You know, for as much as we travel, Tim and I were talking on our recent trip, while the kids swam, about the fact that this past trip was the first one we had taken alone with the kids. We've been to Lake Placid, and Disney with his whole family. We've been to Maryland, Key West and NYC with mine. We have taken them to Boston, Toronto, Niagara Falls and Philadelphia, but those trips were touring trips paired with family obligations, so a little different that the solo, nuclear family sightseeing trip, which this one surely was.

We had been teasing the kids all summer, heck, all of their lives we have been teasing them, that our favorite trips are visiting historical sights, and that it was time to introduce that affliction to them. Tim visited some historical sights as a kid for sure, but my upbringing was chock full of them. My brother and I used to refer to them as "hysterical" sights, and we endured the extensive drives, multiple carsickness episodes, and hotel wake up calls way earlier than we wanted to be up and moving, so we could get out there and see what there was to be seen. I have struggled to work that bug out of my system. I have finally conquered the "we need to go go go" monster, and now, when I travel, there is a blend, of fun and frolic, rest and learning. I don't fault my dad for pushing us along the way he did. He worked a "real job" with only a few weeks of vacation in my younger days. He had to make the most of the time he had with us. We have all the time that a teaching job currently affords, to relax, enjoy, and also teach our own little family well.

Our trip was fun. We saw historic sights and sights of natural beauty. We shopped, ate great food, and caught a beautiful fireworks show. In the time together, no one fought, really. "Thirteen" only reared its ugly head a few momentary moments, and truthfully, the outbursts were more fueled by just that, a need for fuel. Phew, that boy EATS! There was backseat noise for sure...lots of it...but only once or twice in much road time did we really have to use the "Cut it out!" voice. Only once did I utter the words, "If I have to pull this car over..." and it was somewhere in the first hour and a half of the trip.

As the miles from home ticked away, just as they do when we travel without the kids, our edges softened. We all got into a certain zen. We looked around and saw new places and things. We sang songs and told stories. Tim and I tortured the kids playing old Billy Joel. The kids were funny, and adopted some of Tim's and my jokes. He and I will occationally high five eachother and chide "WooHoo, bad parents moment!" at the times when the kids feel we are being meanies. We really don't care if we are seen as meanies, because, quite frankly, we are driving the bus. Still, they were "banding together" on this trip and high fiving "bad kid moments," thinking they were getting away with stuff here and there. They coordinated ways to share the backseat civily. They did goofy stuff on their iPods together. There was even one fleeting moment, when we were stuck in some traffic, and tired post fireworks, that I think someone said, in a silly voice, "I really love you..." but I will never truly know.

I think it just comes down to the essence of what travel really is. It is time away. We get away, not only from home, and our everyday obligations, but from ourselves. In a new environment, alone, or with our closest family, we are who we really are. There is no fear of having to be the person everyone thinks you are. You are just yourself, out there, seeing the world, thinking your thoughts, exploring, making memories. You are Happy.


As a musical footnote, too...

"Turnstiles," STILL is the best Billy album ever, in my opinion.

And, off of "Piano Man," "Ain't No Crime," really speaks to you differently when you've been married 18 years...

"You got to open your eyes in the morning
Nine o'clock comin' with out any warnin'
And you gotta get ready to go
Well now you tell me you love somebody
And you'll love 'em forever
You may love 'em forever
But you won't like 'em all of the time
Well now you tell me you need somebody for the rest of your life
You might have somebody
But you won't want 'em ev'ryday"

I mean really, did Billy hit the nail on the head or what?!
Tim and I both heard those lyrics, looked sideways at eachother and just cracked up!