All good stuff, especially the guy who said in retrospect he spent too much time at work. I'm in that boat right now.
Bottom line is you do what you can afford, time and money wise and eventually your kids will truly appreciate it, when they look back on it as adults.
My upbringing was very modest and my parents in order to afford to take these road trips, Civil War sites, Yellowstone, Banff, Texas, Disney, etc, started tent camping with us. Wasn't glamourous in the ole Buick with the National Lampoon roof carrier but I remember and appreciate all those experiences.
Remember, traveling is only one way to give your kids great life experiences and I know a lot of folks who never travel, rarely leave their home state.
Us on the other hand have moved every 2-3 years on avg so by default, the kids get to see more. What would be a full on summer vacation for someone from the east to The Grand Canyon was a weekend camping trip for us several years ago. Once in a lifetime trip to AK was a paid move to Anchorage last year where we camped our way up there, took the ferry part way and many weekend trips camping and fishing, Kenai, Denali, trout and salmon fishing.
Back in WA again there is still a lot to see in the PNW.
