Happy Slappy Family Fun Time! What’s your favorite family vacation destination?

The Buttontapper Challenge is back! This month’s challenge is Seussily titled “Oh, the Places We’ll Go!” and will feature a new destination, daily, with inspiration from film and literature.

Today we’re not traveling to a specific destination. Since it’s Sunday, a day of rest, I’m challenging you to think about your Favorite Destination for a Family Vacation!

If your idea of a family vacation is anything like this:

Well, you’ve probably been on a good old-fashioned American family road trip.

My family took many road trips when I was a kid, including annual trips to visit my grandparents in Oklahoma. One time, during our yearly jaunt, my dad told the car full of passengers (including my mom, my sister and me): “Okay, guys, remind me to get gas at the World’s Largest McDonald’s!” and we all replied “Okay, Dad!” As we flew past it, my dad called out “Look, kids, it’s the World’s Largest McDonald’s!” A few miles down the road, the car began to sputter – we were out of gas. “Thanks for reminding me to stop for gas, guys!” my dad said, as he climbed over a wire fence beside the highway and headed off on foot to find the nearest house and ask the owner if he could borrow a gas can.

Whoops!

Some of the things I’ve learned on our various road trips:

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• The state of Wisconsin is pretty much one big collection of cheese shops, porn shops, and cheese-and-porn shops.
• I am still bitter about never having been allowed to visit Tommy Bartlett’s Robot World when visiting Wisconsin Dells. ROBOTS, PEOPLE!
• The Indiana Dunes contains a fearsome living dune by the name of Mount Baldy, which actually consumed a child in 2013.
• The House on the Rock is an indescribably awesome, yet completely weird place, and definitely far more strange than Neil Gaiman’s description of it in American Gods. Visit it, if you have the chance!
• All of those “See Rock City” billboards painted on the sides of barns really work, because eventually I demanded my parents take me to Rock City when I was visiting them. You will likely buy rock candy AND fudge while you are there, after tripping out on the black-light cave full of fairy-tale dioramas, and you will not regret it.
• Do not drive through Death Valley in the family minivan at noon. If you do, you will have to run the heat in order to suck the heat away from the engine to prevent it from overheating. Do stop at the World’s Tallest Thermometer in Baker, California to enjoy some AC in the nearby Bob’s Big Boy while you wait for the minivan’s engine to cool down enough for you to get the hell out of Death Valley alive.

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What about you?

What are some of your favorite destinations for a family vacation, and where did you travel as a family when you were a kid?