How You Can Travel and Have a Family and Home Life

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This ‘You Can Travel’ inspirational feature comes from Jenn Singer of DayTripper28.com, a Minnesota Travel blog that explores different Minnesota destinations. She doesn’t believe that a Vacation should require you to use up your precious Vacation time from work. As a Minnesota native, her passion for exploring has led her to try all kinds of new things. As someone that takes 30+ Day Trips a year, she is always up for an adventure. Here’s how she does it!

A vacation doesn’t require that you go jet setting on an airplane. It doesn’t require that you burn through a bunch of vacation time either. I used to think I didn’t have enough money to travel. I was too broke and didn’t have the vacation time like I did before. Really, I just needed to change my views of a vacation. Instead of one big trip, how about I take a bunch of smaller ones, closer to home? Here is how I did it.

I took a look at what was in my own back yard. I’m not talking about a staycation. A staycation is staying in your home town. I’m talking about getting in my car and going on a mini road trip. I started by taking a map, and drawing a circle around my home that was 150 miles out. Depending on traffic and speed limits of small towns, that is equivalent to a 2-3hr drive. You can easily get there and back in the same day. This saved me tons of money on hotel costs, flights and any pet boarding.

This was the biggest escape I found. It started out with me going to free places, like state parks, festivals and other events. My favorite was Interstate Park in Taylors Falls, MN. We got to stand in a pothole on the cliff of the St. Croix River. It was formed by the glaciers and massive. The most we paid was $5 to park. We ate lunch at a 50s-style diner and get a free round of mini golf with the kids meals. The trip didn’t cost us much of anything.

After that we were hooked. We did more inexpensive trips and found free things to do. Sometimes we packed a lunch and ate on the road. Occasionally we would save up a little more money so we could do something that cost a little more money. Like when we went to Paul Bunyan Land in Brainerd MN. When you entered, the large animatronic Paul Bunyan greeted our kids by name. They even remembered their names when we walked by them again a second and third time. It rained most of the time we were there, but it didn’t stop us from having fun.

Now my Facebook feed is filled with all kinds of adventure. My friends and family are always asking where I’m going this summer and what my plans are. Most of the time I tell them they must wait to find out, mostly because my plans are never set in stone. If the weather is bad, I can do something indoors or stay home and chill. Every day is an adventure. Never let money and lack of vacation time from work stop you.