Spending Summer Vacation's Away From Home

Summer time is my favorite time of year, I'm sure I'm not alone with that statement. It always has been, since I was a little girl. Summer time was what kept my sanity when I was growing up.
I grew up in the popular tourist town of Keystone, SD, just a few miles from Mount Rushmore.
In the winter, the population of Keystone was a few hundred people. For locals it meant "dire isolation" to those of us (like me) that thrived on being around people.
In the summer, the population in Keystone grows to several thousand any given day. People from all over the US traveled to explore the Black Hills and spend their summer's away from their homes.
My family never traveled in the summer like we saw with other families that came to visit where we lived. I remember my family would make lists from liscense plates of all the different states that we would see in town. "I saw Arkansas, Colorado, New York, and Texas visitors today!" That was our highlights of travel for our summers.
We really didn't have the money to travel as a family. My parents had to work. But it never stopped me from "dreaming about traveling." And being "like those other families" that "got to really travel."
My husband and I couldn't afford to "travel" either, while raising 3 children. We could barely afford to pay attention, though we would go camping and visit our friends who lived on a lake in Nebraska. The drive was only a few hours away. They had a boat and would invite us over every 4th of July. Even though that was the best we could do for spending our summer vacation away from home, we had tons of fun!
Now that we are empty nesters and find we have more money (funny how that works...) and it's summer time, I find it even harder since we moved to Bellingham, WA, to spend our summer's away from our home.
The summer's up here are so perfect for us! Not "too" hot. With all the beautiful greenery and summer colors, it is like paradise!
As for things to do and places to go, the sky is the limit around here. Miles upon miles of hiking trails and mountain biking, water sports at my disposal just 3 blocks away on Lake Whatcom or just a few minutes drive on Bellingham Bay.
This last weekend, we decided to get out of town and took our grand daughter to Seattle to visit the Space Needle and Public Market. She had a great time!
I just can't imagine spending my summer vacationing away from home! Washington is a great place all year around. My husband and I will do our travel's away from home in the winter!