1 week Ago
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the past year and a half, our family has traveled San Diego, California; New River Gorge, WV; Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, Canada; Arizona and Nevada; the Netherlands and New York. My dad shakes his head at all this travel. He had to take business trips regularly, and he loathed it.
Which meant that for vacation, my parents loaded us three kids and our no-name Walkmans into our elephant-sized, turquoise blue GMC Safari van and drove to Canada, where we ran around with our cousins. So why am I so propelled to traverse the country with kids? Because I didn’t do it before I had children. There are so many places I want to visit.
And I didn’t take the kind of post-college adolescence that lets you see the world before settling down. The kind where you teach English overseas or couch-surf while you freelance. Looking back, maybe I should have.
But rather than feeling wanderlust, I had anxiety over nailing down a career. After graduation, I moved back home, worked for a summer waitressing and spent the fall working two jobs: as a temp at the Associated Press bureau downtown, filing bulletins on lottery scores, and at the Gap at Summit Mall, folding jeans. By January, I had moved up to my first full-time step in my career escalator, covering small towns for a daily paper in the Chicago suburbs, with city council, school and library board meetings nearly every weeknight.
I couldn’t take a month to hostel hop. But I could spring for a plane ticket to visit my friends in their tiny apartments in New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
, happy to sleep on their floor if I could meet their boyfriends and experience places I had only ever read about. Once friends started pairing off, those trips waned. I got married.
We bought a house and spent our money -- and weekends -- painting walls and tearing out carpet. We had a son, and then a daughter, and between naptime and diapers, the idea of going anywhere more exotic than library story hour was daunting. (Thankfully, my parents invested in a Lake Huron cottage, not far from my grandparents, which meant we could spend an annual week at the beach.
) I don’t regret the years focusing on my career, my house or my family because I’m grateful for what I’ve accomplished thus far. But you get only so many years. Once the kids were out of diapers, I was ready to strap them in their car seats to see the world, or at least North America.
Our Best Life I wrecked my phone on a roller coaster, and here’s what I learned: Our Best Life 4 life hacks for my Best Life: What about yours? How handy are you? Our Best Life I’m not alone. Americans are shifting priorities, to value experiences over material possessions, according to a 2018 Expedia report. As much as I love my home, now I feel a sense of itchiness to see all the wonders I’ve read about.
In our 40s, we’ve earned our time off, and even though we may still be paying off college loans while saving for retirement and our kids’ college accounts, we have some disposable income. And unfortunately, there’s no guarantee we’ll live a long, healthy retirement. So why not book a trip now? The average respondent in a New York University Family Travel Association survey spent around $6,750 on family travel in 2022.
More than three-fourths said they plan to travel internationally with their kids in the next two years. (Most popular U.S.
destinations included California, Florida and New York.) It’s money well spent. A study from Texas A&M University found that travel can help improve family communications, reduce the possibility of divorce, strengthen bonds and increase well-being in both kids and parents.
A Washington State University study found that participants who traveled at least 75 miles away from home reported being 7% happier than those who did not travel. I’m grateful we can explore with our kids. Some of my favorite family memories are driving together on vacation, singing Eminem’s “Slim Shady” and “Family” by Drew Halcomb & the Neighbors, ranking our favorite west-coast burger chains or playing games.
Where we’re all experiencing something new, together. Traveling, you expand your world while shrinking your distractions. No chores, no school, no work, no meetings, no video games.
No friends -- though it’s fun to meet new, friendly people. As summer ends, I’m already planning our April spring break: Cape Cod, Massachusetts, or Beaufort, North Carolina. Next summer, I hope to recreate one of my favorite childhood trips by piling into our Honda Pilot and driving east to Canada’s Atlantic Coast Maritime provinces.
We can tour New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, indulge in my adoration of all things L.M. Montgomery, eat lobster and hang out with the whole set of second cousins.
Cleveland.com content director Laura Johnston writes weekly about life in her 40s in the column, Our Best Life. Subscribe to the newsletter to get the column delivered to your inbox Friday mornings.
Or find her on Instagram @ourbestlifecle..
