Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - Listener Episode #6: Frites Forks & River Illusions

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

This week on the pod…a listener episode! From a crazy river rafting trip, adventures in Amsterdam, a nude beach, and missing glasses, we have some great stories from our listeners! Plus, Seth and Josh answer a few questions! Family Trips is supported by Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more at airbnb.com/host to learn about hosting. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Now go find your path, and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at nissanusa.com Get your free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/trips Also try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We’ll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/familytrips to claim your credit. Terms and Conditions apply.

This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Here we go. Hi, Pashi. Hey, Sufi. How are you? I'm great, how are you? I'm good. I just had four days with mom and dad

and they just departed a couple hours ago. And mom was in a good mood because she left town. What would you say her favorite kind of sandwich is? She loves a lobster roll. It was a lobster roll. She got two lobster rolls and she was very excited because she was going to eat them in the car ride on the way home, but she made a small error. Do you know what the error was?

She doesn't have a cooler. She sent dad to get the lobster rolls. And because dad went, he bought some herring. And so now she's at risk of dad eating herring in the car. Well, they have to, don't they have to take a ferry to leave there? So maybe she can send them. Send them on top deck. Yeah.

I would like dad to eat herring top deck cause that seems like a real asking for it with seagulls. It also means that you're probably gonna get get some space to yourself on the boat. Yeah, that's true. If a guy's eating his own herring. Yeah. Yeah. I will say dad got caught in a little board game vortex

with Ash, which is Ash wanted to play Monopoly with Dad. Can be a long game. It was just sort of a rolling four days of the two of them would sort of just sort of amble over and play for about 15 minutes. And it wasn't bad. I think like, if you're not in any race to finish a game of Monopoly.

Yeah. Not a bad thing we just have set up. Yeah. Yeah. Did that game get completed? No, it's still going. Now I think we can finally break it down. Although I bet he's gonna want me to take over for dad

and we're just gonna keep playing it. Ash does something that I would just say is the most irritating thing you could do while you're playing Monopoly. The game's already molasses slow. Yeah. And then Ash will say, wait, I want to get 50 ones. And then he takes a 50 and gets 50 ones.

Like he needs walking around money or something. And I'm so, it makes me so mad. But I think it's just because it's his first, look, it's the first time he's had money, real or otherwise. And so he just wants to, he just wants it in every incarnation of money. Yeah, or he's looking to go to the strip club.

That's true. Yeah. That's true. He's like, I won't tell you which one of my friends told me, but they said the act of making it rain is a world's better than physical rain. Yeah. Well, Monopoly, I mean, there are the real rules

of Monopoly that we never played growing up, make the game go significantly faster. What's that? If you land on a space and you don't wanna buy it, it instantly goes up to auction. Oh, I see, yeah, yeah. Or you can say, I don't wanna buy it at this price and it goes to auction and maybe you still get it

for cheaper, but it lets you like leverage. But this is already, this is not, this is, you're wrong though, this is not kids rules. I'm not gonna like explain the art of auction to Ash. He started playing with his father-in-law, my father-in-law, his grandfather. Well, that's your first mistake. Yeah, and the two, he was, so then Ash all of a sudden

is like, we can trade properties and you can, I'm like, whoa, whoa, slow down. We're not a level two monopoly, we're a level one. Yeah, trading properties. Anyway. By the way, we know for those of you listening right now, level two monopoly or level one. Yeah, trading properties. By the way, we know for those of you listening right now, monopoly is super boring to play, but this is, I know it's really enjoyable for you guys to listen to.

Speaking of that, boy, Tom and dad, Tom's my father-in-law, dad is our dad. I sat there today and I know dad's listening and I know mom's listening and I apologize because I think mom's probably going to go, ha ha ha, which here's the story. Dad and Tom were going back and forth talking about bad customer service phone calls they'd been on recently. And it's not any better. Being on the phone with a difficult Verizon person

is almost as bad as listening to a story about it. Yeah. And then if you follow it up with another story, that's essentially the same. Yeah, they were both kind of trying to say, you were treated badly. Hmm. Yeah. In the world of customer service,

I had a big thing happen this week. I write a lot of angry letters. Yeah, there's some gladier. I didn't know what I was allowed to say, but if I had been allowed to say something, I would have said, oh, here we go. Well, I wrote a letter to the Washington Post. Great.

About their Olympics spoilers. Oh, interesting. Good take. They were running banner in the section of red, which is where they would say, you know, a missile strike in somewhere where there's not currently a war or whatever. Like, whoa, or like Biden drops out. Like, in that bar, they would say Katie Ledecky wins her fourth gold in this event. And this comes across the radar at, let's say one in the afternoon, LA time, when

NBC is going to package up the Olympics and show them to me at night. And I will see this thing. And there is no need to banner add this. I'm intentionally not scrolling down to get to the sort of sports section and those kinds of updates. And I wrote an angry letter and they called me and they published it.

What? Yeah. When you were published in the Washington Post? Yes. This is, I mean, let me just tell you, When you were published in the Washington Post? Yes. I mean, let me just tell you, this is so much better a payoff than was it the end of Tom or dad's story. This dude, Ryan Vogt calls me up.

He's like, hey, I'm with the Washington Post. I was like, yeah. He's like, we got a lot of complaints about our Olympics coverage. I mean, like a lot of it. And yours was one of the few that wasn't laced with obscenities. And I said, I think I probably sent you two.

