Share Your Best Vacation Story With Us

This is the week when you help us make the whole Internet smell like coconut-y sunscreen. And campfire logs. And fresh-mown grass.

It's when you help us make the Internet sparkle like fireflies in June and fireworks in July. Stretch yourself out on your lawn, with that scratchy grass tickling the backs of your legs.

Help up make the Internet taste like the burnt marshmallow. The State Fair corndog. The grilled burger on Uncle Bob’s back deck. The buttered corn on the cob. The sweet tea, with cubes clinking against the glass on a sizzling summer afternoon.

We want your vacation stories. We want your crazy rollercoaster rides and your summer BBQs and your museums and your lazy days in the hammock. Maybe your best vacations will surprise us, just as they surprised you.

Tell us: Where have your best vacations taken you? Or kept you? Did you go far away, or stay right at home?

We want those stories, and we invite you to tell them this week, in our community link-up below. (We’ll be selecting a few of your stories to feature right here on the home page the following week!)

Here are all the details:

Best Vacation Stories

While the stereotypical summer vacation usually involves a cabin or a beach, the vacations most of us take are much less nostalgic and far more varied than that. Or even if there is a beach or a cabin, it’s not the one we see in movies or read in books. Some of the best vacations, in fact, don’t involve packing or traveling at all; they happen in the backyard or on the front porch. At The High Calling, we’re telling some of our best vacation stories, the ones where things didn’t turn out as expected, where plans changed and so did we. So, whether you have reserved your favorite hotel or just a spot in Grandma’s spare bedroom, join us as we share what happens when we step away from everyday for vacation.

How to Share Your Story

Every other week, we offer a new link-up at The High Calling. This is an invitation for you to be a part of the conversations we’re hosting. We offer the writing prompts. You bring the goods.

This round, consider the prompt, “Best Vacation Stories.” Write your story on your blog sometime before Saturday, June 28, at midnight, and then share it with us using the link-up tool below.

We’ll be reading all of your stories, and we will choose a few of the linked posts to feature right here on our homepage the week of June 29!

Submission Guidelines

Make sure your story is 600 words or fewer. We really love good storytelling. Follow the theme as closely as possible, while still exercising your God-given creativity. Read past High Calling features to get a feel of our style and focus. Direct references to faith and Scripture are fine, but not required.

Publish your piece on your blog and submit your piece along with the URL on the link-up below by Saturday, June 28, in order to be considered for a featured spot.

We’d love it if you’d also include a link to this post, so other writers and readers in the network can learn about our linkup.

Looking Ahead

Our next community linkup will begin July 7. We will be exploring the theme “working for free.” Have you ever heard someone say, "I love my work so much, I'd do it for free!" That’s the idea behind the theme that starts July 7. Check back then for more details.

Before You Go

Tell us in the comments how you like your marshmallows:

1 – Rotated slowly over the fire, to a light toasty-brown color.

2 – Browned thoroughly, so they are gooey on the inside, but not charred on the outside.

3 – Burned to crispy perfection.

4 – Marshmallows? Um, no. Pass the chocolate, please.


Post and photo by Jennifer Dukes Lee, author of Love Idol and survivor of the swirling vortex of terror.