People Can Be Amazing

Wee One is in first grade, has been all year (sniff) and this first proper spring break, I wanted to start to a tradition of taking her traveling. I remember spring break road trips with my parents, even my absent father. (Maybe that’s the reason I remember them. He was never around for anything else.)

But this Backpacker turned Mama is gonna show my girl the ropes!

This year, I wanted to keep it simple. It was just going to be me and her (Cohiba is competing in an international jiu jitsu competition on Florida next weekend, and didn’t want to blow his training.) and I didn’t want too go far. We have a long trip coming up soon.

So I picked Louisville. I’ve only been through there once on my way to a Renaissance fair, and one of my besties is from there (who is mother to one of WO’s good friends). We got a hotel suite with two queen beds, a hotel pool, and a bar. I also found a small zoo in the Southish part of the state that has Australian animals circa Bluey. I thought WO would love it, and she did.

That night, over dinner and drinks at the hotel, I told the bartender about our zoo trip. He had spent a year on the Gold Coast of Australia on a work visa. (I should have asked him if he met Hugh Jackman! Kicking myself!) I told WO, and she decided she wanted to ask him if he liked it.. He was such a doll too her, so sweet. Then he pulled out an Australian dollar coin, and gave it to her! It was so generous and special, and, for me, highlighted something I want to show her, as I explained in an email I sent to her.

“…this is part of why I want to travel with you. A lesson I want to teach you: People can be amazing. All over the world, people can be amazing. Generous and giving, all out of a desire to share and connect. I think it’s out of kind of love, and absolutely beautiful.

As of the time in this trip, COVID has been around for two years, and Russia invaded Ukraine a month ago. This pandemic has already been changing the world, and this invasion is going to do it more. I can’t imagine how it’s going to look by the time you get this message. But what I can imagine, my dearest one,  is that people will still want to share and connect. That goodness will still be there. “