And one of them was. And yeah, I was so tickled to get a call from this guy and I had such a nice conversation with him. And I think, you know, I asked, I was like, do you have to read every letter to the editor? And he's like, yeah, most of them. And he's like, and I appreciate that this is a nice phone call, because usually when I call people,

they're sort of still mad. And I feel like they carry a lot of that anger into a conversation with this guy who just wants to make sure you are who you are and that someone's not trying to, you know, put you on the hook with some nonsense complaint. But yeah. This is fantastic.

Did you plug the podcast in your letter? Did you? No. Were you like, as the host of Family Trips with? No, no, no. All right. This is really, oh my God, this is so exciting. Are you looking for it? I am, and I found it. Okay.

Hold on. Seems like some people are upset about Garfield. There's a multiple complaints about... Okay, this might be all about comic books. Hold on. You are not at the top of this by the way. No, I know. I'm scrolling down.

And by the way, that's not a judgment. You might just be a really good closer. There's a Chuck Woolery complaint as well, but I'm scrolling down. And by the way, that's not a judgment. You might just be a really good closer. There's a Chuck Woolery complained as well, but I'm probably not the one. Hold on. Yeah. Oh my God, I'm just gonna, okay, here we go. Ah ha ha ha.

Ooh, all right, can I read it? Sure. Can you please, for the love of God, offer a way to block results in future Olympics? I follow the news. Politics is popping, but I can't tell you the love of God, offer a way to block results in future Olympics. I follow the news. Politics is poppin'. But I can't tell you the number of Olympic events you ruined for me by running banner headlines in red,

giving me results. I don't scroll down to sports on the post homepage these entire games, but it didn't matter because you threw results right up top. In the same place, you'd put breaking national security news. Also, as the host of a podcast about family trips, I would love if you could tell my brother

to stop talking about SNL. That has a different time and place. Very well done. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's so nice when you're angry about something to be heard and to actually have a conversation with someone over there who says like, we've got a lot of complaints about this.

Like, that's not the end. And he was like, are we the only ones that are sort of like giving up this news early? And I said, I don't know, but I'm not going to sort of more tabloidy news sites intentionally during the Olympics, because I don't want, you know, I'm not popping on Twitter.

I'm not jumping on the gram. Well, I mean, what, I mean, I guess in the end kind of, shout out to the Post for how well they handled this moment. Yeah, I appreciate it. And also like, you know, eventually, you know, we'll have like AI that can like, some, or someone out there is probably like, you know, eventually, you know, we'll have like AI that can like, or someone out there is probably like, you know, AI could actually block that.

And it's like, we'll do it, you know, do it now. Do you think you've written enough complaint letters at this point that AI could also write one in your voice? Like if you fed all... I bet, yeah, I bet they could. Don't give all your information to the world pod, you're just gonna steal your voice. Hey, I am, I should I bet they could. Don't give all your information to the world pod, you're just gonna steal your voice. Hey, I should know one of the reasons I threw out

that Verizon story about dad is, but I'm very excited to keep teasing this, there's gonna be a rebuttal podcast coming up soon, and I mention this because this, you're about to hear our listener episode, mom and dad, although I'm getting the sense it's mostly dad, are keeping a list of things they would like to rebut in an upcoming podcast.

And I certainly am looking forward to it. Yeah, I mean, we're gonna be there for it too, aren't we? So can we rebut the rebuttals? I mean, I feel like we might just let him rebut away. Yeah, just like, yeah. Just one man shouting into a cave. No, I mean, I think we should be there, but I think we should be sort of dutiful sons and just.

Yeah. On each rebuttal, I think we should say, yes, papa. So yeah, looking forward to that. Looking forward to that. And thanks again to our listeners. It was a delight to hear these stories and now you get to. Family Chips with the Myers Brothers. Family Chips with the Myers Brothers. Here we go. Let's hear our first listener story.

Hey guys, my name is Tyler and I'm from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Absolutely love the podcast and hope this story can contribute to the hilarity that is family trips. This is a story from our 25th wedding anniversary in July of 2021. The world was opening back up again and we decided on a trip to San Diego since neither of us had ever been there before. As we were making our preparations and deciding where to go, one of our friends mentioned Blacks Beach just north of La Jolla and right next to Torrey Pines. So we added

it to our list of some other stops we wanted to make and hoarded out to San Diego. We were out there a couple of days and loving it and decided to go check out this Blacks Beach. When we got there we parked in one of the parking lots that's on top of a 300 foot bluff overlooking the beach. It is a commitment to get on and off the beach and this is important to note for what we will find later. We got out of the car and started making our way down a steep and kind of precarious dirt path down to the beach. As we were getting to the bottom of the path and nearing the beach, a local guy passed us and said hello and made a little chitchat about the steep nature of the path and then said, gaze to the right and straights to the left. My wife and I

looked at each other quizzically and wondered what the heck that meant, but continued on our way and took a left at the beach as we were sort of instructed to do. We started heading down toward where we saw the crowd a couple hundred yards to our left and I was walking along taking in this gorgeous beach and the bluffs around it and my wife stops me and says there's a naked man walking toward us. I thought she was seeing things but I looked up ahead and sure enough there was a fully naked man walking in our direction. I thought for a minute that it was just some old guy taking liberties, but as we kept walking we soon discovered dozens and dozens of people, young and old, men and women,

