Taking a break from winter weather is something that was foreign to my upbringing. A vacation was something that happened in the summer and usually involved a low-cost drive to my grandma's farm near Foley and hanging out with nearby cousins or maybe a drive to Brainerd or up to Duluth and the north shore for a couple of days. Flying somewhere was well beyond our reach or my folks' interest. Still, there were always those stories about my dad's time in the U.S. Army, in north Africa, Italy and southern France during World War II...
