I have often said that Kail and I made a conscious decision to trade travel for children. If it wasn’t initially true, it certainly is now. Not having children has given us extra freedom and money for travel. Still, there is something inherently human about the desire to show others something new, to teach them something that you hope in some way causes them to alter their perception, to positively change their lives. Parents must experience this when they teach their kids how to swim, take them on their first camping trip, introduce them to foreign food or people and languages, open their eyes to a bigger world. The sheer delight and wonder that children experience when they see something new must be so fulfilling for parents to witness that they too feel the giddy, rejuvenating joy of youth.
This weekend, we’re headed back to Eleuthera. We’re taking our children. Our fellow travelers are friends: a ranching couple in their seventies who have never been to the ocean and more tragically have never met Mickey Mouse, and neighbors and hard-working rednecks who, after many years of marriage, have never been on vacation and never left work long enough for a honeymoon. We’re going to the Bahamas Out Islands, to break in their brand new passports in the kiddie pool. We’ll be there for a week and then to Disney World…of course.
For us, Eleuthera and Disney are the familiar. We were raised on this. Yearly, they feed us something that we lack in our regular diet, that we grow to crave and can’t seem to exist without. However; our friends have never tasted this delight. What will this be like, meeting Mickey Mouse in mid-life? In late life? As we teach them to snorkel (do they know they will float in salt water?), show them how to stab lobsters, and introduce them to the fast track lines, I will expect the same look of childhood fascination and delight that one would expect from real children. I am so excited for them, even more so than for myself. Is this what parents feel? If so, maybe we should have remembered to have real children.
For now, we’re gathering the kids, donning our mouse ears, and heading to the beach. If you care to join, the banana bushwackers will be in the blender. Being “of age” has its advantages.
Stay tuned for updates as rednecks travel.
