Family Vacations.

Up until last weekend, I had my doubts about family vacation spots and vacationing with children in general. I love traveling, and I love exploring off the tourist track. I usually try to avoid places that are overflowing with souvenir shops and filled with everyone and their family reunion. Kid-themed attractions also top this list.

Now that I have my own child, I have different expectations. I don't think I can take Mugga backpacking across Thailand. I for one, am not up for that sort of thing anymore. (Hostel hopping has never been my thing.) I also don't see us dining in gourmet restaurants in NYC (Mug is really into chucking things off the table lately) or shopping for hours at Piccadilly Circus in London (it might interfere with nap time).

There are times when I have thought, "Man. My days of real traveling is so over. Now I'm stuck with a kid, and she's gonna slow me down."

But after taking Mug to the beach for the first time in her young life, my perspective is changing. She was afraid of the water at first and shrieked when the wave licked her toes. After a few minutes, she was loving it. She loved, loved, loved the beach. Absolutely fascinated by the sand, Mug spent about 45 minutes shoveling it into this yellow bucket:

(Notice the lack of swimming suit. Like everything else in her wardrobe, it was left at home.)

Seeing Mug's reaction to her first real elephant at the wild animal park was also completely priceless. She got one look at the giant Asian elephants and screamed to go inside their gated-off home.

"Ed-di-die! Ed-di-die!" she pleaded. ("Ed-di-die" is her word for "elephant.") Mugga almost feel over when she came face-to-face with a stray duck in the park. She's seen ducks before, so a second encounter was a real treat.

There were other kids in the park experiencing this same wide-eyed captivation, and it touched my cold, traveling heart. My reservations melted away, and I too, became fascinated again to see a lion up close. Wow, those things are scary.

It's interesting how everyday, my outlook on life changes now that I'm a mom.

I love to travel and explore the world because I like to expose myself to new and different things. I feel like it opens my horizons and helps me be a better person. I thought that vacationing with a child would limit this experience. I would be stuck visiting contrived kiddie attractions with absolutely no interest to myself.

But traveling with Mug isn't as bad as I thought it would be. If fact, it's actually better. To see my little one experience these new adventures, to touch the ocean for the first time ever, see a real giraffe, listen to the laughs of a spider monkey -- these are the greatest explorations. Her eyes are opening to new things, and at the same time, mine are too.