One Family, One Room, One Month

Working as a traveling teacher, a little piece of me has grown to like the solitude included with my livelyhood. After all, no consensus must be reached before I determine my dinner selection, and I never have to wait to take a shower when I spend down time alone in a hotel room.

This month's working vacation could be a mixed blessing. I am able to see some of the country in a much more detailed and intimate way then when I travel for work. Usually I have no time to stop and look at the roses, much less to smell them. When away from my family, my sightseeing is usually limited to the airport, hotel, and the school I'm visiting. Traveling with my family this month has allowed me to detour on purpose. Yet there is one detail that caused concern during the planning stages of Family Frolick 2007. Four Weeks. Two Adults. One Tween. One Hotel Room.

Would this test the bonds of marriage? The limits of my patience in parenthood?

While it would be hard to compete with some of the sights we've seen (canyons, volcanoes, rainforests and river gorges to name just a few) the greatest memories of Frolick '07 will be the time we have had together. Singing silly songs as we sped by dust clouds along I-40. Playing the Alphabet Game as we waited for border patrol near Vancouver. Giggling together as we made up a story, one word at a time, squished together in a single bed at the B&B near Mount Saint Helens.

Life will return to normal when we go home. I'll busy myself with the daily to-do. My daughter's friends will consume her waking hours. Husband will return to...whatever it is that he does when I'm working on the to-do. Our vacation will be a collection of photos, ticket stubs, tacky-tourist souveniers and marked-up maps. But I think we each have something to take home that won't be contained in our overstuffed, overweight luggage.