Tokens of the Great American Roadtrip

Summer is winding down. Families prepare for the school year and the onset of Autumn. Children returning to school with stories of "How I spent my summer vacation." I remember those days. I loved having a souvenir of some sort to bring with me to school. Giggling and excited, we would ooh and ahh over the tokens each of us had collected that summer. Postcards, snow globes, key chains, and my favorite; cedar boxes.
I remember my first cedar box from Hearst Castle in Northern California. It had a postcard image of the Castle lacquered on the lid, with a tiny, lockable brass hasp. I LOVED that box! I had one from Lion Country Safari in Irvine, CA. The Grand Canyon. Tijuana. Las Vegas. How I adored those cedar boxes, each with its cursive-font stamp stating the destination.
As I grew up, the boxes were lost, misplaced, broken, and in one odd occasion, burned by my step-brother. I missed them. So I began a mission last year; to find as many cedar souvenir boxes as I could.
My goal is to find one from every state (but where I will keep 50 varied sized boxes is something I haven't yet considered. Who can think clearly when on such a noble mission?!)

I have amassed a sweet little collection so far. My two favorites being one that has a poem to ones "Sweetheart," and the rounded-top box that resembles (in my eye) a tear-drop trailer.


They make me sentimental for the days of long car drives in the back of an non air conditioned station wagon, with the eternal question posed to the patient driver....."Are we there yet?"

I hope your summer was full of memories!