I ran across an article today entitled "10 Places Every Kid Should See" (written by Sean O'Neill for Budget Travel). I'll admit that my first question was to determine how many of these landmarks I had seen myself. But I was also curious to see how many of them I'd taken my son to visit.
I discovered that my son has only been to 3 of the 10 on the list: Sea World in San Antonio, Carlsbad Caverns, and the Hoover Dam. I guess that's not too terrible, given the fact that we haven't had the time or money for many "family vacations" over the past few years. Since he is 15 now, I may have missed the "window of opportunity" on a few of those, but there were some good ideas of things to save toward.
What pleased me was that theme parks were not on the list. Six Flags over Texas, Disney World, and Disneyland were no where to be found. Admittedly, the list was focused on things that would be educational landmarks. To me, it's nice to see lists encouraging families to do things that are fun but not focused on entertainment. I personally think that we spend far too much time, energy, and money on entertainment these days.
My problem is that I'm not very adventurous. When I was at the conference last week, I didn't get outside the hotel much at all ... and some of my colleagues told me about the nice restaurants and landmarks they had found within walking distance. I tend to plan things, so I look for things to do before leaving on a trip; if I don't know about it beforehand, there is a good chance that I will never find it. But that is limiting, and I'm realizing it more and more.
Spontaneity has never been a strength for me, but maybe I need to stretch my wings. I don't know that we'll have a chance to have a "real vacation" this summer, but I'll start thinking ahead to next year, and I will build in some room for spontaneous activities. After all, spontaneity can be planned, right?
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