KATIE IN SWITZERLAND
Boston College asked my daughter Katie to represent the Eldercare program at a two-week conference in Switzerland. After graduating from Boston College last month, this trip to Europe was a fine way to close out a successful academic experience. Katie used Skype on her iPhone to keep in touch with Diane. I was in REHAB while this was all going on, but Katie would call me on a daily basis to check on my progress and to relate her latest adventures in the Alps. It’s best to travel when you’re young and both Patrick and Katie have logged plenty of air miles. Ah, youth…
Nice. I was really impressed driving through the Alps in our younger days. I definitely agree with you that it is the best time to do it. Patrick will be joining the Million Mile Club the way he’s been going. In the case of the Kelley kids no one can say youth is wasted on the young.
That article from the NY TIMES that you sent me yesterday, Jeff, explains some of Patrick and Katie’s success. A stable marriage, two working parents, and two great kids trumps a single-parent with limited education and only one paycheck.
How fun! I’m sure Katie is making the most of the experience. Who better to represent American youth than a Kelley kid.
Katie has safely returned to the U.S., Beth, and then headed for Rhode Island to be part of a friend’s wedding. Only youth has the energy for all of that!
It looks and sounds wonderful, good for her! I agree with your assessment of what helps make successful kids, but parenting is probably the most important of all, especially the love and examples the parents give.
I’ve not been outside of the north American continent, just to Canada and Mexico, and wish I had when I was younger, when travel was still fun.
Thanks for your kind words, Rick. We were really lucky with Katie and Patrick. Two good, hard-working kids. We have friends who have similar parenting skills to ours, but their kids are psychos. Luck is definitely a factor. Travel is no longer fun for me. I travel reluctantly. But when I was young, travel was thrilling.
I still remember driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel (over seven miles long) between France and Italy and driving into Rome. I was fascinated that there were sections of northern Italy near the border with France where everything was in French and near Germany where everything was in German.
Other highlights; walking among the stones of Stonehenge before it was roped off, climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa (you get drawn to the downhill side and there are NO guardrails until the top! – at least it was that way in the mid-70’s), just walking where Hemingway and the other expatriate writers walked in Paris, climbing to the top of Notre-Dame and seeing the gargoyles close up, the Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park in Oslo, so much more.
Like George says I’m glad we did it when we were young as who has the energy now? Also, we traveled very cheaply, stayed in crappy b & b’s often with bathrooms down the hall, ate badly, etc. No way we’d go that way these days.
Perfect description of the high points of travel…and the low, Jeff. Like you and Jackie, I didn’t mind crappy accommodations when I was a kid. Today, I want all the comfort I can find.
When we started going around with our friends in England on all day book buying trips the wives came to a quick decision: if they were going to be dragged around to dusty bookstores all day they were staying in a nice hotel and eating in good restaurants.
I agree with the logic of that deal perfectly, Jeff. But, today, I doubt if there are books to find in the quantity and prices of those years.