Staycationing
I just got back from 5 days' worth of staycationing on Kelleys Island and in Akron.
Although my linguistics background tells me that this is just how new words get formed, the word "staycation" still rankles me. Probably because of the sickening cutesy-cleverness of it, sort of like the unnecessary bows and ruffles often on women's clothing.
(Also, we Clevelanders already have a phrase for not doing very much during one's vacation: it's called a one-tank trip.)
Nearly all of my childhood vacations were spent semi-staycationing. There were only two trips (our last two family trips, unsurprisingly, the ones where my sister was deemed old enough to opt out and I was deemed old enough to decide where we were going) when we went somewhere that was not attached to a Great Lake.
I understand now, of course, that my dad dragged us around Michigan and Ontario because he knew that this was the only way we were going to get any appreciation for our Great Lakes heritage. Because in Cleveland, we essentially turn our backs to the lake. There's always been a spooky part of me that thinks the lake spirits are mad about this, and that's why we as a city keep rolling the boulder of economic development up the hill, only to get perpetually clobbered in the end.
But anyway. What I want to know today is where you went on vacation as a Cleveland kid. Did you stick around the Lake Erie shoreline? Did you venture out of the Western Reserve? What are your best Great Lakes/Ohio/Upper Midwest vacation memories?
Although my linguistics background tells me that this is just how new words get formed, the word "staycation" still rankles me. Probably because of the sickening cutesy-cleverness of it, sort of like the unnecessary bows and ruffles often on women's clothing.
(Also, we Clevelanders already have a phrase for not doing very much during one's vacation: it's called a one-tank trip.)
Nearly all of my childhood vacations were spent semi-staycationing. There were only two trips (our last two family trips, unsurprisingly, the ones where my sister was deemed old enough to opt out and I was deemed old enough to decide where we were going) when we went somewhere that was not attached to a Great Lake.
I understand now, of course, that my dad dragged us around Michigan and Ontario because he knew that this was the only way we were going to get any appreciation for our Great Lakes heritage. Because in Cleveland, we essentially turn our backs to the lake. There's always been a spooky part of me that thinks the lake spirits are mad about this, and that's why we as a city keep rolling the boulder of economic development up the hill, only to get perpetually clobbered in the end.
But anyway. What I want to know today is where you went on vacation as a Cleveland kid. Did you stick around the Lake Erie shoreline? Did you venture out of the Western Reserve? What are your best Great Lakes/Ohio/Upper Midwest vacation memories?
posted by Christine Borne at 9:32 AM
14 Comments:
Our family vacations typically were road trips to visit our great-grandfather in Altoona, PA or up to Niagara Falls and to the deserted Crystal Beach.
Fun fact: I think family road trip stories are fascinating. There is a book called Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. It's surprisingly dry, but worth a look, at any rate!
I will have to ask my mom if we ever went to Crystal Beach, but if it was dilapidated and deserted, the answer is probably yes. Here are some interesting tidbits on the now-demolished Crystal Beach amusement park from a Canadian urban exploration site!
We would take a trip to a different city almost every summer, so we actually went on a vacation TO Cleveland.
My parents would take us to a baseball game to get us out of the usually hellish campsite that we were inhabiting. My dad walked up to the box office at the old stadium and asked if there were any seats left. The woman turned to the person in the next window and said just for kicks, "hey, this guy wants to know if there's any seats left".
We had a fun time with the other 5,000 fans and Slider. My brother and I ran around in the upper deck until they made us go back to our seats because the upper deck was closed.
Your dad gave you a great gift, C, one that can only really be shared when you're young. I happen to be reading a fairly good book at the moment about a guy who makes a three-month-long trek around the Great Lakes, and writes about the characters and landscapes he encounters. I'll be sure to share the title with you later. Can't remember it at the moment.
You know, it's only now that I have kids of my own that I'm really appreciating living right by a big lake and trying to take advantage of it. When I was a kid we went to the beach maybe 3 times--and I grew up in Old Brooklyn, so it was close by. We would go camping every summer at Dillon State Park, just outside of Zanesville, and we'd go to Amish areas of Ohio frequently, but hardly ever to Lake Erie. Now I try and take the girls to different beaches all year round, sometimes to swim, sometimes just to walk around--we've been going in the evening to Edgewater to watch the bats come out at twilight, there are so many.
