Kids are unique, and the way they preserve their memories of travel is unique also, including not preserving them at all. Let them discover the way that works for them.

Our 16-year-old teen daughter learned a lot – not just about the places and the people we visited, but little things that make life more functional like how to navigate putting your passport somewhere you can reach it quickly, or paying attention to addresses and train numbers so you know what’s happening and can get around.

She was really struck with one piece that was a tower of audio devices that started with a base of old radios and ended a the top with bluetooth speakers. As she walked away she said, “..it kind of freaks me out when I look at it, but I like it.”

Urged forward by a bitingly cold wind, we arrived just in the nick of time at the Globe where our gregarious actor/tour guide was laying the scene of London in the 1500’s. Seeing the Globe was fabulous, and our guide was funny, informative, and deeply invested. 

We got back to the village just in time for the pub to fire up the kitchen and the hearth. The fish and chips came with the ever notorious minted mashed peas. I kind of enjoyed it. Kinda.

When we asked 13 year-old daughter what kinds of things she’d like to see and do in England – she replied, “I want to see the British version of Taco Bell, and Big Ben.”

We looked at each other and then kindly excused her from the planning committee. The mission to broaden her horizons was more critical than we had initially imagined!

We visited Old Trail Town, which was a collection of relocated historic cabins and a large collection of artifacts all set up in a town format. It was weird, but in a good way.

Impossibly large numbers were on my mind as I walked in the footsteps of the 10’s of thousands who’d lost their lives at the Dachau concentration camp; Lost in the most inhuman, unimaginable ways possible.

Yellowstone is amazing, and it stands in our collective American minds as the quintessential family vacation.