So tonight, as I’m putting our middle girl to bed, this conversation happens:
Her: There’s this place where you can snorkel or dive in the Great Barrier Reef and all you need is to be able to swim and the ability to laugh at yourself.
Me: Hmmm. Really?
Her: It costs $1246 for a ticket.
Me: To dive there??
Her: No, to get to Australia from here. And if you go from the UK, it’s only a 22 hour flight!
Me: How do you know?
Her: I looked into it today. I don’t think I actually booked a flight. But you might want to check and make sure…
Me: What?!
Her: Well, I’m pretty sure I didn’t book anything. I was careful not to fill in any information about myself…you could cancel it though if I did, right?
I had to laugh as I came back upstairs and told Dev that I needed the iPad for a minute to check and see if Darragh booked a ticket to Australia or not! What’s really interesting about all that is that when we returned from our trip, the girls were pretty adamant that they wouldn’t be leaving again for a very long time, if ever. As I’ve said in previous posts, we have felt frustrated at times by their apathy about travel – it felt almost like it had the opposite effect from the one we had hoped for.
And then something like this happens. She has been talking about Australia for a couple of weeks now. She borrowed a DVD from the library about it last weekend, and has apparently been doing some pretty specific research online! I love that she did that. I’m certain that wouldn’t have happened a year ago. Obviously, I’m happy she didn’t book a flight, but I feel proud that she got to that point in her little “trip planning” adventure. I think it shows initiative! But also, it shows me that she is feeling positive about travelling again. And not that long after our return. It’s one of those moments that makes me smile inside.
And tomorrow, we will be attending the Literary Awards Gala, where she will be presented with third prize for a memoir she wrote while we were in the Pyrenees. Another smile-inside moment. I love them.
Roadschooling Claytons 
You are allowed a smile-outside moment! A. J x
Bravo to your children, love it. They many not know it yet, but they are probably hooked with a travel bug now… Lisa MacEwen cell: 905-808-6601 Lisa@sunmac.ca
From: Roadschooling Claytons <comment-reply@wordpress.com> Reply-To: Roadschooling Claytons <comment+rdn86zv251_y0_k9-8jl7e6@comment.wordpress.com> Date: Saturday, 19 October, 2013 4:01 PM To: “lisa@homeottawa.com” <lisa@homeottawa.com> Subject: [New post] Long Term Effects
roadschoolingclaytons posted: ” So tonight, as I’m putting our middle girl to bed, this conversation happens: Her: There’s this place where you can snorkel or dive in the Great Barrier Reef and all you need is to be able to swim and the ability to laugh at yourself. Me: Hmmm. Really”
Sounds like someone has the travel bug! So thrilled Darragh will be receiving the Literary Award!!
My first visit to Australia was 2004 as part of a group tour. Part of the itinerary was to snorkel the GBR. I have issues with water. I went along the spectacular catamaran ride, but had no intention of getting into the water once we arrived at the platform off the coast. Upon arrival, there were life jackets. There was a ledge to egress into the water such that if you sat on it you were chest high in the water. As I sat there, I asked one of my tour companions to stay with me until I pushed off, I would swim around with my life jacket, flippers and goggles for about five minutes and call it a day. I was in the water for 2 hours. I got back onto the platform and proclaimed, “best day of my life so far!”. There have been many best day of my life moments since.
I actually laughed out loud at this, as the yoof would say. I only she’d finished with the punch-line, “by the way, your credit card is by the microwave”, it would have been perfect. 🙂
Well, yes, because then we could have come and visited you and your piglets since we’d be in that part of the world…