Being frugal (!), the first sentence of this article caught my eye: "Only have gas money and need to get away?"

The Day Trip Vacation

I've done this before but it's been awhile. Since I don't have time for a real vacation right now, this is looking pretty good. Have you ever taken a break like that? 

When hubbie was home for R & R, we visited a local botanical garden. We couldn't go too far with the newborn, but it was fun to take a break and see different sites.

A few summers ago, we visited a State Park not too far from here. Hubbie also wanted to go to a big outdoor/sporting good store (can't remember the name), but it was a couple hours' drive, and that was fun.

We often took day trips when we lived in Germany. We joked that the best things we saw were when we got lost on the way to see what we originally set out for.

slk2042:

We joked that the best things we saw were when we got lost on the way to see what we originally set out for.

 

I've done that, too! We used to have a motorhome and would go for a day or a weekend... sometimes we wound up at a planned destination and sometimes not. Besides getting lost, it's fun to take a road on a whim just to see what's there. 

we do that alot .. Sping summer and fall are very busy for us  but we will take a day trip .. one favorite idea we do is go sister libraries in our system and have picnic lunch then come home we can return the books locally .

We just did that on Saturday. We packed a lunch, packed the car and headed to Omaha to the Henry Doorly Zoo. It has expanded and grown and you need almost a whole day to just see the zoo. It was sort of spur of the moment so we didn't get on the road until 9:30 but it's only an hour away and we were there until about 3:00 that afternoon. Drove home and had time to make a nice dinner for the evening.

We plan on doing another day trip this fall to Nebraska City to pick apples.

I do that all the time on the motorcycle. I just go out until I find an unfamiliar road and follow it, the last time ending up in McConnelsburg, PA. At every intersection I just turn in whatever direction looks most interesting, or just randomly turn. When I decide to go home I turn on the GPS to find out "How do I get home from here?"

Getting almost 50 mpg it's still fairly cheap entertainment if one likes that sort of thing.

Discovering little old towns that time forgot is a fun thing we like to do, in addition to historical sites. Calif. still has lots of history, even though in the immediate area much of it has been torn down and office buildings built over it. Edey

We plan to lots of day trips instead of a vacation "vacation".    besides beaches etc,  there is a renanaisse fair in july, always the aquarium since we have a yearly membership, waterslides plus other things that we will see what comes up.

This is what we have planned for this year as we don't have the cash or vacation time available to take any overnight trips or longer vacations.  We've made a list of places/activities to check out and have planned to get a day trip in every 2 weeks if possible!

So far we've gone to a garden amusement park which is perfect for the kids.  Have season passes so will return before end of November.  Have also done a visit to the nearest lake and a regional air show.

We had planned to go to a free pirate festival about 2.5 hours away but didn't go at the last minute as when I finally got more info about it seemed awesome but better for older kids.  I envisioned our kids being really scared and not enjoying it!

On the list-a trip to a ghost town 45 mins away, caverns that are 1.5 hrs away, the beach 2.5 hrs away, and back to the mountains.  There's a lot more to see and do around here too but with the baby coming in early August, we might have to wait a bit!  We'll see how it goes!

I really like doing day trips as it saves A LOT of money.  For us, don't have to pay for hotel, dining (can pack our own), don't have to pay someone to watch the dogs, and more.  Only have to pay for gas and whatever the activivty cost is, plus maybe a treat or something while there if we want.  MUCH cheaper than any overnight trip!

I know I was away from the farm for aweeek to california redwood area ,I feel like just dropping off my parents and daisy off some place and head for the park allday without anyone around you  know kids barking dogs bird tweeting away thats ok I just need to get away myself maybe along walk without paying the gass or my bike but need a helmet because the law is a pain in the butt in county area of where I live just go about 50miles on the bike like I use to do now thats sounding real good right now pat you bad girl you put a bee in my bonnet and know its time to get my helmet tomorrow this weekend Im going at least do maybe 2 miles I havn't done 50miles in 7 years... Shame on you pat...:)