I hate the word "Staycation" too, for all the same reasons. I prefer to call it, "hanging out close to home and doing all the fun stuff there is to do here". Not as catchy, I'll grant you.
Kelleys was always a favorite for our family: gorgeous nature, cool geology and -- generally -- not as populated with drunks as Put-in Bay (NTTAWWT).
We also used to just take advantage of all that the western lakefront had to offer --- Vermilion, Maumee Bay, Old Woman Creek, Catawba, etc. You can't help but love staying local, once you really see what "local" has to offer.
I grew up spending every weekend on my parents sailboat. We kept it near Sandusky so in lieu of a traditional vacation, every weekend was a mini-vacay. We'd take a week here and there to sail to other parts of the lake like over to Canada. It wasn't until I was 19, with the exception of one trip to Virginia Beach, that I went on a vacation that didn't involve the boat. The Lake Erie islands were like my summer home.
I grew up in Lake County, swimming, sailing and lifeguarding on Lake Erie, so don't hold me responsible for the gods' anger.* Our vacations were usually either a trip to Put-In-Bay, or more often to a lake in northern Vermont near where my mother grew up. Other than the islands we didn't do much else in NEO, probably because living near the lake was so relaxing.
* Though I do think Cleveland is more of a river city than a lake city.
My grandparents had a cottage up on Catawba Island that's been a family retreat since my mom was in high school and was where our whole side of the family went to get away from everything. For awhile, we didn't even have phone service and had to pump water from a spring at the park.
We could go swimming or exploring, hunt for fossils, shoot off fireworks, take a stack of books up to the treehouse, roast marshmallows, build bonfires on the beach. In short, all those stereotypically awesome family vacation kind of things.
I also got baptized at Edgewater Park when I was in my teens, which at this point seems symbolic on several levels.
But really, I have a serious love affair with Lake Erie.
Maybe you don't like "staycation" because you're not fond of portmanteaus.
We used to go camping a lot every summer. I also remember trips to the Henry Ford Museum, Washington D.C. and King's Island. We camped at all these places too. Oh, and to a Greyhound racetrack which sounds really seedy but my parents don't drink or gamble. Not sure what the draw was there. That was the first time I stayed in a hotel - I think I was about 13.
We also vacationed many times to Bancroft Ontario. We stayed at a place that had about a dozen cabins. I remember lots of fishing and mosquitoes. My grandparents took their vacations there EVERY year (for 2 weeks) since my mom was little. We took my grandfather there one last time before he passed away and that was the last family vacation I was forced to go on. I was done camping forever!
We never really took advantage of the lake as a kid. My husband, on the other hand, was on the lake all summer with his dad on their boat.
John: is the book you're talking about The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas? Jim and I both read that a few years ago. It's become one of those books that we talk about like it's our good friend who we haven't seen in a while.
I think it's really interesting to see who spent time embracing the lake, and who spent time in relative denial of it. There are really two types of people, in a way. What's the thing that separates those two types of people.
I am also intrigued by the idea that we're a river city, rather than a lake city. I guess that's true - Cleveland built up around the Ohio and Erie Canal. And we're still divided by the river, geographically and figuratively (although I think that's slowly coming to an end). I actually lived in relative ignorance of the river until I was in high school. I wonder if my dad's Great Lakes orientation usurped that native-Cleveland river orientation....
We used to go camping in Southern Ohio every year, by the canal. And we went on a lot of historical landmark trips - Edison's birthplace, Edison's labratory, Hope Furnace, ect. And we spent a lot of time going to parks along the lake. So I not only have an appreciation of the lake, but of the rest of Ohio too.
I grew up pretty much unaware of the rest of Ohio. I think we took some Ohio vacations when I was too young to remember, but what I do remember is always getting out of Ohio along US-6 as fast as possible. We NEVER went south, and I think I was at least 16 before I ever went to Akron, let alone Columbus.
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