Jury's Still Out

Scott and I have this distinction we have made between ‘traveling’ and ‘vacationing.’ Both involve leaving home and going somewhere else. Both are fun. Both include yummy things to eat and getting away from it all. We have decided we quite like to do both, but have learned it’s more helpful for our relationship to have this distinction and make a calculated decision about which kind of trip we want to take during our time off.

‘Vacation’ time is usually spent in a cabin, tent, or on a beach. The less one does in a day, the better. The fewer decisions one has to make the better. It involves a lot of laying around and chilling out.

Traveling is a different animal. Traveling is an adventure. It’s full of discovery. One has to be brave. Follow one’s instincts. Be super flexible. Make TONS of decisions. Do things. See things. Try things. Learn things. Also, there’s always a ton of walking involved.

At first glance it seems obvious what which type of trip we would choose with a 4 and 5 year old in tow. They’re little. They do better with routine. They think several days in a row of playing and laying around and chilling out sounds like heaven. The thing is we moved to England partially with the lofty ideal of showing them the world. So when their first half-term break came up we were dying to take them to the continent and where better than our favorite city?

After our first real opportunity to travel with the boys the jury is still out. It was certainly an adventure. We learned and discovered a lot. Namely that our boys are amazing little travelers. Scott estimates those little troopers walked about 7 miles today. With nary a complaint. It was an awesome day. It’s been an awesome several days. Even with the sad news of my Granny’s passing. I don’t know whether we’ll decide that we love to travel with them or not. We may stick to vacationing until they’re a little older.

Tonight we posed the question to them. Caid said he’d rather be in Mexico or “at that mountain place where we spent my birthday.” Bridger emphatically agreed. Then he leaned back and frowned that classic Bridger thinking frown. He said, “I don’t know, actually. I like both. I don’t mind either. This was good.” Then he pulled another Bridger classic and made a game of having us all name our favorite painting, sculpture, and mask of the day from the Musee D’Orsay.

It has been very good. I’ll try to post some photos and highlights this week.