Our kids came home talking like guides

Portland, Maine·Aug 2025

Two adults, two children, aged nine and twelve, and a lot of anxiety on my part about whether ten days in a vehicle would end in mutiny.

It did not, and I think the reason is that the itinerary was built around them rather than around us with them attached. Shorter drives. A morning at a school outside Karatu that was not a performance for tourists and did not pretend to be. Two nights somewhere with a pool, which I had felt slightly embarrassed asking for and which turned out to be the thing that made the second half work.

Our nine-year-old now corrects strangers who say Thomson when they mean Grant. Our twelve-year-old kept a list and is up to a hundred and forty-one species. Neither of them has asked for a screen since we got back, which will not last, but it has been three weeks.

One thing I would tell other parents: the honest emails about what is not suitable for children were more useful than any of the highlights. We changed two things because of them.