As summer approaches and the kids are getting out of school and the parents are fighting their co-workers to book off the best weeks in July and August, the need to break away from the familiar routine sets into the mind of every household.

What's the answer? Family vacation! And although many of the teenagers reading this might not jump for joy about cramming into a tent or hotel room with the 'rents for a week, the two of us look upon family vacations with the same fervour Clark Griswold did when taking his family to Walley World.

Tent and foamies? Check. Mosquito repellent? Check. Bear spray? Check. Inflatable dolphin? Check. Port-a-Potty? Check. Well, it looks as if you've got all the important gear needed for a good ole-fashioned camping trip!

Each summer when we were little, our dad would hitch up the big travel trailer, twice the size of our little Tercel, stuffed with all the camping essentials (plus the bags of Barbies and stuffed animals) and we'd chug up the Malahat. It was like a scene from The Little Engine That Could. Can our little car do it? Somehow we always made it to Tofino or Port Alberni or Parksville for a week of roughing it in the great outdoors.

I'm sure many of you can relate to the grievances of camping: the long treks for firewood, the non-stop rain showers, the horrendous outhouses. And of course, there are the incessant mosquitoes, which on one memorable trip were so numerous and bloodthirsty that we had to retreat to another campground 100 miles away. Coincidentally or not, each of us came down with an acute case of stomach flu and spent the remainder of the trip communing with the nearby woods.

But setbacks aside, nothing can beat the smell of waking up early in the morning, surrounded by the freshest West Coast air. Or the time you suddenly spy a deer and her fawn. Or the mouth-watering taste of a hot dog from the grill. The icy river water. Sitting outside at night, cuddling in blankets and taking a marshmallow out of the fire. Running through the trees pretending to be Pocahontas, singing Colours of the Wind at the top of your lungs (OK, maybe that was just us).

Sunblock SPF 800? Check. Vomit bags? Check. One of those spray bottles with a little fan on the end to keep you from overheating? Check. Map of L.A.? Check. Mickey ears? Check. In 2001, it was time for the Rooper family to get out of the woods of B.C. and into the wilds of California: We were off to Disneyland.

Sure, Disneyland might appear to be overrated, overpriced and stuffed with screaming snot-gobblers and sweltering, impatient tourists and that's totally true. But for a Disney-obsessed family like us, there is no greater vacation than heading to Disneyland or Disney World. Walking through the Magic Kingdom and hearing the Disney music playing fills you with anticipation and who, young or old, can ever forget walking up to Sleeping Beauty's castle for the first time?

Danger, however, lurks in the Magic Kingdom! On our first trip, we were caught unawares by the sudden appearance of Donald Duck, which caused an autograph-hungry frenzy among the crowd. Our mother was caught in this near-stampede and was jostled by a portly park guest wearing an "I HEART Donald" T-shirt. This resulted in a sprained ankle, a broken camera and our mother gamely limping behind the rest of the family for the remainder of the trip.

After the second (or third or fourth or fifth or sixth) trip to a Disney park, you might think one person in our family would want to try something different. But the complete relaxation of the warm Floridian sunshine, the comfort of walking through one of Disney's amazingly detailed parks, the giddy butterflies in your stomach as you step onto a ride or the wonderful weariness in your bones after a full day of walking around keep bringing us back.

So as summer approaches, people will be hitching up the trailers or stuffing suitcases and trying to find the perfect place to relax for a week or two. Voracious mosquitoes or pantless ducks not withstanding, a family vacation is ideally a time to forget all your troubles and create memories with your family that will carry you through the wet West Coast winter.

Kate Rooper is a Grade 11 student at Spectrum Community School in Victoria, B.C.. Her sister Leah is a recent graduate of Spectrum.