singles, couples and groups in various stages of nudity. They were swimming, reading, playing volleyball, kicking the soccer ball, playing yard games, and even surfing naked. We were shocked and we were laughing, we were disgusted, and we were shocked and we were laughing again. We walked past the majority of the crowd where we were less surrounded by the nudity and set our stuff down and googled what the heck this place is. And sure enough we found out that it is one of America's most historic and popular nude beaches. Well we weren't going to walk all the way back up the bluff to

try to go find another beach so we decided to make a day of it. Now keep in mind if someone had asked me that morning if I would be interested in going to a nude beach it would have been a solid no and had someone asked me if I would ever go naked on a nude beach it would have been a solid no. And had someone asked me if I would ever go naked on a nude beach, it would have been a double hell no. But as we were sitting there and everyone else was doing their thing and minding their own business, I had this crazy thought. Went in Rome and off came the shorts.

My wife looked at me and rolled her eyes and shook her head, indicating to me that her suit was staying firmly in place. So while I'm there in the buff eating my lunch and reading my book and going swimming and enjoying my time at the beach, my wife isn't having quite the same experience. She's trying to read but no words are registering. She's pretending to take a nap but there would be no napping today because she can't take her eyes off the naked train wreck all around us. Her final reflection on the day was that this had to be the day

that she forgot to bring her sunglasses to the beach. So that is our first and probably last nude beach experience. Thanks for listening. Fantastic story. It would be so funny to me if that was, he knew the whole time and that's how he wanted to celebrate his 25th, by just letting his wife know this deep, dark secret he'd always had, this deep desire he'd always had on the beach.

Yeah, I know she forgot her sunglasses. I hope they remembered sunscreen, because if your wiener hasn't been seeing the sun, which Lord knows most haven't, that's the last place you wanna burn. That's the last place you want to burn. That's the last place you want to burn. I should note, I was totally fine. No part of that story grossed me out until two words,

he said, do you know what they were? Eating lunch. I was totally fine until he said, I stripped my shorts off and then I was eating lunch. And that was where I was bummed out. Because then I was picturing a sandwich. I don't know, in my head it was sort of a ham on white, little bit of a little bit of limp lettuce.

And like some yellow mustard. Yeah. And I just remember a guy sitting Indian style holding it and just basically like just crumbs falling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hope they had a napkin. I don't know.

I feel like, do you pack a napkin when you bring lunch to the beach? I don't, well, I do, but you, yeah, you're a bit- I don't. I'm a full heathen. I'm a full heathen. When we were little, we like, we found ourselves on a nude beach once.

And it was so exciting, but also like as kind of the rule, not the exception on nude beaches, it's much more about like old wainers and real old like droopy boobs than it is about. Like, oh, these are like some of the finest bodies the earth has to offer. I would say the sort of 80s sex romps that we had grown up on had just led us

as to what you're gonna see on the old beach. Yeah, it wasn't that. Yeah. I remember later in life being on a beach that, as described here, it was clothed and then you crossed a certain threshold and it became a nude beach. And I should note we go back to that beach a fair amount and I feel as though the nude beach days have left. I think that's no longer. But to speak to what you're saying about old wieners, what I found the most troubling about the old beach

is there were a lot of older gentlemen who still wore a top. So it was a lot of t-shirts, no pants, which to me is, Porky Pig in It is my least favorite version of male dress. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it wasn't a long enough t-shirt

to cover up the nudity. There was a, but it wasn't, yeah. Maybe they're trying to make up for lost time on the sun, not getting those buns. Cause you saw the rest of the summer, they've been on a regular beach and their tops have been off. And so it's like they were flipping the script.

Yeah. It's like they're essentially just turning over on a lounge chair to get the other side of them. But instead of front to back, it's top to bottom. Yeah. There you go. And by the way, I wasn't judging. I should note, I eat naked at home all the time. It's just in public.

It just go right to the shower afterwards. No. I wouldn't say right to the shower is ever my MO, Pasha. Yeah, no, that's true. I could attest to that. I will say I was a little hopeful that his wife was gonna look at him and say, I'm with you, babe, 25 years of marriage, I'm gonna take the leap with you. Yeah, yeah. I also, you know, we're recording this, it's pretty early for me.

And when they said gaze to the right, straights to the left, I thought the person was saying, just look out to the right, because thought the person was saying, just look out to the right because the water's dangerous that way. Don't, if you go in there, you might like, there's a, there could be a bad tide or something. And then the straits, I was like, what kind of like, like straits of Magellan, Gibraltar, like, is like, that's like peaceful water.

I wasn't, I was, my head wasn't even in the straight gay realm yet. It really speaks to the depths of how little homophobia you have that when someone said gays and straights you were like, oh, obviously he means to look and then he also means a small channel. That's where I was at. Yeah, that's where you were at. You thought just, you thought it was where to look directions. Yeah, well I know which way the party would have been.

Probably the party would have been to the right. You sometimes, you like, for example, when you go to a beach town, sometimes you will want, and I know this about you, you want a veranda. You want to go to a drinking establishment that has a beautiful view. And sometimes you will go up to the concierge of your hotel and say, I'm looking for a Gaze Bar.

