Vacation Rules Apply
This is my “we’re on vacation ” philosophy.
This is my “we’re on vacation ” philosophy.
Sometimes you just need a change of scenery.
After the year from hell, with everyone stuck at home 24/7/365, with limited entertainment options aside from the TV and our phones, escaping the four walls within which we’ve all been spending almost all of our time was more crucial than ever. Especially in the middle of winter when fresh air is less appealing than usual.
So last month, when my kids’ winter break hit, we got out of dodge. In a Chevy.
There’s a running joke among parents that any vacation you take with your kids is not actually a vacation, it’s a trip. God knows I’ve leaned on this joke myself from time to time. Because it’s true.
If you ask most parents to name their best vacation ever, odds are they’ll cite one they went on before they had children. Or on which the kids were left behind. I would have said the same thing; both of my favorite vacations – my big fat Greek honeymoon, or our trip to Tuscany – took place pre-kids.
That changed last month, when I went on my new best vacation ever. And surprise surprise, I even brought my kids along! It was the best of both worlds.
In late February, during my son’s winter break, we decided to head to Philly for the weekend. It was a great call.
Not only is Philadelphia an easy drive from Brooklyn, not only had it been way too long since I’d had DiNic’s ridiculous roast pork and broccoli rabe sandwich, not only had we long wanted to take the kids to the hyped (deservedly, it turns out!) Please Touch Children’s Museum, but the city of Brotherly Love was also the site of my first date with Mom and Buried!
Needless to say, this visit wasn’t exactly the same as the one that had launched our relationship some 13+ years ago. Nothing is the same once you have kids.
Especially traveling.
I don’t have a cousin family.
This isn’t to say I don’t have cousins, but they are older and live far away, and I’ve never had much of a relationship with any of them. It never bothered me much until I went to school in Boston, where seemingly everyone is best friends with their cousins, and I felt like I’d missed out.
My sons won’t have this problem. My brother just had a baby, and my wife’s side of the family has been pumping out kids for years. We spent this past weekend with a few of them at Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania, and my boys loved every minute of it.