Great American Family Vacation 1971

In the summer before my senior year in high school my family embarked on the Great American Family Vacation. We drove from Michigan to California and back. We took the southern route there and a more northern/midwestern route back. My dad told us we could each take a duffel bag with 3 changes of clothes -- and we stopped at a laundromat every few days to wash our clothes. That way we could each carry our own luggage easily. 

I don't remember where all we went on the first part of the trip. I know we went through St. Louis and stopped at the St. Louis arch, which was pretty new at the time. I think we visited Carlsbad Caverns, too. We went through the painted desert, and the petrified forest. And we stopped at the Grand Canyon, of course. 

In California we visited with my mom's aunt Juanita in L.A. We went to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm while we were there. Then we headed north. We went to Marine World. My uncle Bob and Aunt Jackie lived in Pacifica -- just outside of San Francisco -- and we visited them. We saw the streetcars, and drove on Lombard Street. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but there was so much fog we could only see the tops of the suspension poles. Bob and Jackie went with us to Las Vegas. This was back when "the Strip" was still on Freemont street and all the old original casinos were still in business.

This is me at Knott's Berry Farm

My brother John at Disneyland

Marine World

This is all we ever saw of the Golden Gate Bridge

Me and Dad and John at Rockaway Beach (Pacific Ocean) near San Francisco

While we were in Las Vegas we went to see Elvis Presley's show

Uncle Bob and Aunt Jackie, Mark and Lori

On the route back to Michigan we stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah, and saw the Mormon Tabernacle. We also stopped at the Great Salt Lake. We didn't go far enough north to see Mt. Rushmore. The whole trip took three weeks, and it really was a lot of fun -- even with three kids who normally didn't get along with one another very well. My dad made 8mm movies of the trip and they are fun to watch (he had them converted to VHS videos somewhere along the way, and I still have a copy of one of those).