And he'll often misunderstand what you're asking for, but you are using gaze to mean, you know, obviously to look. And so you've landed in the jackpot multiple times on vacation because you'll say, where are the best Gays bars in town? Pretty fun bars. And then you'll come back and you'll very angrily say,

I didn't say gay, I said gays. And then they will often point out that's not an expression. Yeah, yeah. But that's just something I gotta work through. Yeah, that's something you gotta work through. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Family Trips is supported by Airbnb.

Hey, Sufi. Hey, Pashi, what's up? I had a trip recently. I went to Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden. And one of the biggest differences between those two places is in Oslo, we were in three hotel rooms, and in Stockholm, we were in an hotel rooms and in Stockholm we were in an

apartment and it was just so much nicer to be able to sit around with your friends at the end of the night after you'd been out you'd had dinner you maybe grabbed a cocktail somewhere and then you got home and you got to sit around and just feel like you were in someone's house feel like you were in your house maybe. And it just keeps the group together, which is what so much of travel is about. And when we were in Oslo, we were in those hotel rooms.

So when we said good night, it was good night. And that was it. And I really prefer being together with my family or my friends when I'm traveling. You like a chat zone. I love a chat zone. You love a chat zone. And maybe you're someone right now who's thinking about your home. You know what?

There's a lot of chat areas. There's a lot of areas where I've chatted with my family and maybe people can come here and feel like this is their home because of this wonderful space. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Support for Family Trips comes from LinkedIn. Hey, Bashee. Yes, Huthi.

You know what B2B stands for? Business to business. Absolutely 100% right. And as a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the ad space can be. If your message isn't targeted to the right audience, it just disappears into the noise. With LinkedIn ads, you can precisely reach the professionals

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Yeah, why would you want, yeah. If you're a business, you're focused on having your business succeed. So you want to be with the other 21% of people who are like, oh, I'm going to do things my way. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you a $100 credit. And your next campaign, go to linkedin.com slash family trips to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com slash family trips. Terms and conditions apply.

LinkedIn, the place to be. To be. Let's hear the next one. the place to be, to be. Here we go. Let's hear the next one. Hi, guys, and thank you for keeping me entertained, tickled, and often informed each week. My family trips are varied. Your audience may not be interested in when we evacuated the Boston area due to the polio epidemic in the summer of 52, or when my dad, who was co-authoring a book, took us to Provincetown for a month of solace and

creative quiet, only to discover he had rented the family a house where the words location, location, should have played a bigger role. We were across the street from the Bonny Doon restaurant where bagpipers were paid to play at the entrance of the restaurant day and night. You know we all need Scottish ambiance whilst on the tip of Cape Cod. But the story I think your audience may relate to more closely took place in the summer of 63, yes I'm old, when my parents trying to get me away from my high school boyfriend, sent both me and my sister to Europe.

Parenthetically, I married that man in 1993. My sister is a scholar. She had just graduated Randice University with a minor in art history and longed to see the original masterpieces she had studied so intently. I, on the other hand, was and still, more interested in most everything other than that. But away we went. Our first stop was in Venice, my first day in Europe. The first day how marvelously fancy, sophisticated and European I felt.

We boarded a ferry boat that would take us for a scenic tour of the area. And while standing on the deck, I spotted a most magnificent bird fly across the sky. My sister was more focused on the sea below. Oh, look! I exclaimed and swung my arm in a graceful move past her head to point at that bird. Unfortunately, that graceful swoop swung past her chin up to her ear and swooped her eyeglasses into the sea. Gone were those glasses in the hope of ever seeing any of the masterpieces she had come to

celebrate. And that was our first day. Well, with not enough money or time to replace the glasses, we did continue the trip. The art was lost to her and her love for me had faded as well. Oh my god. That is a fantastic story. Yeah. Also, it's so funny to think anybody would want

to see a bird that badly. Well, I don't know what, you don't know what kind of bird it was. It certainly wasn't worth that. Also maybe, thank you for that wonderful story, but I think maybe as a young person, you needed glasses if your depth of field was so bad that in the gesturing to look at a bird,

you managed to swat the glasses off your sister's face. Yeah. Do you know that famous, it reminded me of that famous Twilight Zone episode, Time Enough at Last, do you know that story? I don't know. It's a guy who all he wants is time to read.

And he, it's a guy, I believe it's the guy who plays the coach in Rocky, Burgess Meredith. Yeah. And, but basically- And is he like, all I wanna do is read? Pretty much, he wants to read, but he has big, crazy glasses. Like the biggest, thickest lenses you've ever seen.

And he just gets bullied around and all he wants to do is have to, and then there's like a nuclear apocalypse and he's the only one who survives. And he's so excited because he finally has time enough last to read all his books and then he breaks his glasses. Oh. Yeah, real good, real good.

Twilight Zone, yeah. Real good Twilight Zone. So this was a real Twilight Zone trip for your sister. Oh. Yeah, real good, real good. Twilight Zone, yeah. Real good Twilight Zone. So this is a real Twilight Zone trip for your sister. Yeah, I do love and I admire sort of, someone, a young person who just wants to go see the masterworks as well. I think like to have, to know that that is something that fills you up and that you're so excited about a trip like that.

