Oh the Places You Will Go

Planning a Memorable Vacation for You and Your Family

article by Cindy G Foust

I would like to start this month’s column by sharing some recent news with my readers, that Scott and I received just last week. It seems, friends, that I’ve been diagnosed with an ailment that will take 9 months to get over…that’s right, you guessed it, I’m expecting. Can you say surprised? I don’t even know where to start, except by saying that this has come as a total and complete shock to us and we are doing our best to absorb the enormity of having another child at our age. For crying out loud, we have a 20-year old. I mean, I will be 70 when they graduate from high school!

By electing to share this news with you, I would also like to say that this is an April Fool’s joke and well, I’m hoping I had you going for just a minute. I’m sure some of your first thoughts had to include the fact that you would actually know someone on the cover of the National Enquirer for being the oldest living pregnant person. Boy, that would be a claim to fame, and one I am glad to pass on to someone else. Just a little random factoid for you, on the outside chance you are wondering, the oldest living woman to have a baby was 70, back in 2008 (well, if you don’t count the Bible days, that is.) Can you just say bless her heart? They should build a national monument in her honor, but that’s just my opinion, and I’m just happy it’s not me having a baby at 51.

Now that you are recovering from your near fainting spell, I hope this month’s column finds each of you doing well and enjoying the glorious weather we are having. My azaleas are in a bit of April Fool’s mode as well, because they think the cold weather has passed and it’s okay for them to bloom. Well, the joke is on them, and I just hope any cool snap we might have in the next few weeks will be mild.

Yes, spring is springing all around, the grass is “greening” up and the redbuds are blooming. It certainly makes you want to get outside and start gardening or at least getting those beds ready for spring. Last spring, my daughter and I decided to go all Fannie Farmer and plant an herb garden. I wish I could show you a before and after picture, because the before looked like a little patch of heaven, all green and lush and vibrant. Fast forward a few weeks later, and well, everything looked like it had been eaten up in a weed eater…a very angry weed eater. I swear to you, when I walked outside one morning to check the progress, I caught a tomato plant sticking its tongue out at me. That was probably because we planted 12 plants within six inches of each other, and well, based on my “post-garden” research, that was just a bit close. Who knew?

This year, we are already planning our next gardening adventure, and we might even have our soil checked, especially since the piece of property we built our house on was probably created on the third day when God created the land, and the pH levels haven’t been checked since. So, maybe I’ll do a future article on the newfound success we are enjoying in our herb garden and maybe my tomato plants will be a little happier to have some growing room and actually produce a tomato.

Okay, so this month’s magazine isn’t about gardening at all, I just decided to share some of my gardening prowess with you, but instead, this month’s magazine is on travel. “Oh the Places You Will Go” is definitely one of my favorite books, and I certainly wish that book title was applicable to my life. I have traveled before, certainly I have, and if I had my way, my suitcase would stay packed. I have managed to have two children who are the exact same way. Scott, on the other hand, considers his toes in the sand or a really good hunting trip as his ideal vacations. Oh, but there are so many more places that I want to travel to. I’ve shared with my readers my number one bucket list trip is to Italy. I am constantly studying their culture, their culinary experiences and the architectural history of their country. I’m even thinking of getting a Rosetta Stone and brushing up on my Italian…just so I can be bi-lingual and translate with my cab driver once I get there.

For you see, when I was a child, way back during the same days that God was creating the land and the property that I live on, my family moved to Rome, Italy. My dad worked overseas in Africa, and my parents decided to move to an “American compound” for two years and put us closer to my dad who would fly in and out every few weeks. What an experience, and perhaps that’s where I cultivated my love affair with this country. Imagine a young, beautiful blonde mother (my mom) travelling all over the country with three blonde little girls (clearly, not Italian), and you can also imagine that those memories have stayed with me my entire life. We sub-let a townhome in the American village, and it had its own wine cellar and floor-to-ceiling library.

I would sit for hours and look through books I didn’t understand, and I will never forget the smells and the hundreds of books that were at my disposal. Now the wine cellar, well, I hope my mom doesn’t read my column this month, but me and my sisters spent a little time in there as well. Don’t go getting any wrong ideas, we didn’t drink any of it, well, except for that one time I picked up a bottle that had already been opened and put it to my lips, just for a fourth grade swig, and let me tell you what, that experience has certainly stayed with me, as well. It’s the real reason I lost part of my tongue (that’s an April Fool’s joke, too, I still have my tongue, it just ate some of my brain cells.) Let’s just say no one had to worry about my fourth grade self (with my two little sidekicks) experimenting in the wine cellar again, because I am convinced that if you were to drink straight gasoline from the pump nozzle, that’s what it would taste like.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, on a sort of virtual vacation. Well, I think that’s where I’m at, I vaguely remember starting this column by telling you I was pregnant, and now I’m sharing with you my fourth grade drinking experiences…talk about the places you will go.

So, where do you want to go, readers? More importantly, where have your travels taken you? Traveling takes you on adventures that turn you into wonderful storytellers. My children and I are planning our summer vacation as I write this column, and I am certain my readers will benefit at some point, from the experiences we enjoy.
So get busy readers, planning your next great adventure, especially when your children are young. It doesn’t have to be to Rome, Italy to create memories that will stay with your children, the world is full of sights and sounds and experiences to relish in. Make it your goal to plan something memorable, even if it’s just over to Six Flags, and I hope your travels will take you places that create memories that will last a lifetime.