Seeing More Than the Sights
Aug 18 2009
While driving through beautiful New England in our RV, I was taking in the wonderful views and thinking about the great sites we’ve seen and the old friends we’ve been able to meet up with on our trip. As my mind wandered (not the RV though, it stayed in its lane), I realized that this trip has given me a broad range of things to see.
For instance, I’ve been able to see my three kids grow closer together and learn to play with each other. Alright, there are the usual sibling arguments (“Why can’t Anna brush her teeth first?!”), but for the most part the three have learned to create games with each other and really enjoy them. That has been a wonderful sight.
I’ve also seen my kids develop a great sense of adventure and “lets do it!” attitude – from taking hikes to see raptors and jumping off 20 foot cliffs into the base of a waterfall, to jumping off the roof of a friend’s boathouse in Canada into the Rideau River. Even picking up water snakes or salamanders.
The final sight I don’t know quite how to take, though it made me proud. In Acadia National Park, Joe and I took a strenuous 5-mile hike that climbed quite high and went over trails and mountain paths of stones and boulders.
Before we had quite reached the top we hit a stretch of boulder steps that made the hike quite hard for the legs. Joe was leading when I mentioned how tiring the hike had become. He turned and said, “Lets keep going, we’ll rest at the top.”
I was stunned. This is the exact same thing I had always told him on our more strenuous activities, like hiking in Cinque Terra and climbing the mountains in Bavaria. Wow, the tables have turned now, and I’m only 48! Well, that’s the revelation that makes me wonder how to take all of this.
It is still a great sight to see on our trip though.
Jump in, the water's fine!
My thoughts and feelings, exactly, while our family traveled together in a fifth-wheel for 9 years. Those years have created our happiest memories, our heartiest dinner-table laughs (with bewildered guests looking on), and a closeness that endures 15 years later. They have also produced 3 children who aren’t tied to ordinary lives and are eager to meet new challenges and experience strange cultures (one has already settled in China).
Your investment in this year will pay dividends for a long time to come.
Thanks Claudia! Your words are appreciated. Visit our website at http://web.mac.com/wahlsacrossamerica for photos and such.