And the top thing on your list is to see this great art and then to have your sister spoil it. Oh, it's so funny. Glasses are too expensive, man. That's one of my takeaways here. You know, this summer Axel lost his glasses. Yeah. And we have dived, we've gone on multiple diving expectations to try to find them.

Now, of course, you know, tides come in and out, and so to me it's ridiculous. By the way, when I say we, you know I haven't gone down once, right? Yeah, I mean, you didn't even go to look for your wedding ring when you lost it. We lost it in a massive lake. So. Yeah, no mean, you didn't even go to look for your wedding ring when you lost it. We lost it in a massive lake. So no tides. So anyway, point is Axel lost his glasses and we've looked for him multiple times. And then this morning, because I'm back in the city doing the show, I FaceTime with him. And he said, look, we found my glasses.

Because he has two pairs and he's been wearing the red pair and the brown bear was back. He goes, we found them on a dive. And I said, oh my God, you found them? He goes, no, these are the new ones they sent. I really liked that he wants the excitement of tricking me and he fully tricked me. Yeah.

Yeah, that's a great story. Also that woman, fabulous voice. Fabulous voice. And you know what, I'm gonna say something. I kinda did wanna hear about evacuating Boston during the polio epidemic. The polio epidemic, yeah. Of 52.

I also like, do you think we're ever, I think there's a generation that we're maybe not a part of that has that wonderful rhetorical flourish of saying of 52. Like, do you think we'll ever say the COVID pandemic of 20? I don't think we will. No, but that doesn't flow nicely. I don't know. I think we can do it.

I think we can pull it off. Bring it back? You think we can bring it back? Yeah. I do wanna say. I think we can do it. I think we can pull it off. Bring it back? You think we can bring it back? Yeah. I do wanna say, I believe, what was it? The Bonnie Doon. The Bonnie Doon does sound like a restaurant mom would go to.

Yeah. Yeah. Like the Bonnie Doon already sounds like a different restaurant that she nicknamed the Bonnie Doon. Yeah. Well, there she had a place, the Barney Get. Oh, that was it Get was a place that she used to go to a lot. And I don't know if the Barney Get.

I don't know. It was maybe like a fish market or maybe it was a restaurant. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't called the Barney Get really, but she called it the Barney Get. That's what I mean. Maybe that's it, that I'm hearing the Barney Doon

and I'm thinking it's the Barney Get. But you know, when I lived in Chicago, I lived across from a Scottish restaurant called Duke of Perth. And I will say the Duke of Perth, there were no bagpipes, but it did, my window went onto the street, and they were across the street,

and I smelled fish and chips every single day from morning to night. Not the best smell. Delicious, I love eating a good fish and chip, but I don't like smelling it all day long. Also sort of glanced over in that story is that her parents sent her away to sort of bust up her relationship,

and then 30 years later, she married that man. I can, I feel as though sometimes you hear whatever listener sends in a story and you think to yourself, wow, that is maybe the most fantastic thing that ever happened to them. And I feel like this woman gave us like not even top 500 story. Yeah.

And amazing voice. Amazing voice. I'd say keep send something next time because we don't think you'd figure out. You know, God blesses you with something like a voice, that melodious. And then in order to even the scales, they curse you with a big old flappy arm.

A glass flapper as they're known. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And yeah, we'd be delighted to hear anything else you might have for us in the future. Yeah, just call in. We give you permission to call back and tell us any of those stories. I also, you know, and when you do, I feel as though based on a 1962, you know, Atlantic crossing vessel, I feel like there was a long, the glasses fell for a long time. Don't you think?

Like, well, yeah, I'm not just thinking the glass, you know, when Axel's glasses came off, they just were right in the drink. But this was like, you just watched them like sort of spin in the wind. Yeah. Yeah. And then one of the, the bird saw the glasses going down

and tried to, wanted to let one of their other bird friends know and they swang their wing out and knocked their beak off. Swang, I think swang is how you say it. Should we hear another story? Yes, please. Dear brother of mine. Yeah. Hello, my name is Scott.

I'm a native Californian. This is about a family vacation trip that we took in 1972. I'm one of four siblings. We were going to take a raft trip to the American River in Northern California. We had been planning it for a couple years. My dad and mom have always wanted to do it as a family. So we bought an Army Surplus raft. And if you don't know what they are, they're a very inexpensive raft.

We bought an eight-person raft, and I don't remember what the cost was, but I remember it being very inexpensive. We bought the life jackets, and we brought oars, and we hit the road in our camper and pickup truck. It was going to be a fun trip. So we get to the American River, and my dad said, hey, to be safe, let's scope out a two or three mile area and we can float down.

So we're driving along the bank of this river and the road traverses the river, just gorgeous area. And we finally find this section that looked great. There was one little piece of it that we couldn't see very well, but we could, you know, we stopped and pulled over and looked down and it looked okay. So we drive back up river, we inflate the raft, walk it down to the river, we get in and last minute, my younger sister decides not to go. And my mom and dad said, well, you guys do

it first and if it's really fun, then we'll all go. So I'm 12, my brother was 14 and my older sister was 16. We're all two years apart. We get in, we got cameras, an ice chest, got the oars, you know, 40 yards down river. My sister says, did you get the life jackets? Nope, I thought you got them. No life jackets. So of course we said, we won't need them. Well, we're floating down the river and my sister says, hey guys, is that river dropping off or is that an illusion?

