Back to reality

And so, here we are. We all had a great time on the cruise. Tanner is now going through major cruise withdrawal. Reality will kick him in the pants on Monday when school starts again. He's on a quick trip to Germany this weekend with a group of friends, so it's been quite a busy spring break for him.

Pictures will probably have to wait until I get back from the U.S. in a couple of weeks. I will say that Istanbul is a city worth visiting if you ever get the chance. There's some pretty amazing stuff to see there. Both of our Turkish tour guides went to great lengths to distinguish their brand of Islam from the Islam practiced by some of their more interesting neighbors. Almost all Turks are Muslims, but the government of Turkey is secular. That's probably what's allowed Turkey to make the progress that it's made. I'll have more to say about our experiences in Turkey, including visits to a couple of mosques.

There were many European families on this cruise because most of Europe takes its spring break around Easter. There were some German kids in the children's program who didn't speak English, so Lindsey appointed herself as their translator. She helped them to figure out what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to go, and that sort of thing. That's a bit of a turnaround from how we usually feel around here. We're usually the ones who have no idea of what's going on.

As I've mentioned before, cruising is not the best way to get to know a place, but it does have certain advantages. I decided that it's probably about the best way to take a multi-generational family trip. Lindsey loves the children's program, Tanner loves being able to roam the ship and hang out with other teens, and I love not having to constantly make sure the kids aren't getting into trouble somewhere.

To that end, when Tanner and I were at dinner one night, we made plans for the cruise that Stace and I will take with our grandchildren. I'll tell you the plan, but first, you have to buy into some assumptions: 1) Tanner and Lindsey will each have two kids (because you need more than one room if you have more than four people); 2) Lindsey will have her youngest child when she's 32 years old; and 3) you really don't want to cruise with a child who's younger than six.

So, if you apply those assumptions and do the math, the plan is for us to take Tanner, Lindsey, their spouses, and their four children on a cruise in 2042. Lindsey's youngest will turn six that year. It should be fun. We haven't decided where we'll go yet, and it's kind of tough to pick a ship because the ship we'll be taking won't be built for about another 25 years, but we'll go ahead and make some tentative plans.

I suppose my plans are contingent upon another implicit assumption: 4) I'll still be around in 2042. I'm going to stick with that assumption for now. My plans can always change if that turns out to be a bad assumption, right?