll think you have no sense at all"

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My favorite vacation is still the very first family vacation we took when I was a boy. I turned 7 the last day of it. We went to Toms River, NJ and rented a bungalow for 2 weeks. Trust me, this is before it was developed. There were 5 of us and 9 of extended family including my grandfather. There was barely room to move, but we had a blast.

In the mornings we walked down to "the creek", a tributary of the Toms River. We swam in the creek. There were pines all around. The water looked like the color of tea from all the pine needles that had fallen into it and settled on the bottom. The current was swift and the water was refreshing. Afternoons we went over to Beachwood and went swimming there. While supper was cooking I'd play "roads" in the breezy shade of the tall pines.

Some nights we'd go out for pizza or to the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. It was awesome.

Jay

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~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
Substitute Teacher
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church

No I haven't, I will look into it. Thanks for the tip!

I'm not much of a fisherman, but my wife loves to fish, and we do have fun trying (maybe if someone would tell us when to throw a net overboard . . .). We've been up to the northwoods of Wisconsin (Eagle River area) for a week at a cabin and really enjoyed it - a great way to get away from the world. I still remember when a loon called out and as we turned around to look for it an eagle was flying low over the water. Surrealism at it's best.

We're going up again at the end of July for a week. Maybe this time we'll catch some fish instead of having to eat out. It was so weird eating Canadian walleye when we should have been catching our own.

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Gerry Winebrenner
member Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Janesville WI

Psalm 95:6-7
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Considering where you live, how about Winnepausaki (spelling?) in New Hampshire?

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?
Visit my BLOG Theology for the Rest of Us

It looks like that's where we'll be going this year - check out the pictures above. We're looking forward to having a good time.

Some of my favorite past vacations include:

Northern Ireland
Scotland
England
Germany
Nova Scotia
Outer Banks
Crystal Coast, N.C.
Eastern Shore
Florida
Bahamas
Puerto Vallarta
Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Grand Canyon
Colorado
Shenandoah Valley, Va.
Great Smoky Mountains, N.C.
Harpers Ferry, W. Va.
San Antonio, Tx.
Galveston, Tx.

Places I have lived or visited which are also good vacation spots:

Jamaica
Dominica
Martinique
St. Maarten
Puerto Rico
Burlington, Vt.
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
White Mountains, N.H.

[Edited on 7-10-2006 by VirginiaHuguenot]

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

One of my favorite beaches is Gold Rock Beach, Grand Bahama Island:

Another is Frenchman's Cove, Jamaica:

The coastline of County Antrim, Ulster was pretty spectacular too.

Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge:


Giants Causeway:

Looks nice, but the picture's obviously been touched up. Where are all the bottles/litter on the beach? And the water looks much too clean to be realistic.

Good job! What software program did you use? It looks almost real?

No kidding, Bob, it looked just like that. It's very remote and there is nothing commerical around there for miles. Just on the other side of the beach road is the Lucayan National Park which contains the world's largest surveyed underwater cave system. That's an amazing place to visit as well. If you like to get away from civilization, Gold Rock Beach is the place to go. To paraphrase others, even by mentioning this beach I am aiding in the commericalization of it, alas!

Looks beautiful, a tough place to pull yourself away from I'm sure.

One of my favorite vacations took place last year, in which we rented a van and drove through deathvalley en route to Sequoia National Park. From there we drove up the coast to see the Redwoods. It was a good bit of driving, but I was delighted to see those beautiful forests.

We managed to catch Death Valley during the early spring bloom, which was really quite stunning.

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Bob Leverton
Elder, Faith Baptist Church
Family Blog: http://levertonfamily.blogspot.com/

Bob, now you're talking. Ah, the mountains of east Tennessee.

Rent a chalet @ http://mtnlaurelchalets.com/

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For the sake of the Name,

John Hill
Faith Community - Woodstock, Ga
Adopted. Husband for 13 years. Father of 5 children.
http://faithcommunitychurch.org- My home church
Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to me.