Today’s guest post is a special one. For Father’s Day, my dad (a nearly 70-year-old Baby Boomer) writes about what it’s like traveling with a Millennial (me) in Costa Rica. Happy Father’s Day!
I have always found the planning second only to the actual travel. Researching, planning, learning the little tips that separate painless travel from an ordeal have always been a way to extend my travel from the actual days to weeks or months of imagining the journey.
After planning all travel for myself and family, the tables turned when my daughter invited me to travel with her to Costa Rica. it would be a celebration of her most recent accomplishments; completion of her MBA. She had been bitten hard by the travel bug when she was studying in Prague. Three day weekends gave her ample opportunities to plan and extend her European travels.
It was against this backdrop that she announced she would plan the entire journey and I need only pack a toothbrush. This was foreign territory for me. While I am not a control freak, for the first time since my childhood I would be the passenger, not the driver.
Do I dig in as deep as I knew she would, too only pride myself to have distinct opinions about all aspects of the trip, surely a potential cause of conflict. How to balance? I would certainly need to know the weather. How else could I pack? But I didn’t need to have too strong an opinion on when and where.
Maggie’s travel mates in Europe had given her big thumbs up for her planning process. And wholly trusting her , I was curious to see the country through her “ Millennial eyes”— her description, not mine.
Anyway, the human experience is quite common, and the opportunity to travel and learn about your children is such a fantastic opportunity, I wish it for all fathers. Sharing experiences, seeing what is chosen from the smorgasbord of available options was a rare treat. Short story, travel well done. Details… well that is another story.
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Safe travels!
-Maggie
