Take Your Acorn on Vacation

It doesn't matter whether you're taking a plane, train, bus, car or recreational vehicle, a vacation is a vacation.

People around here, just like everywhere, enjoy traveling. Whether you're taking a cruise, flying to another continent or just going up the coast, it's important to get away from it all and recharge those batteries.

But you've got to take us along.

Take Your Acorn on Vacation is a concept of Jim Rule, publisher of the Acorn newspapers. Years ago, Jim had this brilliant idea that our loyal readers would actually remember to take a copy of their community newspaper when they left town and that they would take pictures of somebody holding the paper, front page visible, with a scenic background displaying their vacation destination.

To make entering irresistible, we're handing out vast sums of money ($100, $50 and $25) for the best photo and for those in second and third place. Imagine what you could do with that kind of money. (Okay, so it's not the California Lottery, but if you win, you can brag to your friends.)

The deadline to get your vacation photos in for this year's contest is Sept. 7. Remember, photos that have been published in the paper this year are eligible for the contest, as well as those that haven't yet appeared.

Take Your Acorn on Vacation has proved to be a rousing success. We love seeing photographs of people holding the Acorn at sites around the globe. Almost every year, the Acorn visits incredible locations, including Big Ben, Antartica, the Great Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. But we're just as happy to see photos taken at Disneyland, in Santa Barbara, Yosemite and, yes, even on the shores of Oxnard.

We've heard fascinating stories over the years. Once a local family spotted another family shooting the Acorn at the Eiffel Tower while the first family was preparing to take the same shot.

Send your pictures whenever and wherever you go on vacation. Birthday parties and backyard barbecues don't work, though. It's for people on vacation. You can, however, take the Acorn on a trip to a family reunion, celebrating an anniversary or second honeymoon.

So please remember to Take Your Acorn on Vacation. It fits neatly into your suitcase or overnight bag. Just make sure we can see the edition's front page in your photograph. Send your best shot as a jpg attachment to vacation@theacorn.com or to the address below if it's a color print.

Tell us who we're looking at and where the photo was shot. Include a phone number so we can call you if we have questions.

Photos, incidentally, cannot be returned.