Bonus Bone: Family Summer Vacation

Porcelain strutting her stuff in the Pacific Ocean.

During this sweltering heat wave, I thought about growing up and not living in an air conditioned house. How did we do it? The other thing I thought about is FAMILY SUMMER VACATION! My Dad worked for General Motors and every July the Big 3 shut down for two weeks, which is when we’d take our annual summer vacation. We went camping, took road trips, visited friends and family, rented beach houses, and went to both Disneyworld AND Disneyland! We traveled from coast to coast, down to Mexico and up to Canada and almost always pulled our pop-up camper along with us. Eventually, we upgraded to an Airstream trailer, fondly dubbed the "Silver Twinkie."

You’d think my favorite vacation would be when we went camping at Disneyworld but you'd be wrong. Sleeping in a pop-up camper with three older brothers, 2 parents, and 1 oscillating fan in the middle of a humid Florida July is not what I call fun! No, my favorite vacation was when we rented a big beach house with my grandmother, aunts and uncles, and some cousins in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was glorious to wake up to the sound of the waves, see the beach from our porch, and smell the sea air. We grilled fish, tried to spot dolphins, boogie-boarded, and I read my first trashy romance novel. Perfect beach reading!

I cherish these carefree vacations. My memories are filled with marshmallows, camp fires, sleeping bags, Faygo pop, games of Skip-bo and Solitare, dirty knees, and hours upon hours spent in the water.

For these reasons, I, Porcelain, declare this a Design Boner.