And I said, nah, it can't be. No, it's an illusion. We're probably 100 yards out. Now we're 50. She says it again. No, it can't be. It's an illusion. So we get about 30 feet and it's definitely dropping off. We're backpedaling.

We got the oars and we are scrambling trying to get this raft back. And man, it's not going. You might as well be swimming upstream. It was that hard. So we get right at that cusp where it's dropping off. My sister jumps and my brother gets launched. The raft buckled severely and it just kind of catapulted him.

I decided to hang on to the raft. So I hung on to the raft and I remember being something around 20 feet. I mean I don't know it was wasn't that bad to me really. But when I landed the raft was on top of me and immediately there was a log that just came up and I hit the log. I grabbed on to the log, I remember the raft kind of going over, it just, it was just gone. And the water was coming over my head so I couldn't breathe. So I let go, I get sucked under the log, I pop up into these rapids that were probably three feet. And I'm thinking, where did these things come from? We didn't see these. This was not part of the plan.

So I'm trying to swim out of this river. There's nothing around, no raft, my brother, sister, everybody's gone. I finally get to the bank of the river and it was probably a hundred yards downstream. I'm yelling my sister, brother's name. I finally see my sister running up. You know, we're hugging.

My brother's come running up. He's got a big gash on his side. But you know, it was fun, it was scary, and I would do it all over again. What a great trip. Only when it works out okay. You know, some bumps and bruises and scratches and cuts, but everyone. It is, right?

It's that trade-off we make with risk and adventure, and you go on one and then you have a memory like that and all your siblings remember it. Yeah. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. I mean, that was cinematic. That's like, I feel like I've, you know, seen something like that happen in several movies and...

I know this in any movie where they say, are those rapids or is it an illusion? It's always rapids. Yeah. It's never been... It was a terrible movie. It's a terrible, when they get there and say, oh yeah, it was just a, it was a trick of the light.

Yeah. I feel like we maybe had a very similar raft. Yeah. We had like, it was just like, the bottom was just like rubber stretched between sort of a pontoon-y, like inflatable outside. And I feel like we used to bring it maybe to the beach at one time we went up to molasses.

I do know there are every right garage has four things you bought and used once and they're just a little too expensive to throw away, but you don't really need it. Yeah, but I feel like it sounds like, you know, this one and the one we had were like Army Surplus stores, so not expensive, but I remember blowing that thing up, and it just had like just an enormous hold that you'd have to breathe into for about, you know,

two hours. It's crazy about how much easier it is to blow up things now. With like pumps and... Yeah. I mean, there's both. There's the ones you step on. Yep. And then, of course, now there's ones where it's just, you know, motorized.

Yeah, you plug it in or it plugs into your car. And the thing that bums me out, Posh, is, you know, as children of the late 70s, early 80s, that technology existed. Everything that made pumping better. It's not like somebody invented a new flange. It's not like the fucking internet. Like, yeah. I mean, the pump one is just like the thing you just like, like, like start a fire. The bellows. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I just, I mean, again, like I feel as though it might be why I have asthma. Cause I had to blow up that raft once. Yeah. I love, I mean, it happens a lot when we're up in New Hampshire, but when you're driving along a highway and there's like a little river on the side of the road, I feel like I see it more in New England than I do,

certainly here in California. But I'm always like, man, I'd love to get some sort of boat and get in there and just see how far you can go. But I don't want to go over a waterfall. I don't want to go over a waterfall. I think we mentioned, we went Whitewater River rafting once. Uncle Kurt was there.

Kennebec River in Maine. And it is one of the great photos of our family. I think of it the way that, you know, that George Washington crossing the Delaware painting. Like it has that, everyone's face is incredibly well captured. That's not a photo, the George Washington one? I don't, it's like one of those old cameras. They were crossing and they had to stay, they were like, be really still for two hours.

And George Washington was just pointing because someone knocked his glasses off. Yeah, he said, look, he was talking, well, somebody else's, he knocked somebody else's glasses off because he was like, oh, bird. Look at that painting, take a look. He said, he was giving a speech where he's like, remember, what we do now is for American democracy, not just today, but for, oh, bird.

And then he's like, where are we? And they were like, the map guy, you knock the map guy's glasses. We don't know where we are. Yeah. You know what I was, speaking of American history, as I sort of stumbled through that, I had this thing where I always thought

I'd be the kind of dad dad was. You know what I mean? Who knows everything? Yeah. And I realized that he didn't learn it once he had kids, he'd already known it. Like it's too late, once you have kids, you can't learn stuff. And he told so many stories about the American Revolution.

Yeah. Like bedtime stories were just, he would, and not just, he would make them thrilling. Mm-hmm. Not thrilling enough for me to remember any of the details, but I'm so, it's just that weird thing is it's dawning on me of like, nah, he was special. We had a really good one.

He, I've been watching this Netflix documentary, the turning point, the Cold War and the bomb, which is a nine parter. It's a beast, but it's great. And it's so educational. And I was gonna tell dad like, oh, this is great. Like it goes from Lenin all the way up to today and like all these little uprisings. And dad, he'll be like, yeah, I know all this stuff.

