Exploration and travel is one part of parenthood that I truly miss. It costs much more to take a family of 4 someplace overnight than just two people. There's a lot more whining and fighting with two kids in the backseat. But, I remember my dad "torturing" me with it and I'm better for it. Travel is always something I loved. I really liked living out of a suitcase. There was a thrill to it. I want my kids to experience that thrill. A couple weeks ago I posted about our spontaneous weekend. The kids hated it at first, but then loved exploring the new places. This weekend, we went to Target in the other town since ours is being remodelled and they seem to be out of everything. We took the long, scenic way there and there was actually no whining! (and, just an FYI, W's Target is also being remodelled, so theirs is the in the same state as M's)
I wish we could just freeze time and travel. Unfortunately, time is not on our side with this one. Our weekends are filled with soccer, karate, swimming, church and tutoring, not to mention the every day stuff. That doesn't leave much time for exploration. Husband and I also never get to explore on our own anymore. On the rare occasion we get a sitter, we only have 4 hours to eat and then do something. Not quite enough time to really get out and discover. We're hoping that we can start doing more and more now that the kids are older. We keep trying to get out and show the kids a little at a time. Hopefully, one day, they will look at those hours of "torture" and be thankful we instilled a love of travel and exploration in them.