Every Family goes to Prison for Vacation

In two short days we are headed out of town for our family visit with my husband.  It is almost a 10 hours drive and with three kids, not an easy trip.  Especially when they know that they will be spending their vacation behind barbed wire. 

Trying to make it as memorable and upbeat as possible, I am hoping we can split the trip up and have some adventures on the way down and on the way home.  Don't get me wrong, we are all very excited to see my husband, since it has been over a year since we were able to see him last, but the environment and cicircumstances still make the visits very difficult.  Not every kid wants to go back to school in the fall and have their "what I did over summer vacation" include getting up at sunrise to be first in line for prison time, passing through metal detectors, sitting in a visitors room with other prisoners and their families and having to leave Dad behind yet again.

I have not told the kids about all the little side trips that I have planned because I want them to be excited about going and let them decide the ultimate destinations.  Some of the stops are free (yes I did manage to find a few free activities), I have downloaded coupons for others (obviously not free, but trying to save pennies everywhere I can) and printed out lists of other things we can do as a family on our way to and from prison.

The prison is not too far from the ocean so of course that is one of the big destinations.  We go there after the prison visit.  It helps curb the disappointment and sadness when we have to leave him behind yet again.  Thanks to friends and family I have a few extra dollars for some mad money to spend and hopefully for us all to eat well, have fun and make memories.  Memories that will include visiting prison for 2 days and spending some time with Dad, even if you have to sit there for  4-6 hours just talking, it is still better than nothing.

Does this bother the kids?  Not sure.  I think it bothers some more than others, heck I would be lying if I said it did not bother me but we all manage to get through it.  Will these be fond memories of the their childhood?  Believe it or not I certainly hope so.  Months of planning has gone into this trip so as to make it as vacation like as possible so I hope that we can all come home and be glad that we went and carry those memories of the whole trip with us until we can get back there again. 

I am looking forward to the day when we can ALL take that family vacation together and not have to plan it around a Federal Correctional Facility.  It would be nice to go to the ocean because we want to play in the waves and not because it is close to where Dad is locked up.  Only two more summer vacations without Dad and then we can spend them together again.  That was supposed to make me feel better!  I guess it does when you consider we have two down already.