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Experience a vacation

Family vacations are not for the faint of heart. We've traveled thousands of miles with our girls and we've managed to live and tell about it.

When they were young we did the amusement park circuit — Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, etc. As they got older (or we did), we branched out and expanded their horizons.

The four of us flew to Las Vegas so the girls could "experience" the thrill of airline travel. Since then they've both taken numerous trips that required catching planes and navigating airports. They keep coming home so I know they have managed to figure out the intricacies of traveling by plane.

A few years later we made that American pilgrimage to Disney World. I'm big on "experiencing" things so we decided to drive to Orlando, Fla., to see Mickey and his friends. Daughter #1 was a huge Mickey Mouse fan so you can imagine her excitement all the way across the continent — a continuous litany of "Arewethereyet? Arewethereyet? Arewethereyet?"

I think the only time she wasn't asking arewethereyet? was when we stopped for a brief time on the Gulf. The girls had never seen that much water in one place so we took the time for them to "experience" romping in the sand and playing in the surf.

We shook sand out of suitcases and shoes for the rest of the trip and spent six months cleaning sand out of every crack and crevasse in the car.

The goal was for each of us to choose a particular activity. We breakfasted with Winnie the Pooh, stood in line to shake hands with Mickey, and saw how they made the Indiana Jones movies. We also stood in line for an hour to ride Splash Mountain and "experienced" (there's that word again) the Tower of Terror. You haven't lived until you've dropped 13 stories in a runaway elevator!

A few years ago we went to Corpus Christie, Texas. We rented a place with an "ocean view" where we could actually see the water if we leaned out over the balcony and someone held onto our feet.

Again, everyone had the opportunity to choose an activity. We spent some time on the beach and swimming in the Gulf. We toured an aircraft carrier and ate seafood.

And we rode horses on Mustang Island.

I can't remember who chose this activity — but it wasn't Dennis. He's more the four-wheels-and-a-motor type. Horses aren't my favorite mode of transportation either but we were there for the "experience."

I'm not sure how the owners matched up horses with riders. The girls and I got ordinary-looking, regular-sized horses. Dennis, however, must have chosen the short straw because he got the biggest horse in the corral. In fact, it might have been the only "giraffe-size" horse in Texas.

Our family vacation days are about over. Both girls are seasoned travelers. They've been to New York and Washington, D.C., and places in between. Daughter #1 frequently drives to Houston to spend weekends with a friend from school. Daughter #2 will test the waters later this week when she and a group of friends go to Worlds of Fun.

As for the parents . . . well, we're just about back at square one . . . trying to figure out what kind of trips to take that don't include big horses and oversized cartoon characters.

— DONNA BERNHARDT

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