Four Lessons Learned From Traveling With a 5th Grader

Church Bay, Bermuda as seen from our scooter

Remember the show "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader"? The kids always seemed so smart and sensible while the adults always ended up looking a bit foolish.  The same can be said of the trip I recently took with my 5th Grader. We went on a "Last Minute" Bermuda cruise, and it was the first time that he and I traveled alone together (usually there are 5 or more of us).  I let him miss a few days of school, knowing that he would learn more by traveling and experiencing than he would learn in the classroom.  As it turns out, I learned quite a few things from him as well.

Getting Ready at the Jump Zone

Have Fun! No matter where you go, there is fun to be had.  As adults, we worry about being seen doing silly things and decide that the potential embarrassment is not worth the risk.  My son happened to fall in love with the Jump Zone on the top deck of our ship.  It's an area made up of trampolines and bungee cords.  He would get strapped in and start jumping - the higher he jumped, the better the view and the bigger the smile. He started telling everyone we met that "there's no age limit for the Jump Zone.  You just have to be 6."  I'm fairly certain he was responsible for doubling or tripling the adult participation during our cruise.   I tried it, and couldn't stop smiling.  

Multi-Cultural is Cool  My son read everyone's name tag and memorized where they were from.  We met staff members from Jamaica, Columbia, Ukraine, Sweden, Indonesia, and England. It's very interesting to meet people from far away countries,  learn some words and phrases in a different language, and make new friends.  As soon as we left the ship, he said that he missed being around people from all different parts of the world.  I had to agree.

Pack Light  Before we left, I made sure that he had plenty of clothes to get him through our journey.  He needed shorts and tops for the day, swim suits for the beach and pool, long slacks and nice tops for dinner, etc. Despite my valorous packing efforts,  I'm pretty sure he lived off the very top layer in his suitcase and didn't ever even go beyond the first couple of inches.  He used one swim suit, wore his favorite shorts several times, and returned with the tags still on a couple of newly purchased shirts.  It was fine. As long as he looked clean, nobody noticed if he wore the same shirt twice. I'm still working through this one.

Ready to Ride!

Be Spontaneous Being a Travel Agent, I had everything planned.  What we would do in port, which excursions we would take, etc.  Of course, it never works out as planned.  Our first excursion was canceled, so we scheduled another one.  That one was also canceled.  And the 3rd one as well.  Sometimes, you just have to wing it.  So, with nothing scheduled or planned, we got off the ship, headed into the area at the dockyard to see what we could find.  At first we considered a bus tour, but my son saw some people zipping around on scooters and decided we should try that. Despite the rental shop being skeptical of my ability to ride a scooter (just a wee bit of sexism here), I passed my "driving test" and off we went.  We saw some beautiful scenery, stopped at several beaches to check them out,  found a great beachfront restaurant for lunch, and generally had fun just riding around with the sun shining and the breeze blowing. It's probably the best memory from our trip and one that we will remember for a long time.

Sometimes the best moments are those that are the least expected.  That is certainly true of this trip. I'm so glad I had my 5th grader to show me how to enjoy it.