TRAVEL — Get Moving — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

August has driven cross country twice. Flown to New Orleans, Charleston, Seattle, New York, Santa Fe, and Indiana — some on multiple trips. Most recently, we spent a month in Mexico, getting to know the locals in San Miguel. Even at times when I’ve been home sick, lonely, travel weary, or have found a language barrier to be isolating and frustrating, it didn’t seem to matter much to him. Always resourceful, kids adapt to situations pretty easily if parents keep their cools.

I always try and make each trip engaging for him — making sure he samples the local food, he listens to the local music, and that we have plenty of books on hand so that he can get a feel for the place and its culture. If we stop longer than a moment in any spot on the globe, he’s liable to instantly make friends. He’s seen way more than I ever saw when I was three, so I know how lucky August is.

As a single mom of three on a tight budget, my mom didn’t have a ton of money to spend on vacations. Even so, by the time I was 12, I’d been up and down the east coast any number of times and hit every historical hotspot from NYC to Gettysburg. Granted, in today’s gas guzzling, $4-a-gallon era, it is not as cheap or environmentally-friendly to own the road. (My husband is trying to make up for the giant carbon footprint we left on our driving trip to Mexico by taking the bus to work four times a week.)

Even if you don’t have the time, money, and inclination to get out and show your child the world, you can at least make the next town over seem like paradise. Just north of San Antonio where we live is a little town called New Braunfels. They have a children’s museum way better than ours, a nice main street full of restaurants and shops, a wildlife park, and a snake farm! Taking August there for a day trip… I might as well be jetting him to Paris. There is something about going to a new place (even those close to home) that ignites his imagination and opens up his world view.

So no matter where you go or what you do — a cruise to Jamaica or a bus ride two towns over — get your kids moving. They’ll love you for it.