Travel expands one’s horizons. Each trip is the opportunity to learn something, both within and without the individual. Some of the tidbits we’ve learned this time around:
If you are a male and you put on a Speedo, and, when standing up you cannot see the Speedo without the aid of a mirror, you have exceeded the “Speedo Limit” and should not go out in public.
Sun is not essential for fun, but it certainly helps with relaxation.
Not sharing a room with the boys eliminates that “bonding”. It also means they can stay up as late as they want, we can go to bed and get up as early as we want, and everyone likes each other better from a distance.
New foods won’t kill you, but some things grow as you chew.
Texting your significant other, who’s back wherever you traveled from, while the people you are actually with are trying to coordinate travel and/or find lost party members, could get your head chopped off.
Always bring the big suitcase, whether it’s full or not. Even if you don’t need the room, someone else will.
Smaller suitcases packed beyond capacity will split at the seams. It’s a false economy to think that you can get by with less weight or that packing the bag to the max is a good idea.
Carryon bags must have rollers. All bags get heavy and it’s foolish to bring a gym bag or something without wheels that you’re going to have to carry around.
Teenagers must be told that you want your change back each and every time they are given pictures of dead presidents. They must be frequently reminded of this once they have returned.
Ugly pants attract attention. It’s up to the person wearing them to ascertain whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.
TSA people are on a power trip and really have no useful function other than show. While they’re good at making up arbitrary rules and enforcing them with great show, it’s hard to see that anything they’ve done has actually made the travelling public or the country safer. Case in point – Our passports are all in leather cases, which are identical other than color. Seven of us went through with them in hand. Taylor was stopped, publicly chided for keeping the passport in a case in his hand, and made to put his passport on the X-ray belt. He got “selected” thereafter for special attention as well. Do they really think this 16 year old, middle-class white bread is a terrorist??
