Well, I can’t say the Family Vacation Group Writing Project was hugely successful. It came as a shock because I thought the prize of $1 per participating post was incentive enough for entrants to help drive up the final dollar amount. It could have been the bad timing, it could have been the price of gasoline, it could just be that a lot of people don’t travel. Over the ten or eleven days the contest ran, only ten blogs entered posts. Luckily, they are all excellent.

There are just a few hours until the end of the Family Vacation Group Writing Project. I’ll be watching carefully to see if anything else comes in. I am very glad that the tenth entry has arrived in time.

 
Laura at Writing Thoughts took a three year-old on a road trip to the beach. Perhaps this is the reason why the Family Vacation GWP hasn’t really taken off. Can it be that people get post traumatic stress syndrome from traveling with their relatives?

Tomorrow is my son’s fifth birthday. We have a theme. Counting our own kids, we’re expecting 13 little pirates to board the ship of our apartment. I am not sure how the guest list got so out of control or how it reached that particular number. I must confess that it is with some fear and trepidation that my husband and I prepare to embark on a two and a half hour cruise with this scurvy lot.
Inspiration and courage, though, have come from some unexpected places. I don’t want to walk the plank after reading the 8th entry in the …read more

Vacations mystify a lot of people. Some people can’t imagine spending a week or two away from home. They don’t want to break their carefully crafter routines. Others think that a vacation is about staying in a hotel and can’t understand why a family would live in one room voluntarily. My family is traveling family, but a budget travel one and we seldom stay in anything but the cheapest hotels when we do. We’re more of a family-run pension, youth hostel or stay with friends and relatives kind of crowd. Naturally, our friends and relatives are always welcome here …read more

There have been some delays on the runway, but the Family Vacation Group Writing Project has finally taken off!

There is only one relationship in the world, that I am not directly involved in, that worries me. That would be the relationship between my mother and my husband.
Now, the whole mother-in-law, son-in-law thing is pretty well documented. Mostly it’s a joke, sometimes it’s sad, but the stereotypes are everywhere. As surprising as you may find this revelation, this particular relationship has not always been smooth in our family.
Before I go on, let me give you a moment to absorb the shock.