It’s that time again. Family vacation!
My son, Jerrin, and I lived in the midwest until 4 years ago when we moved to North Carolina. There are so many differences between the midwest and the east coast. When I tell people this, they don’t understand. I mean, it’s the same country, right? It should all be the same thing. So we measured it out on a map. If we lived in London and moved the same distance into Europe, we would now live near Prague in the Czech Republic. When you think about it like that you can understand what I mean.
Even though we speak the same language, there are still regional differences. Here they call a winter hat a toboggan, which to me will always be a sled. They also say “might should” and “might could”. While I immediately understood what was meant, I would have never thought to use the language in this way.
The reason I bring all of this up is, vacation. In the midwest, if you tell your job “I’m taking a week off for family vacation”, they will tell you that you can go, but you won’t have a job when you come back. It’s a completely foreign concept there to take a yearly family vacation. I think part of that is because it’s the midwest and it’s boring. There’s not really anything there that could possibly occupy a whole week of your time. Sure, there’s the Arch, but you can see that in one day. There’s the Mississippi, but it’s gross. Who wants to see that old dirty thing? There’s the Ozarks, which I am embarrassed to say, they think are mountains. They’re really just some big hills with a lake in the middle of them. But you can’t even get in the lake because it’s poisoned with toxic chemicals. Besides which, it’s not a family place. There’s lots of drinking and nudity there.
But here, there are beaches and mountains. Employers here will ask you when your family vacations is, so they can know when you’ll be working. What?!?!?! Ok. I might hate some things about Charlotte (the traffic, red dirt, giant bugs), but I love family vacation!
I will post tons of photos when we get back!
This Artful Journey 