Last summer, Ron Yochum and wife Roseanna Fazio filled a cooler and packed their swim gear for a day trip to Lake Erie. Previous such vacations, also included shopping trips to outlets and overnight stays in Niagara Falls.

But this summer, largely due to high gas prices, the Whitehall couple enjoyed a "stay-cation" and went to local classic car shows and fireworks displays during their time off.

West Penn AAA said this week's average price for regular gas in Pittsburgh is $3.67. While that's about 30 cents per gallon less than it was for the July 4 holiday, it is still almost a dollar a gallon more than the $2.73 we paid at the pumps a year ago.

For the Yochums, that extra bite out of their wallets made long-distance travel by car off limits this summer. Still, they are shopping around for off-season rates or discount airfare to a beach in Florida or South Carolina.

"You expect things to be expensive when you're on vacation,'' said Mr. Yochum, 66, a retired milkman. "But still ... ."

While the high price of gas is fodder for conversation around the dinner table, Joan and Jim Hodson, said it won't stop their upcoming annual drive to Ocean City, Md.

"It's still cheaper than taking an airplane," said Joan Hodson, 52, who should know. She is a flight attendant.

But when it comes to day-to-day travel, Mrs. Hodson prefers her own back yard in Dormont.

"Why would you go out there when it's eating up your gas?" she often asks her husband when he shops at the Lowe's and Home Depot stores in Robinson Town Centre rather than the smaller-sized ones in nearby Bethel Park.

The Ed Moeller family, of Baldwin Borough, made only a handful of two-hour drives to Canadohta Lake in Crawford County this summer.

Mr. Moeller, 47, an accountant, said in more gas-friendly times, the family would go twice a month.

"We tend to stay close to home now," Mr. Moeller said.

That sentiment was not uncommon, said Bevi Powell, director of communications for AAA East Central, which includes an Upper St. Clair office, as there was a roughly 1 percent decrease from last year in summer driving and flying.

She attributes the decline to higher gas prices and the economic slowdown, which is largely due to the higher fuel costs.

Airfares are also up 15 percent from a year ago.

For the long Labor Day weekend, AAA is expecting about 34.3 million Americans to travel at least 50 miles from home. About 28.6 million will travel by car, for a 1.1 percent decrease from last year at this time.

Air travel is expected to carry 3.96 million Americans, a decline of 4.5 percent from last year.

The only transportation with an increase is the category of "train, bus or anything but car," Ms. Powell said.

She said that about 1.8 million Americans will use that mode of transport this year; a 12.5 percent increase from last year.

John Dindak, 80, West Homestead mayor and retired steelworker, said when a car is your only viable option and gas prices are high, it is best to stay put.

During prior summers, he and his extended family drove in a three- or four-car caravan to a rented cottage in Deep Creek, Md., for a week of fun and togetherness.

This year, fuel costs made home-sweet-home that much more inviting for summer weekends.

"I told them, 'Let's save the money and have a cook-out in the back yard' " he said.