The Gift of Time
Five years ago, Brandon and I mapped out the most ambitious vacation we had ever come up with. We were going to drive from Texas to California and back to Texas, visiting at least 14 National Parks over the course of two weeks. We made our itinerary, booked our accommodations, and exactly one month later—everything shut down. March of 2020 brought all of those plans to a screeching halt.
That summer, still wanting to explore, hike, and chase waterfalls with our kids, we looked to the National Forests and state parks of Northern Georgia, and booked a cabin just outside the quaint town of Blue Ridge. We had no way to know at the time, that this cabin trip would live on as one of our kids’ favorite vacation memories.
For the past five years, our kids have reminisced of the games they played in the downstairs game room, the laughs they shared while sitting in the hot tub, and the endless Shirley Temples while they created miniature golf obstacle courses. While we visited lots of parks and trails and waterfalls on that trip, their memories from the cabin have become some of their most special.
For me and Brandon, we remember walking the wooded property with our younger kids and them wishing we could live in a place where they could play in their own woods. We had coffee on the porch and wished we could one day sit on our own porch, drinking coffee and overlooking the mountains. We dreamed about living in driving distance to all of the outdoor things we love to do as a family.
We had absolutely no way to know that would be our last vacation to the mountains. We moved into our own mountain home just six months later, where our kids play in our downstairs game room, explore the woods around our home, where Brandon and I sip coffee on our front porch, and we have all the adventures we can find.
Knowing what a special place this cabin in Blue Ridge is to our family, for Christmas we gifted our kids a weekend trip. Christmas morning turned into wild exclamations as our kids realized not only were we gifting them a trip to Blue Ridge, but we were staying in the exact same cabin as we did nearly five years ago.
We made the short two-hour drive from where we now live back to Blue Ridge. We didn’t plan any hikes and we didn’t swim in any waterfalls—we now have these things at our fingertips. We spent all our time playing ping pong, shooting pool, and throwing darts in the game room, swapping stories in the hot tub, roasting s’mores out at the fire pit, grilling nightly, exploring the property, and of course, sipping coffee and tea and chocolate milk on the porch each morning.
We are reminded, once again, the best gift you will ever give yourself and your family is time together. Time to laugh, play, eat, and according to our kids, drink Shirley Temples. The truth is, everything in this life will fade away, but the bonds made, stories told, and memories created hold a value that cannot be matched.
