Family journal preserves vacation memories

The man wearing the bra on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare keeps re-entering our life.

At least, our entire family was convinced that the individual sunning himself at this southern England tourist hot spot was in fact a man.

We were equally convinced that, for reasons we never understood, he was not exactly wearing conventional beach attire.

Now, six years after that odd encounter during our 1999 trip to England, we recall this man each June 19 as one of the most vivid memories of that vacation. That’s the date Bra-Man shows up in the annual re-reading of our family journal of that trip.

We never got a photo of this fellow, but the journal does almost as well in reminding us of this moment – as well as scores of other memories from that vacation.

The Bra-Man recollection underscores for us the richness that a written journal provides, as a supplement to the photos that also capture our travels.

Now, when we travel as a family, we routinely keep a daily record of the trip. We don’t worry about a journal record of a restful vacation in a familiar location but concentrate instead on recording the out-of-the-ordinary trips, especially those to new locations.

Looking back on the journals we’ve kept over the past decade or so, the following six guidelines emerge, which you might keep in mind if you want to experiment with a journal for your own family vacation:

1. Record only the highlights, and lowlights, of each day; don’t try for a comprehensive record of everything that happened.

We included, for example, how I went through the wrong door at the Vancouver, B.C., airport, triggering an alarm – and moderate anxiety for the airport officials who tried to corral me and the dozen or so other passengers who’d followed me. (The journal notes my insistence that bad signage was to blame.) Nor, thanks to the journal, will my family let me forget the time I got lucky and was seated next to a fashion model all the way from Minneapolis to Amsterdam.

We include only the nonroutine items (how our luggage fell off the cart at Fort Lauderdale airport, and how I responded less than graciously), and we don’t strive to provide a detailed log of everything that happened.

2. Everybody in the family gets to contribute, and nobody can veto anything.

That ensures inclusion of those back-seat memories of the kids desperately trying not to laugh while Mom and Dad attempt to negotiate the rental car through an appallingly signposted Dublin (a recollection from summer 2004). And the kids feel safe storing these moments for later in the day, when the traffic tensions and white-knuckle moments become great journal fodder that everyone can laugh about.

So, our lame comments, embarrassing moments and cultural blunders all get recorded for posterity.

3. The whole family must be present whenever you journal.

That’s related to Rule 2, but it offers the additional benefit of everyone helping recall the day’s events – and one person’s recollections trigger others.

4. Journal each day if possible, or as soon as you can.

Don’t get behind. At the very least, make some rough notes of the day’s memorable moments, so you can reconstruct the day later. This is hard to do when you have a hectic travel schedule. But you can be sure if you’ve made a family commitment to the idea, that at least one of you will remember: “Hey, we haven’t journaled today.”

Try to set up a daily routine for journaling, if your schedule permits. Our family had the opportunity to take part in a Semester at Sea program in spring 2002, when we visited 10 countries on an educational voyage around the world. Most nights we would journal after dinner and whatever shipboard activities were over. But when we couldn’t, we worked hard at catching up the next night.

That was the one time we had a computer available, which made the writing easier. But handwritten journals work fine; you can always type your entries when you get home, if you prefer.

5. Consider adding something quirky, that’s unique to your family.

We have a tradition of trying to find a different kind of chocolate as a treat each day, and each discovery gets logged accordingly.

6. Finally, don’t share your journal with others – for two reasons.

One, it’s probably far less interesting to them than you might think. But more important, this collection of memories is uniquely yours, and sharing it only among the family helps keep it special. (If your kids are older, consider making copies for everyone in the family to have as their own keepsake of the trip.)

It’s been said that, “When traveling, there’s no such thing as bad experiences, only good stories.”

And there’s no better tool than a family journal for pooling and perpetuating, those stories and memories for years to come.