Dear girls,
There are lots of things I could say about our trip. But I think that the biggest thing it did for me was enlarge my world view a bit. I’d been to Japan on a trip with Campus Crusade in college and then on a military assignment for 3 weeks to Italy in my early thirties. This was different. This was a trip to just look around and see the sights. You couldn’t spit without hitting something that had been standing for centuries.
And I thought our 1930s house was old.
I just kept thinking about all the people over all the centuries that had walked on the very floors that I was walking on. Down the very staircases I was going down. I’ve never wanted to time travel so badly in my life. Imagine going back and seeing what it was really like to live in the 14th century. To see the place lit only by candles. To see the clothes they wore and the food they drank.
And then come right home and take a shower because can you say chloera and the plague and the stink from humans who bathed only at Christmas and on their wedding day? Ewwww.
After our river cruise was done, we had about a 5 hour drive to the wedding we were attending. I asked your daddy to tell me the whole story of World War 1 and 2. I don’t think he’s ever loved me more and it meant so much more after I’d actually seen bridges bombed by the allies.
I hope that you get the chance to travel. I hope you are adventurous and daring and not afraid of the food or the language or the people of other places. I’ll just come right out and say that I really hope you’ve inherited the ready for just about anything gene that your daddy and I both have. That you’ll try almost anything once and that you won’t let being a girl keep you from doing things on your own.
One of the things I’m most proud of myself on this trip besides coping with a shower the size of a gym locker is that one day I took the car and drove all the way to the center of Bordeaux (think really big congested city) with directions on my iphone in one hand and driving a stick shift with the other. In the pouring rain. In a city where I didn’t understand any of the street signs. And I only got honked at twice.
I hope you are fearless, my girls. It makes life really interesting.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
YES!
That’s impressive!! I couldn’t even find Sophie’s friend’s house 5 minutes away with my iphone! Dumb Siri! Glad you had such a wonderful time! Miss you.
I remember that fearless, adventurous girl in Japan that summer – I loved her then, and I love her now!
And I remember how the Japanese were smitten with your southern accent – “Sayonara, ya’ll!” Glad you still have that spirit, Jane, and are passing it on to the next generation! So happy you were able to take this trip. My trip to Italy/Greece/Turkey with Sarah two summers ago was a trip of a lifetime – and definitely an adventure with just me and my daughter! 