One thing that I have noticed all along our journey and which makes our trip special in so many ways is that we are traveling at the pace of our 5-year-old twins.
This means no normal adult program with several visits of museums here and other sites there in a day, together with meals at different places and probably an evening program at a restaurant, bar, club, theater etc.
There will only be a few activities each day, and that can be as much as playing ball at the beach, drawing a picture with water colors, and running through the water sprinkler. When I ask my children before they go to bed at night what they have enjoyed most in a day, they often prioritize activities appearing very basic to me over more sophisticated ones.
One example for instance was my little daughter Oda telling me one night about the harvesting of a salad in the garden on Bainbridge Island together with all the four of us, leaving out that we had taken the ferry boat to Seattle and spent the afternoon in the Aquarium and at Pike Street Market that day.
This teaches me again and again: It is the simple pleasures of life that you have to be able to enjoy which may lie in the simplest of activities. And to spend real time with your kids when they are searching for your attention. Because although there will be new ones coming, every moment in time that passes will not return.
Odette
6 July 2017 at 2:09
Thank you for your wonderful commentary and insights. How blessed you all are. A lovely antidote to what is happening in the news.