The last time that I went on vacation was 1999. It was a week in Wales. About $4500. Since then I only take day trips. Places I can drive and be home before midnight. Hawaii will never be one of my destinations.
We haven’t flown anywhere for vacation in years. Probably the last big flight vacation was to Hawaii with the kids. The last few years, we’ve been taking driving trips exploring Montana, Washington, and British Columbia and Alberta. This past summer was a long one from North Idaho through the North Cascades to Whistler, then east to Banff National Park and Jasper before heading south to home. We were worried about all the forest fire smoke (which all the smoke maps indicated was real bad), but we never hit any. Just glorious late summer / early fall weather. Prices were good in Canada, too, because of the exchange rate.
Last time I went on vacation was for my honeymoon back in 2002 to Saipan (5 days).
9/11 was still fresh and I was searched in Japan (starting point) and in Saipan (return trip).
I was the only ‘white’ guy on that flight, and I was the only one strip searched, and they ran a bomb dog over all of my belongings. (Saipan)
None of it made sense to me back then.