Same, same

Right now there are many families packing up and getting their heads around Christmas or a holiday afterwards. For me, this morning, I walked around the chemist like a zombie trying to work out all the things that I needed to get before we head away on Thursday for a week over Christmas and then up to the farm (Rob’s Dads place) where we always spend  New years and early Jan.

We’ve been doing that since, oh gosh, maybe 2004? We missed one New years when we were in Paris, but bar that one it’s our go to summer holiday destination that we are very lucky enough to be able to go to each year.

It reminded me of my own childhood when we used to go to Pearl Beach on the central coast every year for our summer holiday. The rental houses would change each year, but the car packed to the brim with towels and beach stuff, a TV(!), music and boardgames remained the same. We’d settle in for a week or so and spend our mornings at the beach and long, hot nights listening to parents drinking too much and dancing badly to Dire Straits.

There’s something comforting about going to the same place each year don’t you think? My cousins growing up used to venture to the North Entrance Caravan Park each year, and we’d visit them and have the very best burger with the works that ever existed. Maybe it’s a camping site? A family home or farm, maybe even a resort…but these familiar places are so loved because they carry with them all the wonderful memories of years gone by.

Birthdays, Christmases, New Years Eves all rolled into each other with wonderful memories.

These are the places that you arrive at and instantly relax. Where 4 hours in can seem like 4 days already. I can already see the long, happy days stretched out in front of us.

Do you have a same same holiday destination that you go to?
Where is it?
Or are you a person that travels around?
How’s the packing going?!

Comments

  1. Morning swim, home to hot lunch prepared alternatively by my parents. Mum then believed you would get sick without a hot meal once a day. Lunch, then a compulsory rest so no one would develop cramps in the pool after eating. Dad would prepare the sandwiches for our evening picnic every evenin around the rocks where we would try to synchronise oue countin with the flashes from the {Palm Beach light house. Then Hom in the dusk to Monopoly or similar. Unlike you, we stayed in the same place for years. I would happily go back to those days. I can count at least 15 times we spent January at Pearl Beach.

    The beach was different then. Less than metre from the shore, the sand dropped away so it was about 2 metres deep almost on sand. No one swam in the surf, it was not only dangerous, but well known for sharks. One fisherman caught seven in one night from the beach with a hand line.

    Restaurant Pearls was just a cheap and nasty milk bar but it sold our morning Paddlepops. What flavour/. Not much choice. Pure pineapple juice or chocolate and they cost three pence . Those were the days.

  2. Trish Macdonald says

    Every 2nd year we travel from Brisbane to Bowral to my husbands family and I’m currently packing ready for our early departure tomorrow. Road trip this time and we are bringing the dog. I hope I’ve got the clothes for the weather right cause its hot hot hot up here but no so hot in the highlands. It is nice to have the trip to the same place every 2nd year. I love a number shops and places down there so love checking them all out. Enjoy your Christmas and New Year escapes it sounds lovely.

  3. As a child it was my grandparents’ house at Rosebud West on the gorgeous Mornington Peninsula. If you got lucky your family would draw the last fortnight of the holidays when summer had truly set in. About two minutes walk to the beach, the stuff of amazing memories, washing off sandy feet in the outdoor shower & toilet block, rubber plant leaves brushing against louvred rundowns at night, Pa’s chair, a run to the good bakery with Dad… I miss that house, and those days.

  4. Blueys Beach on the mid North coast is our special place!

  5. Oh yes, the tradition of a summer holiday. My family started going to Merimbula (south coast) the year I was born and we went every January, with the same 5-6 families, for the next 18 years. I have since taken my own children and tried to recreate the magic but it wasn’t quite the same. I still had that lovely nostalgic feeling though… we are now regularly taking our kids to Huskisson and we all love it so it may be our new Merimbula! I hope our kids look back at the holidays we take while they’re growing up the same way I look back at mine with my parents and siblings. Such lovely memories! Enjoy and safe travels Beth x

  6. Jacq Lives Here says

    YES!
    As a family, since I was 2 year old, we have always spent either the second or third week of January at Tangalooma on Moreton Island. We would always buy someone’s time share off them who wasn’t using it that week (do time shares even exist anymore?), so although the unit itself would change, the feeling of stepping off the Tangalooma Flyer and onto the jetty never did. There were always other families doing the same thing as us, so we got to “grow up” with these kids at our once a year catch up. I always thought that having a holiday house where you would go to the same place time after time would get boring, but somehow the magic of Tangalooma meant we were never bored… it’s a special place!
    I’m 31 years old now, and my parents still go every year – and I try to tack on whenever I can 🙂

  7. We have been going to Albany (5 hours south of Perth) for the last 6 years. We hire a caravan and stay with friends, for the 2 weeks after Christmas, in a caravan park by the beach. We have suggested trying somewhere different next year however the kids (9 and 12) shot that idea down immediately! They love the fact we know which beaches to go to, where the lolly shop is and that they get to hang out with their friends and actually feel a sense of freedom, something that I often feel is missing in our busy life. I know they will always have wonderful memories of these holidays.
    Merry Christmas and good luck with the planning, packing etc!!

  8. that sounds lovely beth!
    as children we went to pt Elliot a lot and stayed in a guesthouse with another family!
    those memories are priceless! crayfish!!! hello they had cray pots! … plus simple pleasures, cards, board games and I did everyone’s hair!;0 meant to be!
    there was a drive in theatre there and the kids went in one car and the adults in another! … it’s all coming back to me thanks hun!
    now we are ten minutes away from my most favorite beach! … because it holds precious memories! we walk there most weeks!
    this is a holiday destination! … it sure gets busy though! can’t find a park!!!
    hope your girls night was fun!
    much love m:)X

  9. oh as a kid we would pack up for Cotton Tree at the Sunshine Coast near Maroochydore, back then walking o the beach at night collecting sand dollars by torchlight, swimming and surfing all day long…. Now we live on the Coast thank god mum and dad had the sense to retire here ! So we do live in paradise but our little family does head up to Tin Can Bay to my brothers place between xmas and new years its a quiet little spot and just like the Cotton Tree of old days, as Cotton Tree is now a little vibe and hub of tourists. Gone is the put put golf but the memories of the days remain. Tin Can however is our getaway, dolphins, sleep ins, bike riding and op shopping. My youngest loooves it because here we are on acreage and on tank water but at Tin Can bay she can have a BATH every night lol . Merry Christmas Beth & co

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