Hi Pilates. I was so surprised to see this thread brought up! China was surely an adventure. I'd love to be there now, for the Olympics.

This trip seems like a lifetime ago. The boys are now 13 and 15, so much older. It was a great experience, one that we still refer to often - remember when we were in xxx, when this or that happened...

TG2: Oh wow. It HAS been TWO years since you made this trip. My, how time flies! When I posted a couple of days ago, I saw the post from mamamia last month, and before that, the posts are from 2007. So in my mind, I was thinking you did this last year. Anyway, it's a great read and kept me entertained for months! It's so wonderful that the boys were older when they took the trip. Old enough to be able to remember this trip for years to come. Have a great summer!

Because cold reminded me of it :-)

TG2:


Hib aain..if you're still reading...POilates above mentioned that yuor boys will be talking about the trip or years to come. Nothing anywhere near as adventuorus as your grand trip, but in 1967, I rented a camper for six weeks and took the family all over the south, DC, New England, Montreal Expo, Niagra, and every national park from there back to California. We did about 8500 miles...my kids were 13, 11 and 7.

Yesterday, we were all at my daughter's house with the five grandkids, etc...and my three "children", now 54, 52, 48...gave everyone a good laugh as they reminisced and showed the old 8mm. movies and candid photos about that trip...41 years later!


stu T.

TG2: Please forgive typos....above.

stu

Stu - what a great memory for your kids! Thanks for sharing that story.

I should have mentioned that we long ago transferred the 8mms. to tape, and recently to disc...what a difference. In fact, the CD's were made for us by The Steven Spielberg Archivist, since Steven from the age of 10, is in some of the footage, and he himself shot a small percentage of the early footage. Sooo, the family is now part of the archives. All that and $4.45 buys me a gallon of gasoline!

stu T.

bookmarking

thanks to a little canadian goose, I am topping this thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring trip report.

LG - thanks! This was quite a surprise, to see this trip report brought to the top. It is actually a little bittersweet, as travelling with the kids is a fond memory now. We have just dropped our youngest off for college across the US (2 weeks ago) and celebrated with an empty nest trip to London, Bologna and Rome, returning just hours ago!

Topping, for everyone to enjoy

It is years later, and your boys will be young men now. But I still want to thank you for taking all the hours to post this TR, for new Fodorites - like me - to dream over.

travelgirl2: I was watching this video of the comedian Jim Gaffigan who told of his children's popularity with the Chinese. I instantly thought of you and this thread. I think you'll get a kick out of it!

This memorable trip report of yours is one of my top two favorite trip reports I've ever read.

Here's the link to Jim's segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_qhWMHZMsc

dai - wow, 11 years later, and still here we are! Thank you for linking to Jim Gaffigan's clip. I did get a kick out of it! And thank you for your kind words about my trip report.

Travelgirl's report inspired us to start travelling with our kids. Tonight we are sitting in Vancouver airport about to fly home after what may be our last family trip (youngest heads off to university tomorrow when we get home).

We owe all the fun to Travelgirl and about $200k. Totally worth it.

(Cold)

PS - Hiroshima would also be our most thought-provoking.

Travelgirl2, this is a classic trip report, it was so nice to read about your adventures with your boys.

Cold, hope you are ok with your youngest heading to the university.
Why did you leave the lounge?

One of my all time favorite trip reports!

Wow I read this report over the last few days and thoroughly enjoyed it. I joined Fodors in '08 so I missed it originally. What a wonderful experience for everyone. Including us here.

One thing that I was struck by was the tone of all the posters in 2006, everyone was so kind and supportive. Sometimes I feel as though people today are snarky, condescending and sometimes downright mean. Not even a majority but just a few that stand out. IMO only of course.

I spent half of today reading this awesome trip report. Enjoyed it immensely!

travelgirl2: Oh good, I'm glad you saw this link with Jim G. I'm also glad that new readers saw this adventure-in-travel and got the chance to enjoy it too. Yes, 11 years and it definitely stands the test of time! Best wishes! ((f))