Traveling with Family - The best kind of travelling?
Is traveling with family the best kind of traveling? I guess it depends on your family but, for me, the answer is yes! Over the last two years, I have taken trips with my mom and dad, Sam’s mom and brother, and his cousins. And I have to say, it was awesome.
Growing up, the only traveling that we do is with our families. Maybe that was why I was so excited to start traveling by myself when I got to college. For a few years, I took solo trips, studied abroad, and traveled with friends. When I wanted to see my family, I would go back home. That didn’t change until 2020 when, right before the pandemic, I took a trip with my dad and brother to Washington D.C.
For the couple years where I wasn’t really traveling, I looked back on that trip with such fondness and I thought it was because it was the last real trip I took before everything shut down. Now, I’m starting to think it was because I was doing something I loved (traveling and exploring) with people I loved.
This trip was right at the beginning of March in 2020. We got home on a Tuesday and by Friday, I was furloughed. That’s how close we unknowingly cut it. Everything happened so fast, and I’m so glad we didn’t wait an extra week for this trip.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve experienced a newfound appreciation for family, be it mine or Sam’s. Once you’re an adult, your parents don’t have to take care of you anymore and they can relax more. My dad and I had so much fun in D.C. He didn’t have to worry about keeping us entertained. If we were bored, we were old enough to go do something else and meet up later. If we were hungry, we would stop and get food. We’ve never expressly talked about it, but I imagine there was a 21-year stress that was suddenly lifted from his shoulders. We could take care of ourselves and while the parental instinct never goes away, there’s not as much pulling your attention away from the trip the whole time.
In January, Sam and his brother and I took a trip with their mom up to Prescott. We had a whole morning where the three of us went hiking in the snow and their mom stayed at the cabin and relaxed. The rest of the trip, we spent together talking, laughing, and exploring. His mom still talks about how much she loved that trip, and I feel inclined to agree. It was amazing. In February, we went to San Francisco and met my mom there. She stayed with family friends, and we stayed in a hotel downtown. We met up everyday and explored. She’s still a mom, so she always had water and snacks, but when we got too tired, we would just split for the day. We all had a great trip.
We flew in from Phoenix. My mom flew in from RI. We met in San Francisco!
Last year, Sam and I went on a cruise to Cabo with his cousins. There wasn’t a parent in sight, just the five of us having fun, doing our own things, and meeting up for adventures and food. We loved it so much we booked another one, this time to Alaska.
Perhaps it’s the appreciation of mortality that all kids eventually discover that made those trips so fantastic. Maybe it was the fact that, as an adult, you don’t get as many chances to make new memories with your family as you did when you were a kid.
Regardless of the reason, Sam and I are heading to the East Coast in May for a Teixeira Family Reunion, and I couldn’t be more excited.
