Contrast Essay

During my childhood we always made it a point to go on family camping trips.  We would find a new national park near each destination we traveled to.  They stretched from Acadia in Bar Harbor all the way out to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State.  We chose these trips because they suited our family, quiet, remote locations with relatively low population.  Call us woodsy if you’d like, but the air is a whole lot cleaner on the side of a mountain than it is behind a line of RV’s, and the view is quite a bit better too.  Later in life I was able to go along with friends on a few occasions to experience what others considered “family vacations”.  They tended to be big expensive trips to high population centers, Fryeburg Fair for example, and were quite the opposite from what I was used to.  Now I'm not saying family fun wasn’t had; it was just a bit of a different experience for me.

        Both types of trips can strain the family unit.  Some outdoor vacationing aspects can definitely help in my opinion though, much more than being squished into an RV with all those people on the more materialistic journeys.  On my family trips we always go camping for a few days and explore the park, trying to get a broad look at all it has to offer, and really just enjoy the amount of space we had at our fingertips.  We go out and hike or bike around on trails and end each day sitting around the campfire for supper.  They are truly family oriented vacations, and I love them.  On the other hand when I would accompany John’s family to the Fryeburg Fair, things were always more of a rush, almost hectic sometimes.  Lateness, distractions, and the general chaos of too much going on would sometimes plague the success of their family outings.  And I unfortunately had to find out some of it firsthand.   The stress of trying to do too much would sometimes put family members at odds with each other.  Varying opinions of what to do, where to eat, or when to be places were just some of the sparks that could start a blaze.  And those are just no good, because I was going to have to spend the rest of the trip cooped up in an RV with them, and there was just no room to vent anger in a place like that.

        Money, money, money.  Got to have the stuff, and got to spend it too.  For example whenever we would go to the Fryeburg Fair it was always the same routine.  Parents would give the kids their allowances for the day and then set them free on the world.  Free to spend on anything and everything you can at a fair.  And we sure found enough places to do so.  Deep fried dough, blooming onions, greasy burgers, the list trails on.  All of course with the usual fair price-rate hike applied, but it still seemed worth it.  And although delicious and appealing at purchase, that is just about where the beautiful story ended for the food.  My family’s experience on the other hand was quite different. At a National Park the only thing you can spend your money on were silly knick-knacks and bundles of firewood.  But that didn’t mean there wasn’t and good food to eat, my mother made sure of that. 

        Now I can’t justify standing up front and saying that our camping trips are better than any other trip, because we do still have our fair share of mishaps and accidents, but we deal with them as they come and choose to move on.  Now it’s not much fun when you have to be told what to do and when to do it by the weather, but we still seem to have a good time.  We are steadily on the watch for dark clouds on the horizon, those that may leave us damp and cold, or even worse without a dry place to sleep.  We’ve had a few times when Mother Nature told us to turn around and go home, but for the most part it only takes a night rest in a hotel to give us a fresh start.  Now rain, sleet, and snow may not affect the RV as much when parked at the Fryeburg Fair, but being over there isn’t always a picnic either.   Fussy city-raised neighbors to deal with, overpriced deep-fried foods to attempt to digest, and to many places for losing money than you can shake a stick at all can lead to some not so fond memories.

        I enjoy my time with my family, and I will always look back on our trips fondly, hoping for more in the future.  I was raised discovering these types of places, and hope to take my children on similar discoveries.  I value each and every time I get to go out and spend time with my family, as I'm sure everyone does when they reflect on the time they got to spend together, no matter the type of trip.  And I suppose that’s what it all comes down to, whether or not you come away from an experience positively.  It doesn’t really matter what type of trip you go on, what matters is that you try your best to have everyone there you care about, and to make it the best it can possibly be.