This week was awesome!!! I love to travel, and I love to go overseas. Having spent most of my formative years (age 7 to 18) overseas, in some ways it is more familiar to be abroad than at home. Montreal was especially fun, since it is a French-speaking city. It was nice for the kids to learn that people other than their mom speak French! It felt good to speak French, good to be in a foreign country, and GREAT to have Mike off work for a week!
On this trip, my kids learned about city life (our town is a suburb bordering on rural), French, and animals (thank you, Biodome!) I learned to appreciate my dad’s obsession with always having plenty of cash (in the local currency) on hand when we had trouble getting the metro ATM to work. We all learned about flexibility. I got a break from school runs! And cleaning and cooking!
I consider travel to be a tremendous privilege. My first trip outside the US was a road trip to Mexico when I was four years old. My parents packed all five kids (aged nine and under) into our van, and we drove nearly to the southern tip of Mexico. None of us spoke Spanish. We drove hours and hours on twisting, winding roads, and we all got food poisoning. We had a wonderful time on the beach, climbed Mesoamerican step pyramids, and attended local church services (not understanding a word, as they were in Spanish). I still remember how friendly everyone we met was. When the 1985 Mexico City earthquake hit a year later, I had tremendous empathy for the Mexican people that I doubt I would have felt, had we not made that trip.
We visited Sugarbush Farm on the way home, and learned about cheese making and maple syrup. We tasted cheese and maple syrup, too, and even brought some home!
Best of all, we had quality time with Mike’s mom and Grandma, exploring a part of the world that was new to all of us!
I’m linking this post up to the Afterschool linky, hosted at Little Wonders’ Days this week.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Sounds like a super trip!! You made me smile with your childhood road trip! It definitely brought back fond memories.
I checked out the Sugarbush site. Appears to be my kind of place!
Have a good week!!
Kerri
I looks like you had some really neat experiences! I’d love to visit Montreal some time. I love the pictures of the biodome on your other post.
We went to Montreal, where my mother-in-laws family lives, but they all speak English! Are you speaking French to your kids? That’s one thing I really wish I could do. It seems like all of Kiddo’s friends speak 2 languages!
Yes, I think everyone there is bilingual, although many of them seem to prefer French given the option – which is fine by me!
I haven’t done full French immersion with my kids; I just haven’t been dedicated enough about it and they haven’t very interested since I was the only person they knew speaking it. Maybe I’ll have better luck after this trip!
Sounds like such a fun trip! I love your desire to expose your kids to other countries and cultures. I meet so many people who think it is too big a task when you have kids but I think it’s wonderful!
sounds like a great trip. My one triP to Canada resulted in us being very lost
This was my first time visiting Canada, and we had GPS to keep us from getting lost =)
I love you sharing the details of your childhood and your desire to give your children the same chances of experiencing the world. Lily’s picture is so adorable!
sounds like a wonderful week, glad you all had fun. would be so lovely to travel more. you are very blessed.xo
What a great trip! Wow your parents were so brave to take you all to Mexico!
I don’t think they realized what they were getting themselves into. It sure was a memorable trip, though!
Sounds like a terrific trip, and such a cute candid of Lily, too. :) So glad you all enjoyed yourselves with a nice break.
Good work getting some of that maple syrup, too. We hosted a Canadian teenager while we were Egypt, and he gave us a huge jug of it. Such a treat!
This does look like a wonderful week. We traveled a lot when I was a child and I have great memories.
How cool! I adore traveling and haven’t gotten to do much lately so I’m a smidge jealous…. ;)