Traveling Traditions -

Guest Post by Char Huskins

When you read this, I’ll be somewhere between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, enjoying a 15 day cruise with my mother. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I actually said, “No way” when my mother suggested it back in January. I have three children – two of whom I homeschool, a very busy business, and well.. a life that’s hard to walk away from for two weeks. So, my quick response was “oh, that’d be fun, but there’s no way”.

Then I laughingly told my husband about her invite, and he immediately said, “You told her “YES”, right??” Ummm… really? He called his dad for back-up, checked his vacation days at work, and worked it ALL out how I COULD walk away for two weeks, while he took over all my Mom-stuff. The next big challenge was informing my kids. They were way less excited about it than he was. The last couple of days before we left were pretty difficult for them (while Mom and I tried to hide our TOTAL GIDDY EXCITEMENT and ~~pretended~~ assured them that we’d miss them too).

So, all that to say.. do you have special traveling traditions? In our family, when one parent leaves for a day or two (or two weeks), they always take along “Kitty”. This is Martha’s special kitty cat and a few trips ago, she gave Kitty to Daddy when he was going out of town for a funeral. He was gone for about a week, and every day a few texts and pics would come, showing us what Kitty was up to. It made the days away from Daddy MUCH easier on Martha. And a tradition was born.

I’ve had to travel quite a bit in the last few years because of family illness, so Kitty went with me. Kitty has even gone with Grandpa and Aunt when they traveled. In fact, Kitty has traveled a LOT more than Martha! Here is Kitty “washing the windshield” of Grandpa’s car on one of her adventures to Colorado.

So, naturally, when I left town for two weeks, Kitty went with me. I’ll have a photo roll of photos for Martha by the time this trip is over, and it will be a fun and special way for her to enjoy the cruise “with” me.