As vacation season approaches, keep your Acorn in hand




With the end of the school year almost upon us, families are already planning their summer vacations. The kickoff for the 2015 vacation season is Memorial Day, and AAA reports the May 23-25 weekend could see the highest travel volume for the holiday in the past 10 years.

More than 37 million Americans are expected to journey at least 50 miles from home during the Memorial Day holiday weekend,nearlya5percentincreaseoverthe 35.5 million people who traveled last year.

Other tidbits from the association’s latest report:

Most drivers will likely pay the lowest Memorial Day gas prices in at least five years. Today’s national average price of gas is $2.66, or $1 less than the average price on Memorial Day last year. (Californians, as usual, will pay much more.)

The 4.7 percent increase in travelers over Memorial Day 2014 is the highest forecast growth rate for any of the holidays tracked by AAA since Independence Day 2012.

More than 88 percent of travelers (33 million) will travel by automobile, an increase of 5.3 percent over last Memorial Day.

Holiday air travel is expected to increase 2.5 percent to 2.6 million leisure travelers.

Travel by other modes of transportation, including cruises, trains and buses, is expected to decrease 3.6 percent this Memorial Day, to 1.64 million.

Travelers will encounter higher lodging costs this year, while airfares are down slightly compared to Memorial Day 2014.

If you can wait until November, there was one unbelievably low round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Oslo, Norway—$443­— that our staff spotted online.

Whatever your mode of transportation or wherever your destination, consider taking your Acorn along as a traveling companion so you can enter the newspaper’s always popular Take Your Acorn on Vacation photo contest. Snap a picture of friends and family and yourself at your vacation destination with your Acorn in hand, and email it to vacation@theacorn.com.

Be sure to include your name, address and phone number because whether or not you win the annual contest in October, your photo will appear on the Take Your Acorn on Vacation photo page that runs throughout the year.

Vacations are an exciting time and even more fun when you can share the experience.

The deadline to enter this year’s photo contest is Sept. 4.

Vacation photos have been a tradition at The Acorn for more than 20 years, taking readers to far-off places and distant shores. Creative scenes and unusual situations—even those photographed close to home—have the best chance of winning the contest, so have those cameras ready, and bon voyage!



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