Travel

Building A Dream Family Vacation with RCI

Is it still called a dream if you’ve already lived it?

In the many hours of downtime I’m gifted as a homemaker dad with kids who are shipped off to school every day, I’ll often find myself smiling, awash with a sense of immense happiness while imagining building our next dream family vacation. There’s a pristine coastline with gentle waves lapping against the shore where my feet are, heels dug in, toes coated with fine grains of sand glistening beneath the hot midday sun. My daughters are a few meters away, splashing in the water, trying desperately to capture, in their still-tiny hands, the foamy edges of the retreating sea. The sweet sounds of simple joy permeate the toaster-oven air and all is right with the world.

You might imagine, based on the above visual, that a tropical forest would be behind me, or majestic mountains, or maybe a row of luxurious white lounge chairs belonging to an all-inclusive resort. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. In this dream vacation fantasy I often build myself while alone in my quiet home, it’s a bustling city at my back, the city of Gaudi and Messi, Chorizo and Churros, past and future: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is a dream I’ve already lived, if only for a brief spell in 2012. How I long to dream this vacation again with my family.

Barcelona Gothic Quarter Churros and Chocolate April 2012 OWTK Jeff Bogle

Churros and chocolate in Barcelona. April 2012

RCI is celebrating its 40th birthday this summer, but I’m proud to say I knew the global leader in vacation exchange when it was precocious tween. Some 30 years ago, my parents were RCI members and timeshare owners, and that allowed us to *easily* travel to Bermuda, Vermont, Jamaica, Colonial Williamsburg, and many more locales that helped shaped my worldview as a young man. Thanks to RCI and their massive stable of vacation exchange properties, my parents were able to give me a childhood full of diverse experiences and, once the blinders of comfortable familiarity were off, expose me to a world far larger than my own.

I carry that same vacation tradition forward with my own family, taking them on several adventures already in their young lives, including a two week trip to Spain and France two years ago that featured a life-altering 5 nights in the stunning city of Barcelona. We lived the European life during that stretch, walking everywhere, riding the metro, shopping at markets daily for fresh food. I can still taste and smell Barcelona, hear the sound of the action along the Mediterranean Sea, and it all still fills my heart and head with immense waves of happiness. My youngest girl, who was nearly-5 at the time, still references some of the architecture and design elements she saw and touched on the streets of that magical place. One day soon, we’ll return and dream it for real all over again.

Gaudi doorway in Barcelona

The girls and I having fun in front of a Gaudi doorway in Barcelona.

Wait…stop dreaming! You can win a dream vacation (worth up to $25,000!) from RCI for your family by entering the RCI Win Your Dream Vacation Sweepstakes. Entering is super easy. Do so now, as I did (selecting an all-inclusive St. Marteen family dream vacation to give my hands a break from cooking and dishwashing at home!) through June 18, 2014 and you might win the grand prize of a $25,000 getaway or one of the 39 other prizes RCI is giving out to celebrate their 40 years. The more you share your dream vacation through social media, the high your chances of winning.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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