Yeah. So I don't think it's a good wreck for him. No, you gotta find new stuff for stuff. Yeah. So I don't think it's a good wreck for him. No, you gotta find new stuff for dad. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little heartbreaking. Cause my- He also, there's like, there's a weekly news quiz. I don't know what newspaper it's in.

New York Times. New York Times. And if you're home or if you're with them, I'm sure they would do it if they were with you over the weekend. Dad will be like, okay, should we take the news quiz? And clearly he and mom do it every week. I love it.

But he reads every day, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal. He is so up on everything. Like he is guaranteed to score 100%. And so it's like, it's not fun to play the news quiz because at the end you'll be like, oh, okay, Pashi got, you know, five out of eight and you'll feel good about yourself.

And he's like, and I was 100%. You're just like, okay, you win again. It's true though. it's very impressive. Yeah. It's very, very, very impressive. Yeah. So, and you know what the boys are into? Well, Ash got really into, which I was as a kid too.

And so I'm very excited because he kind of found his way on his own. A friend of a friend, one of their kids was into it. Greek myths. Ooh, I love Greek Myths. Ash is super into Greek Myths right now. And there's a really good podcast called, Greeking Out.

And they're just like really fun retellings of the Greek myths. But it's so fun. First of all, he walks around just holding, we have a sort of a decommissioned iPhone that we gave him that only has downloaded stuff that we're good with him listening to. And he'll wake, he wakes up, you know, our eight year olds, our oldest, he's already a teenager. He wakes up last and he just is so tired because he's been up all night listening to Greek myths. And then he's literally wakes up and just starts listening to new ones.

And he's just like walking around and it's just so funny when he's like, you know the gods in the Titans had a war? I'm like, no, tell me everything about it. And then I'll say, tell me everything about it. And he's like, like, now I got to tell you? But it's the best, I love it. Yeah, Stephen Fry's got a series of books that are amazing where he reads them as well.

Yeah, great. Yeah, mythos and heroes and they're great. Mom, God, Ash, a book, the Greek myth book that I used to have and it's a famous one and I'm not gonna remember the name of it. But she's bringing it to him this weekend and I'm pre-bum the name of it. But she's bringing it to him this weekend and I'm pre bummed out about him saying, I just like listening to them.

Oh yeah. Yeah, so. Do you think if you listen to an audio book, you've read that book? Excellent question. I would not say I'm reading a book if I'm listening to it on audio. But I do consider that I have read it.

Okay. But I have a problem with the verb usage. Yeah. Like I don't think there's, by the way, I don't think there's any shame in somebody saying I'm listening to a book right now, but I don't feel like saying I'm reading a book when I'm listening to a book.

Yeah. I think you gotta say you listen to it. Yeah. And again, this is without judgment. Yeah. Like if you, I guess, this is without judgment. Yeah. Like if you, I guess, sorry, real quick. I don't judge you for listening to a book. I judge you for saying you're reading it

when you're listening to it. Deal. But quietly. I judge you quietly. And you know how you can tell is this is how I respond. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. That's an illusion. Yeah. That's an illusion. Yeah. That's your illusion right there. Mm-hmm. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors.

Support for Family Trips comes from Element. Hey, Pashi. Yes, Uvi. We were talking yesterday offline about the new box of Element flavors we just got our hands on. Ooh, so good. There was a new one I just tried. Have you tried mango chili?

No, but I will today. It's a killer. It's so good. I mean a killer in a good way. Killer taste. Yeah. And I'm hydrated. Went for a run, had my mango chili,

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we'll refund your order, no questions asked. Again, for your free Element sample pack, go to drinklmnt.com slash trips. That to drinklmnt.com slash trips. That's drinklmnt.com slash trips. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Hey Sufi, let's play a quick game. I'm going to say a word and we both say the first word it makes us think of at the same time.

Ready? I am ready poshie. All right, first word, cereal. Killers. Great hats. All right. Oh, I, okay. We thought of different cereals.

Okay. Yeah, that's gonna happen, but maybe let's try to lock in. Let's try to mind meld here. Okay. Next word, museum. The Louvre. Gift shop as one word. Okay.

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Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Can I do the fast part, Posh? Please. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. Cargo and load capacity limited by weight and distribution. Always secure cargo. Heavy loading of the vehicle with cargo, especially on the roof, will affect the handling and stability of the vehicle. Compatible device service and consumer activation of Nissan Connect services. Package required.

Use only when safe and legal. Subject to third-party service availability. Apple CarPlay is a trademark of AppLink. That's what it sounds like when you read to your kids. Yeah, I just want to get to bed. I think we have one more story, Posh. You ready to go? Let's give it a listen. Hi, Seth and Josh. I have a family trip story that I think you'll find very relatable.

My name is Lynn and I'm from Chicago and I lived in Amsterdam from 95 to 2000. So I feel like we have a lot in common. For good measure, Paula Pell and I were in the same freshman year homeroom at St. Francis Academy in Joliet, Illinois. So those are all our degrees of separation. Anyway, I know I overlapped with Seth's time in Amsterdam and maybe Josh. I'm not sure. I went to Boom Chicago many times and I know I saw at least one of you. I remember a cute guy with great hair and even though that might point to Josh, I think it was actually Seth. So don't sell yourself short on the hair, Seth. But this story has to do with my mom coming to visit me in Amsterdam while I lived there. She'd never been outside the US. So this was her

first trip abroad. I was very nervous about hosting her. The funny thing is that I thought of her as so frail and elderly. And I am now the age that she was when she visited me. So yeah, yikes. I lived right across from the Rikes Museum and on the daily, there was just hordes of American senior citizens and their big white shoes getting blown back to the curb by a bike or a tram or tripping over the uneven cobblestones. So I'm just all nervous about imagining my mom in Amsterdam. She's also a very picky eater. So all of the Indonesian and Suriname and Turkish food, all that great food was out of the question. But I told her about the great frites or French fries that you could get on the street.

