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Savor your memories, share with rest of us

Now's the time to pull out your old photo albums and reminisce

Date published: 7/27/2008

BY KATHERINE SHAPLEIGH

With gas prices so high, now's the perfect time to leave the car in park and take a trip down memory lane.

Dust off your photo albums--or gather those stacks of photos or digital files you've been promising yourself you'll organize.

Then you'll be ready to grab your friends and relatives--especially those who've shared your adventures over the years--and ask, "What's your favorite trip?"

It's a question that opens the door to some awesome memories and offers fascinating insight into people closest to us.

I love to quiz my children, my husband, my sister and mother. Why stop at "What's your favorite trip"?

You can ask their favorite:

Beach

Pool

Hike

Island

Foreign country

Cruise

Top Five vacations

Dream destinations

We always end up chatting about places we'd like to return to--and daydreaming out loud about places we'd most like to visit.

You may be surprised to discover that your father has always secretly dreamed of visiting Rome but thought it would never happen.

Maybe your wife longs for a week in a cozy cottage in Ireland--or wants to go back to that little restaurant you went to after you first got married.

You don't know until you ask.

ISLANDS AND WILD WEST

St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is a perennial sentimental favorite at our house. My husband and I spent our honeymoon there and returned two years ago with our two daughters and my mom.

It's our girls' favorite family vacation ever.

They loved swimming in the beautiful blue and green water, having leisurely breakfasts high above the Caribbean sea and snorkeling in the ocean for the first time.

The Florida Keys are another favorite.

We talk, fondly, about taking a glass-bottom boat tour at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park-- flori dastateparks.org/penne kamp--in the Key Largo area. We were thrilled to see a sea turtle and sharks.

We remember the awesome frozen key lime pie on a stick from the Blond Giraffe--www.blondgiraffe .com--in Key West. (Uh-oh, I did not need to know I can order those online.)

We reminisce about a trip my sister and I made with our husbands to Texas.

What are your favorite travel memories? Take a walk down memory lane, then share with the rest of us. Who knows what you'll inspire. Tell us where you went and what made it a treasured destination. What are you still talking about, months, years or decades later? Include photos if you'd like. E-mailed images are best. Please send your responses to Kim Baer, The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401 or e-mail kbaer@freelance star.com with "Memory Lane" in subject line. Please include your name, city or county of residence and contact information (not for publication).

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Date published: 7/27/2008