Just walked into work after a week’s vacation to beautiful New Hampshire, only to have one of the newsroom interns inform us he’s back from St. Maarten and St. Barts.
That’s just great. I have underwear older than this kid, and he’s taking better vacations than me. While he was probably hobnobbing with topless eurotrash supermodels, my wife and I were desperately trying to keep track of a pair of our 7-year-old daughter’s $30 purple Crocs, a greasy tube of sunscreen and a 3-year-old who doesn’t consider it a successful vacation until she visits at least one emergency room.
We actually had a great time in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I’ve been trying to get the girls more into outdoor adventures and this year I added numerous waterfalls and swimming holes to the usual agenda of all-day visits to Storyland and Santa’s Village. For the first time, I think the girls truly understood that standing at the bottom of majestic 65-foot Glen Ellis falls (shown here)is more fulfilling than Dr. Geyser’s Wacky Water Ride and scrambling over rocks worn smooth by eons of rushing water is more fun than the Polar Coaster. And perhaps seeing a patch of icy snow 6,000 feet up Mt. Washington in July might be more inspiring that Cinderella’s Castle. OK, that’s pushing it a bit too far.
This vacation also marked a complete abandonment of my parental vow to never have a portable DVD player for the car. A neighbor loaned us theirs and, knowing the 5-hour drive can be a grueling slog rivaling a 10th century Crusade, I figured what the heck. Aside from having to listen to Dora for 45-minutes, the DVD player provided blissful backseat peace and quiet. I now vow to only use the DVD player on long trips. Like to Trader Joe’s.
So now we’re home and the car has been cleaned of sticky empty juices boxes and crushed Goldfish. It’s late at night and I’m sitting on the sofa flicking through photo after photo of smiling, happy children. That makes it all worthwhile.
An occasional topless eurotrash supermodel wouldn’t hurt, though.