[Joan.of.the.Arch]

What have been your best frugal vacations?

My favorites have been camping-canoeing vacations. The first one was our honeymoon--to the Boundary Waters by motorcycle. Rented a canoe, bought a couple of maps and into the wildnerness we went!....Also memorable was the one in which I decided to swim on a cool summer day in the glacial lake we were canoeing. Yikes, I got hypothermic. That was scarey, but, what can I say: memorable! ...We've canoed lakes, ponds, dam pools, rivers big and small, even the artificial bayous that drain the areas that used to be swamp in southern Missouri and Illinios.

If your family includes kids, you might have to finagle things to get everyone safely into the proper number of canoes, or there might be years when things just can't work out for all of you to canoe together, but it is a healthy, engaged, active, peaceful way to spend a vacation. Our canoe was well worth the investment. We've gotten immeasurable pleasure from it.

And you?