Travel

When I was little, my parents bought a world map so that they could keep track of all the incredible places they would take us. They would put these little glass-head pins into the map on each city we had visited. I remember looking at that map and thinking about how far away from my house I had been. My parents changed my life and made me who I am by taking me around the world, and I'll never be able to thank them enough for it.

I learned about how huge the world was at a very young age. I saw people in circumstances I never knew existed. I was exposed to the great museums and historical sites of the world and got a feel for foreign cities and international cuisine by the time I was 12. The memories I have with my parents and siblings in exotic places like Fiji, Bermuda and Egypt, New Zealand, Japan and Scotland will last me a lifetime. Here is just one of those memories; it's not a pretty one or even life-changing, but I will never forget it:

The summer of 1986, when I was eight, my parents took us to Europe for six weeks. My suitcase full of clothes and my mom's travel bag with, among other things, her diamond pendant, went missing at the airport in Paris. When we got to our hotel, my mom and dad spent several hours on the phone trying to track down our luggage. Thus, we children were sort of left to our own devices for the afternoon. Elliott and Matthew, being the brilliant young boys they were, thought it would be fun to drop cups of water over our balcony onto innocent bystanders on the sidewalk. Ya, good idea guys.

So, to take my mind of my poor little teddy bear lost somewhere in Paris, I stood next to them at the window. After the cups of water lost their charm, they decided to go for the ice bucket. I don't think at this point they had actually hit anyone with the water, but all that soon changed once the ice bucket was involved. They dumped the bucket full of water directly onto some poor scruffy-looking middle-aged French man, who subsequently looked up at our window and cursed while shaking his fist. I was scared, and became even more scared when I realized that I was the only one at the window. My loving good examples of older brothers had ducked down and were laughing on the floor.

I was completely convinced that this man was on his way up the elevator to hurt me. I tried to think of how I was going to defend myself to him and to my parents. Luckily, he moved on down the sidewalk, muttering curse words about me en Francais.

Now I don't necessarily want my kids to have memories like this one, but I only hope I can provide them with the insight and perspective that my childhood of travelling provided me.

I found this site on my friend Kristen's blog. You can track the countries (and states) you've been to and it will map them out for you. Now let's not make this a contest, because Neal and I missed the big family cruise last year, and so you all have more than we do, and Jooj would clearly win anyway. But what a fun idea!

38 states

26 countries