This is the third installment of a series of reflections on our wonderful summer vacation.
4. What would you do the same / differently?
I would certainly do this trip again, but so much was so clearly owing to the grace of God that simply can’t be prescribed for another. This includes:
- Visiting our long-time Israel friend on the eve of her major life transition
- Running into friends on the street in Washington, DC
- A question on this blog leading to several wonderful days with a family in New England
- The engagement spot surprise (not the first time I surprised Kelli there!)
- Ideal weather nearly everywhere
- A family member giving us a night in a very nice hotel at the end of the trip
I don’t know if it’s worth repeating some of what I have already said that I am thankful for:
- Having a known itinerary and hotel reservations; it would have added to the stress level if we had to find a hotel at the end of each day.
- A good balance of academic and fun sites
- Lots of study of American history before we left
- Memorizing Romans 12 together
- Using a GPS, even with a few dozen AAA maps in the car. It certainly takes pressure off of Kelli, especially in a big city.
An important emphasis for Kelli and me before the trip was how the kids would get along with each other and how we would relate to them. We were committed to making relationships more important than the sites and, among other things, that would mean being less time-conscious. We wanted to help the kids to be more considerate and compassionate to one another. I’m not sure how much progress we made, but there were too many times where I feel we failed.
Another area that I wish we could do differently was our evenings. As I noted before, we often arrived at the hotel at the kids ‘ bedtime. This made it difficult for them to do a good job on their journals. More than that, it gave Kelli and me little time to do things we needed to do. Kelli in particular was almost always up later than our bedtime, just doing the necessary things for the next day (washing baby bottles, preparing the formula for the next day, restocking the diaper bag, making lunches for everyone, etc.). I wish we could have had more time to relax together in the evening, but I’m not sure what I could change globally to fix that. A good bit of our late arrivals was not because of our plan, but because some element of the day just took longer than we expected.
The answer to this question is not so lengthy, but I’ve already gone ahead and written out my response to question number 5 and it requires its own post, so I will save that for tomorrow.
