This blog is nothing if not a place to put my larks and obsessions. Here’s my latest:

I am addicted to the WaPo Travel section, and especially enjoy their annual photo contest, the 2009 results of which are here.

I was drawn to two things: one, the winning picture was by a 16-year-old, whose parents take her on a significant trip every year—India, Tanzania, etc. (She goes to Sidwell Friends which should tell you something about their wherewithal to do such a thing.) The second was a picture of a little boy with this caption: During a family trip to Rome, Seanez sought out an empty space where his 4-year-old twins (one pictured) could run around and be boys. He found the perfect playground: St. Peter’s Square. “I like this picture,” he wrote, “because it captures a very popular place in a unique way and it describes our traveling life with our twins, which is always on high speed!”

It got me thinking about the possibilities of traveling internationally with our children. (Don’t dash my excitement by mentioning how incredibly expensive this would be… I’m dreaming right now. And besides, I think the benefits of experiencing other cultures are significant enough that I’d be willing to go to some lengths to make this happen financially. R and I never ventured further than Canada until we were adults; I’d like our kids to develop some skill in being in a different culture sooner than we did… call it a comfort with being uncomfortable.)

I recently heard the travel writer Rick Steves on Bob Edwards’s show and was charmed by his thoughtful, humble, and easygoing manner, and his latest work, called Travel as a Political Act. I put it on reserve at the library and finally got it a week or two ago. He is big on not just pre-packaged travel (though his company provides those services), but on actually meeting the locals and learning the history and customs first-hand. He said (paraphrasing), “Whenever I vote for a President here in this country, I think about the people I’ve met who are living in poverty in El Salvador. Their lives are going to be impacted by the choice I make, in some ways more than mine is, as a middle-class person living in this country.”

He also talked about going to Iran and hearing a cabbie holler out his window during a traffic jam, “Death to traffic!” Turns out they say “Death to…” at various things that cause them frustration. That doesn’t make “Death to America” OK, Steves said, but doesn’t it aid in your understanding of what that phrase might mean in context?

I put this quote on Facebook:
“The most powerful things an individual American can do to fight terrorism are to travel a lot, learn about the world, come home with a new perspective, and then work to help our country fit more comfortably and less fearfully into this planet.”

So I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of traveling with the kids. It seems like an easy first step for our crew would be either to go where we know the language, or to go where at least one of us has been before. Last week I was listening to a poetry podcast in which the poet shared a piece about visiting Iona. (I felt more smug than is healthy that unlike Essential Poet Amy Clampitt, I know the correct pronunciation of Fionnphort.) Then today I turned on the TV and “Rick Steves Europe” was on PBS, in which he was visiting, you guessed it, Iona.

One more of those and I’m calling it a message from the universe…

And actually, as convoluted as the journey to Iona is, it would actually be pretty kid-friendly once we got there. Iona is also a neat experience because it gives one the chance to meet people from a lot of different places, all together in one location.

But here’s the other thing I’ve been thinking about: some kind of family travel exchange, in which families traveling with kids could connect with families living in that place, as sort of travel mentors, to help them plan a meaningful itinerary for children. With a family of five, it wouldn’t be practical for us to stay with a family in their house. Instead we might share a meal or two, and they could suggest places to go and even accompany us as time permits. Even visiting a playground or zoo in a foreign country would be an interesting experience because there are bound to be differences.

As a family of five that lives in the greater DC area, we would enjoy being mentors in this way for someone else.

So I’m putting that in the “someone should really do this” category.

What are your experiences with travel, with or without children?

Photo is of the offroad pilgrimage on Iona. That’s my arm and striped maternity shirt. I guess J has actually been overseas…