Lately, I have been kicking around the idea of working part-time once L is in elementary school. While I don’t like to work, the one thing I like to do most (traveling) happens to cost a heck of a lot of money.
I have come to terms with the fact that Mr. A’s job is never going to allow the two of us to travel the way I want to. I want to see too many places that are too far away for one week trips. If I have to wait for Mr. A to accompany me, I will never get to go anywhere.
Since I am not one to live with regrets, I have decided I need to take matters into my own hands. It also seems a tad unfair to use such a huge chunk of Mr. A’s the family’s money to finance my own personal agenda.
My current thought is that I could work part-time and set aside my income to take the girls traveling for 4-6 weeks each summer. Mr. A could join us for the last 10 days or so of each trip. I also have a couple of younger cousins who may be able to accompany me to add an extra pair of hands (if I can afford to pay for their expenses). The tentative China-Taiwan trip of 2011 will be our test trip. By then the girls will be 5 and 8.
For me, there is a huge difference between a “trip” and a “vacation”. The long trips would hopefully be in addition to our normal family vacations. Last night, Mr. A asked where I would like to go on vacation in the US in the future. Besides visiting Hawaii again, I couldn’t think of a single place I really want to go in the states. I like to travel to experience a different culture. While there are cultural variations in the US, it isn’t the same as traveling overseas.
Mr. A is someone who likes to travel to see scenery. He can’t wait to go look at the Grand Canyon with the girls. I am already bracing myself for that trip some day far in our future. I have no doubt I will be so bored I might actually claw my eyes out for fun.
I have already seen the Grand Canyon when I flew over it in a plane. Yup, there it was. A big hole. I don’t really have any desire to see it again. Never mind seeing it while on the back of a very uncomfortable donkey or scary helicopter or whatever cockamamie idea Mr. A will no doubt come up with. This is the man who thought riding a bike from the California coast the the Florida coast was FUN. Honestly, two months on a bike, sleeping on the ground sounds like hell on Earth for me.
So anyway, until I can get to my bigger trips, I am trying to make the best of being around here. I just spent over an hour trying to locate a suitable regional restaurant along our drive to the beach. Who knew that West Virginia is known for their hot dogs? I didn’t. But when we are on vacation, I am going to try one. I’ll let you know if it is worth the drive.
You know, I really don’t like to work either. Refreshing to hear someone just say that. But good plan for the trips. If we’re still here in 2011, you are welcome to dip South from China and Taiwan for a visit. We don’t have hot dogs though….
You know, I think you are selling the U.S. short. I’ve loved all the traveling I’ve done in the U.S. (I liked the Grand Canyon! But then I love national parks.) My parents weren’t adventurous and because my dad is a contractor, he didn’t want to go on trips in the summer – he wanted to sit on a beach in Kauai for three weeks – ie, he wanted physical rest. So that’s what we did. But spring break was all about visiting national parks and exploring the west coast (we lived in northern CA – the real northern CA, not the bay area), visiting relatives between San Diego and Seattle. I can’t wait to take my kids to various national parks, to experience Disneyland again with them, etc. etc. I’m also looking forward to taking them to Kauai with my parents every summer.
Currently I live abroad (Israel) and I love all the traveling we’ve done since moving here, and the traveling in Europe my husband and I did while living in the US before kids. But so far, from what I can tell, traveling with our son isn’t really a vacation, whether it’s Istanbul or Hanalei.
I am totally with you on the Grand Canyon. Big yawn. Give me a Southeast Asia beach over an American tourist trap any day. Throw in a little Thai woman to walk in my back and a Singha and …ah… heaven.
Hee hee
I do swing the other way on the work question, though. I love it. Love being a dressed-up adult whom people turn to when they need answers. Reading books to my kiddo is fun, don’t get me wrong, but man I would miss working if I had to stop.
DudE! come and visit ME! it’s the same continent BUT it’s another country AND another culture! We even speak a different language (and by that I mean French, not funny accented English) and you can get free room and board for you and the girls.
I grew up in WV, and I never heard a damn thing about any famous hotdogs. I ate them at cookouts and ballgames and when my mom didn’t feel like cooking.
WV is, however, known for Bridge Day and whitewater rafting. Those things are probably better than the hotdogs.
You’re breaking my heart-I would absolutely love to bike across the country, and my next BIG TRIP will probably be 6 months on the Appalachian Trail-or canoeing across northern Canada. Really want to spend a month in my grandfather’s hometown in Cape Breton. And my mother drove to the Grand Canyon every decade or so of her life as a celebration-so she and I are taking S there soon.
Fortunately, I love my job-because I couldn’t do the things I want without it. ~lmc
You should just stand on the side of a busy street with the girls for a few hours and ask for money. Dress badly…like you normally do.
http://www.AnUrbanStory.com
I’m guessing you might have seen the same episode of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” that I saw the other night? The hot dog joint made out of school buses! They looked so yummy.
I’m dying to do more travel than I do right now. I’m happy to see you’re thinking proactively about it. I should, but don’t most of the time.
Check out Jane and Michael Stern’s Road Food. And working to fund your travel? It sounds like a great tradeoff.
Atcually I recall visting the grand canyon for X-mas break. It was AMAZING!!!!!!! (O.K I like nature ) but I was able to meet veryone from all over the U.S and world(I lived in cali my whole life and hardly meet eanyone outside the state odd?) But i was actaully able to study the histroy native American cultre(I call it the REAL American cultre) Art, and Music(OK Native American cultre in the south west is my minor)
This has nothing to do with the current post, just an older one. I thought you’d find the following headline interesting. What you said in your blog made this one jump right out at me.
Cops: Dad Strangled Daughter Over Divorce
Daughter Wanted Out Of An Arranged Marriage; Father, Whose First Language Is Urdu, Faces Murder Charges
I’m another womens studies person….
Fascinated by other cultures and I like the outdoors, so I’d be OK with either trip as long as it wasn’t tourist season at the Grand Canyon. And I don’t like to work either.
I’ve recently discovered the joy of local vacations – My folks have a time-share condo a 4-hour drive away from us, over the mountains where the air is hot, the water is warm enough to swim in, and the hills are covered with orchards. We’ve taken our girls a couple of times now, and it’s as close to relaxing for me as any vacation-with-young-kids is likely to be. The very fact that I’m surrounded by miles of orchards, with no note-worthy natural or human-made wonders that “must” be visited is very freeing. We eat a lot of grilled food, we swim, we eat too many popsicles. Having been raised on family vacations involving getting up at the crack of dawn to experience dawn on the local mountain, hiking to waterfalls, etc, all the lazing about and lack of inertia in heaven. I miss travel, but I’ve discovered that family vacations in seemingly boring places suit me just fine.
So, I just spent a night at the museum with hundreds of Texans. Oilmen, that is. I’m just saying, if you want to explore other cultures… ~lmc
You say, “It also seems a tad unfair to use such a huge chunk of Mr. A’s — the family’s — money to finance my own personal agenda.”
Perhaps this says more about me than about you, but…..it doesn’t seem unfair to me at all!