We recently returned from a vacation with our six-year-old granddaughter. We went to Paris, then drove through the French countryside to Switzerland. We came up with this crazy idea and my son and DIL were on board. Words cannot describe how grateful we are that they allowed us all to have this amazing opportunity.
People told us we were crazy for taking a six-year-old. People told my son and DIL they were crazy for letting her go (eeey gads – to a foreign country!). Were we crazy? Maybe, but it was crazy fun! Crazy to see the Eiffel Tower through her eyes, to see her eyes brighten with the twinkling lights. Crazy to watch her eyes widen as she ate her first crepe. Crazy to see her dancing in the streets of Paris. Crazy to watch her amazement as she saw her first castle. (Could it be the one from Beauty & the Beast, we wondered?) Crazy to hike with her in the rain through the Swiss Alps, crazier to experience the parting of the clouds, behind which was a previously hidden, snow-capped mountain. Crazy to watch her excitement as she sat on a ski lift going up a mountain.
We were able to witness firsthand a little girl replacing fear with confidence. She was afraid of escalators, but we made a game of it during our layover in Atlanta and within 5 minutes she was laughing and going up and down by herself. She was afraid of heights, and very concerned about the mountains. After 2 minutes on a ski lift, she was happy as could be and only excited to get up to the restaurant on top of the mountain for hot chocolate. She was afraid of trying new foods, only to learn that she liked many of them, and the ones she didn’t, she didn’t have to eat! She was afraid that our friend’s daughter in Switzerland wouldn’t like her, only to have her new BFF give her the very first stuffed cow she received as a little one.
It was, in so many ways, the trip of a lifetime, at least for us. Six is young to remember it all, but photos and memory books will be coming her way, to help keep it fresh for all of us. We hope this trip instills a lifelong love of travel and a deep desire to learn about other cultures and languages.
For now, when asked about her favorite part of the trip, she says the cows; which by the way, are pretty special and honored in Switzerland! My favorite part? Doing the hokey pokey underneath the Arc de Triomphe. Doing the hokey pokey in the Alps. Pretty much doing the hokey pokey everywhere we went. Because, don’t you know…this beautiful life, that’s what it’s all about!
