For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 22, 2024

Same as it ever was...!

3 weeks is a long time for a dentist in private practice to take off. I would think 2 visits to each set of parents with a nice long gap at home in between would be more effective for a dentist. But for that to happen, Elly would have to realize that they could visit John’s family without visiting hers on the same trip.

When I was 12, my mother & I spent a month visiting all 4 of her sisters across the country. Last trip I went on for years.

were they turned away at the Border?

Well anytime Elly will find telltale evidences of Michael having parties at her house in her absence.

That doorknob is mighty low on the door. Maybe Eddy can now open and close it himself, instead of ringing the bell, huh?

She can just go without him.

Yep Duck- Michael changed clothes, but either the rest of the Pattersons never made it across the US border and back, or they ran out of clean clothes and didn’t have any US coinage for the Detroit laundromat.

I need a vacation from my vacation.

During our working years, my wife always wanted to “Do Something” on our vacations. I just wanted the opportunity to “Do Nothing”.Now that we’ve retired, my Spirit Animal is the Sloth.

I’ve learned that there are trips and there are vacations. Both are good in their own right, but with completely different purposes.

Elly isn’t making any sense. There have been plenty of times they visited one set of grandparents & not the other (Christmas at the farm a few years ago, the train trip to Vancouver when Mike & Liz were little, etc)

It certainly seems through Michael’s demeanor that he & friends have gotten the house put back together to his satisfaction….

How come in the second panel Edgar is gray?

I feel like John sometimes – need a vaction after that vacation.

I remember one of my favorite vacations we took when I was a teenager. It was just my parents, me & my little brother. We stayed a couple of days in NY, then DC, picked up my oldest sister from Maryland, visited my brother in Georgia, stopped in New Orleans, drove through Texas, stopping for a wedding in Houston then on to El Paso to visit another brother & see his newborn son, then drove northeast, stopping here & there, dropped my sister back off in Maryland, then home to NH. It was 3 weeks, but so much fun. My sister was 30 & I was 17, but people thought we were both around 19 or 20.

Poor John. Last week in Vancouver, Elly’s mother offered a whole list of activities to do, including going to the beach. Unfortunately, it was decided that the women would go shopping while the men had to stay back in the condo and sit and stare at each other.

If you’re into road trips, you’re always looking forward to the next one, no matter how exhausted you are after it ends. For me and my family, budget (both in dollars and vacation days) is pretty much the only reason we don’t do it every year.

That just goes to prove that Mom jokes are just as bad as Dad jokes.

2 weeks that are 2 long and leave you 2 tired to go back 2 work & 2 tired not 2.

my well meaning in-laws offered us a all paid vacation to the east coast to see family, I turned them down, I told them I liked them too much and didn’t want that to change

I told you they left Elizabeth at the customs station.

I guess Michael got the house cleaned up in time.

This is why staycations are so popular, though many people don’t quite understand what they are. I often get confused looks when I mention it. So, what do you do on a staycation? Plenty! You can tackle projects around the house, unwind on your patio, or dive into a good book. You’d be surprised at how much there is to do right in your own town.

That sounds like every “vacation” my wife and I took before we retired. Now we get to take our time.

I am not sure why they had to see both families in one go considering the distances involved. There was no reason why Ellie and the girls couldn’t fly to Vancouver at a separate time. I doubt Marion and Jim cared if they saw John or not.

“We couldn’t visit your family without visiting mine.”

All right, when I was young nearly all the relatives lived close enough that we could just go over for dinner or something. The exceptions were my dad’s two siblings, and they usually came to us since their parents were nearby. So I can’t speak from experience, but it seems to me you could alternate: visit one family this summer and the other one next summer.

But even if we accept that it was necessary to visit both families in one go, that still didn’t obligate them to cross the border and drive through the Rust Belt and then home through Toronto. Now obviously they didn’t actually do so, because they were denied entry into the United States on suspicion of human trafficking; but they intended to do so.

When I lived in Arizona, I never would have visited my parents and my in-laws on the same vacation – especially, if we drove. My in-laws lived in Vancouver, B.C. and my folks lived in Connecticut!

Sometimes the vacations are more work that your actual 9-5 job

We now prefer Zoom to exhausting travel for visiting distant loved ones. The next best thing to actually being there and you aren’t putting anyone out. As my husband’s grandmother used to say “I am happy to see you come and happy to see you go!” That sums it up nicely!

Gotta love those family vacations, now it’s time for a real vacation! ;-)

IMHO, what a wuss. ;-D

I don’t see Liz coming home with them.

Of course, seeing as she was forced to go on this joke of a vacation, I don’t blame her.

Much as I was blessed with good in-laws, a vacation with in-laws isn’t a vacation.

Will we see more of Michael and Rhetta? In actuality, the real life son had had a hard time finding a girl who liked him for who he was. Many girls were not interested in him, or rather more interested in getting their hands in Lynn Johnston’s deep pockets.

Just got back late Tues evening from ours. We drove through very heavy rain / traffic a lot of the way. That last few hours I said forget trying to “make time” I just followed trucks. Most of them have good drivers and are easy to see at night.

My sister was on a whirlwind tour of California, visiting many friends and family in that area. She stopped by to see me for an afternoon between two other engagements. She asked if there was anything around that we could do for an afternoon, and I suggested the beach. She asked if that would fill a whole afternoon. I said yes. We went and just relaxed — sat on the sand and watched the waves and collected a few small shells and such. As we were saying our goodbyes, she mentioned more than once that it was very nice to feel relaxed. For several years after that, she kept mentioning how that had been the only relaxing time on her trip. I always thought that was a shame.

we have family on each coast of the U.S. One year we did the epic road trip to visit both sides. We loved it, but now we do one side or the other, not both.

The harrowing times of our lives are the most memorable. What would our lives be without the frustrations, pains, and the losses? My wife and I were musing about a road rip about 45 years ago,. We had just enough money to get to the campsite in California, buy food, and maybe $100 for emergencies. Sunday morning, on the freeway near Edwards Air Force base, the timing belt on our aging car gave up. The universe was kind that day: I had tools and a manual along to let me change it beside the road. A kind man shuttled me to the auto parts store where they had one in stock.

It is better to be lucky than good; lucky generates happy memories.

Why couldn’t you visit one without the other? Save one for next year!

Wait until they check the liquor cabinet.

Why couldn’t they just visit one set of parents? Apparently they’re on opposite sides of the country. Visit one set this year, the others next year, or if that’s too long, in six months.

April loves her dog. Last frame is adorable.

I always would like to schedule the last day of an extended vacation at home to just relax FROM the vacation.

Not all families are meant to road-trip or vacation together.

I’m also watching April hugging the dog, and that kid isn’t the LEAST bit tired