What is my personal experience with multi-generational travel?
I have been a world traveler since I was 11 years old, but my first several times out of the country were actually WITHOUT my parents!
First, when I was 11, I went to Canada on a vacation with my aunt and uncle to the Niagra Falls.
Then, when I was 13, I traveled with 9 other young teens and one adult to Sweden for a month! We were welcomed by host families who made us a part of their everyday living. I am still friends today with this family and they are the reason I traveled with my parents for the first time internationally!
When I was 16, I had the opportunity to be a junior counselor at an international camp in India for a month! It was an amazing opportunity, but it was a bit of a cultural shock and to say I cried with so many feelings when I arrived back on American soil is an understatement.
When I was a junior in college, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a semester studying in Austria at a campus of the university I attended (Franciscan University of Steubenville). During those four months, we traveled around Europe for 3 ½ days a week and studied the other half of the week. I traveled to most major countries in Western Europe and left part of my heart at the beautiful campus positioned snugly in the foothills of the Alps. I grew up more than you can imagine with that amount of independence and all of Europe at my fingertips! It changed me in ways that are difficult to describe but forever a part of who I am. I called my parents every week to share my adventures, and I just longed for them to BE THERE…
A month after I graduated college, I got married and went on my first cruise for my honeymoon!! We had a fabulous time on our Royal Caribbean ship and a few extra days in Miami… but…
Every time I got home from these adventures, I always told my parents, “You guys HAVE to go there!” Unfortunately, they spent their entire lives up to this point working so hard to provide a private education and comfortable life for my brother and I, that they weren’t able to have these adventures themselves.
When we got invited to go to a wedding in Sweden (remember the Swedish family that welcomed me when I was 13?), they finally had the incentive they needed to leave the safety of the US and venture beyond! In August of 2008, my parents, husband, brother and his fiancé ventured to Sweden, Italy and Germany for two weeks! That trip deserves a blog post by itself, but to say it was an amazing adventure is an understatement! The friendships that were deepened (even though they all just met in person for the first time), really sparked a love of travel and an appreciation for other cultures in my family that you just can’t comprehend until you go to a different country. Being able to bring my family to places I had been was a dream come true and they agreed that it was everything I said it would be! There were still SO MANY PLACES I wanted to go with them!
It took until 2011 for us to travel again – and guess what, it was with our Swedish friends once again! Instead of Europe, though, we met on a cruise where my friend and her husband (remember the wedding 3 years ago?) had a gig performing on a Royal Caribbean ship… so not only did we get to spend another week together, but we also were able to watch them perform – Cirque di Soleil style! It also gave us the chance to deepen the bonds we have with this family.
That was just the push my parents needed to feel comfortable adventuring on their own! They FELL IN LOVE with cruising! Unfortunately, I was still in my poor, young adult state and couldn’t keep up with the adventures they wanted to have so they coerced high school friends to sail with them! Since then, they have gone on 1-2 cruises a year around the Caribbean, Alaska, and the Mediterranean. They are diamond members of the Crown and Anchor Society and enjoy the privileges that come with that. Though we can’t always cruise with them, I’m so glad they have friends that enjoy it as much as they do!
I went to Japan for 5 weeks in 2012 at the invitation of my cousin to keep her company at the Navy base while her husband was deployed. That was an incredible adventure and when Jon Paul was able to join me for the last week, we went all over and it felt like we were in college again in Europe (oh yeah, I didn’t mention that he was with me in Austria – though we were only dating then).
Then we had a traveling hiatus while I had a beautiful daughter and life focused on her for a while… then, well, we all know what happened in 2020. Despite all that, my parents kept cruising!
In 2022, I opened my travel agency and in the first year was invited to attend the opening cruise of Royal Caribbean’s newly remodeled port in Galveston, TX. Jon Paul wasn’t able to go, so who did I bring? My mom! It was such a fun experience to travel together and for her to get insider knowledge of the behind the scenes of a travel agent life!
In 2023, I was able to sail with my own family and make memories together. It was my daughter’s first time leaving the country and it’s safe to say that the next generation fell in love with traveling, too!
So, in 2024, when we decided it was time to go back to Europe to see Lourdes (our daughter is named Bernadette – IYKYK), Salzburg (the home of Mozart and other composers – my dad is a musician), FUS campus in Gaming(!), and Vienna, I could hardly believe that my dreams of showing these places to my parents AND daughter was finally happening! I have been telling them about these places for 22 years!! Visiting Lourdes with my daughter who is named after a little girl who lived in the village 150 years ago, was very emotional (did I mention it was my daughter’s birthday, too?) Arriving at the campus in Gaming, Austria, however, was even more emotional for me and the first thing my mom said was, “THIS is where you studied?!” She’s seen allllllllll the pictures, but they just didn’t convey the overall beauty and peace that the campus brings. Those two weeks are still fresh enough that I look back at it and can’t believe we actually went and did the things we said we’d do so many years ago!
Next up, we are leaving on another cruise in a few weeks to celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday! My little family has just decided that traveling is more fun when you have people to share it with!
My parents have always said, “There won’t be anything left for you guys…” and they’re WRONG! We’re taking the opportunity to MAKE MEMORIES and SPEND TIME together every chance we can… which is way better than any amount of inheritance.
Talk about multi-gen! This is my Swedish friend’s grandma! She’s SO SWEET and I’m so grateful that we were able to meet again! Even though she doesn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Swedish, the fondness for each other thrives!
Both families in Lund, Sweden
My parents, husband, brother and sister-in-law in front of St. Paul Outside the Wall Basilica during the year of Saint Paul (notice the jubilee doors are open!)
Enjoying a nice dinner in Rome!
My family and my Swedish “family” cruising!
I think this was at St. Thomas (notice the mini third generation traveler in this photo!)
Everyone cleans up so nicely!
Anna and Jimmy performing in the promenade of the ship!
Anna and Jimmy performing center stage of the theater on the ship!
