Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/992987
Your BCAA SUMMER 2018 BCA A .COM 5 Shom Sen President & CEO S ummer is one of my favourite seasons – warm weather, longer days and the promise of new adventures. The travel stories in this issue have me reminiscing about my own vacations over the years and thinking about planning my next one. My love of travel started young; my parents were avid tourists and my father, in particular, had a wanderlust for exploring new places, whether it was a trip to a city with a lot of history, like Rome or Athens, or a road trip to explore different parts of the US or Canada. My wife and I carried on the family travel tradition with our own children. As an innately curious person, my vacation choices leaned toward learning over leisure. Our family trips were heavy on tours, guidebooks, historical sights, art and museums. As you can imagine, this wasn't always popular with the younger members of the family. One time, my wife and I pushed a bit too hard and took our kids on a guided walking tour in Kyoto, Japan, which stretched to seven hours without breaks. Our six-year-old had a meltdown, and this was an instant lesson in the importance of compromise. We set a new family travel rule that we would do our major sightseeing in the morning and leave the afternoons open for pool time and ice cream. As the kids have grown and moved away for school and work, we try to seize opportunities for family travel. My most recent vacation with my son was a road trip to San Francisco as he finished an internship with a tech company. It was our first road trip with him able to drive. This time, he was the one who set the family travel rule: when he drives we listen to his music. I'm not sure where my next trip will be. With the kids away from Vancouver and busy this summer, my wife and I may stay local, or we may seize a last-minute adventure farther afield. Our goal is to discover something new – although we'll probably indulge in a bit of ice cream along the way. Wherever the road takes you this summer, enjoy the thrill of discovery and travel safe. Memories of Family Vacations Past