So on her second day there, we got some frites. As you know, you get them in a big paper cone and famously there are all these different sauces to choose from. So unlike us in America where we typically just have the ketchup, there's mayonnaise and the peanut saute sauce and curry sauce. And I'm sure my mom just got the ketchup. But because of all the sloppy sauces, they would also give you this tiny little freak fork and that you could

just stab your fries with a knock it all messy. And my mom thought this was just fantastic. She loved the fork and off we went walking around the light supply and she was just wolfing down these fries. We're walking along. Next thing I know, she is on the ground. She's just flat on her face, completely splayed out, face down. And to this day, I have never seen anybody fall like that. It was just timber, just like down, fully flat on her face. And even now I'm like, where were your arms? Where are your reflexes? What was going on? Her arms were holding on to her precious cone of frites. And so then I roll her over and her mouth is all bloody and I can't tell what's going on. I'm like, does she have her teeth knocked

out? Is she banged her head? Where's all this blood coming from? So finally I'm wiping off her face and lo and behold, the Freight Fork is jammed from the inside of her mouth, jammed into her bottom lip, almost coming out and exiting the other side. She, yes, is, she was almost fully impaled by a Freight Fork. And that was just day two. Went on to have a great trip, even though she was in some pain in her mouth and her one of her knees still bothers her

because yes, she's still with us at the ripe old age of 90. So anyway, I love the show and I hope this brings back some good Amsterdam memories for you. I miss it every day. Thanks. Wow. I mean, that was bringing back a lot of memories for me. That was, I feel like in the,

based on the fact that they got Fritz and walked around the light spline, which is where our theater was, I feel like in the, based on the fact that they got frites and walked around the light spline, which is where our theater was, I almost feel like I know the frites place they got them. Yeah, it's, yeah, you walk out of the theater, you make a left and a left. Yeah, right there. That Vlamse frites. Vlamse frites, and I will say,

they are the greatest French fries in the world. Yeah. It was. And those sauces, yeah, you should mix up your sauces. In general, peanut sauce is a big part of Dutch food culture. Yeah.

And French fries in peanut sauce is, the great thing about it, it's so healthy. French fries in what is essentially a heavy peanut butter. It does speak to exactly how much better, like the body metabolizes food. The way I ate, if I ate the way I ate when I was 24 in Amsterdam, I mean, I think I'd make it like three days

before I fully just dropped dead. Yeah. Well, maybe that's what happened to Lynn's mom. Yeah, exactly. It was just like the food got her. There's also, you can get all these sauces, but you can also get a sauce called Orloch, which means war, which is just all the sauces together.

It's like when you would get a cup, like a fountain soda thing, and just do a little bit of everything. I feel like that's called like a suicide, maybe? Oh, no. Yeah, not a nice name, but. No, well, Orloch isn't really that nice either. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, I still, I'll catch myself every now and again, like with like a pen in my mouth, or I'll like be brushing my teeth and I'll walk downstairs to get something. And I always get a little scared, like halfway down the stairs and take it out of my mouth, because the idea of falling

with something in your mouth really gives me the heebie-jeebies. I have the same fear because I've always got something in my mouth and I think you're right. Especially since my kids are falling down all the time and I'm telling them not to have stuff in their mouth. Yeah. It's interesting talking about tourists. The sort of pedestrian pitfalls in

Amsterdam are very real. And in our time, there was a great amount of comedy in our theater about like how American and British tourists were not ready to just walk around Amsterdam. And I should note, it's a great city to walk around. But one thing is, you know, the bikes are far more dangerous than the cars. Yeah. And so when you're American, you just aren't bikes are far more dangerous than the cars. Yeah.

And so when you're American, you just aren't wired. And I think more and more with bike lanes, you are out of necessity wired to be very careful of the bike lanes. But certainly in the late 90s, like I didn't think about it. And so it was just being this sort of American walker we were, you would just walk into bike lanes all the time and then just like ting ting ting ting bells of people just furious because they're going headlong as fast as you can go. They're commuters. They rule the streets.

They rule the streets. And I remember, and because this ties in both to her mom taking a fall and the perilous nature of Amsterdam and the French fries, which is when I first went to Amsterdam, I think it was basically maybe two months into me being there, Jake and Bags visited. Jake and Bags are two of our oldest friends,

and they were on sort of a tour of Europe, the way like post-college people were. And we met one morning, we walked to the Leidsplein, I had to go rehearse. Leidsplein is a square, it's sort of a main square in the city. It's a square, yeah. Plein means a square. It does.

And Leidsa was the name of the square. And so we sat at Leidsplein, we had coffees at this outdoor cafe. And I should note that Jake and Bags basically just wanted to be stoned. Yeah. Then again, you know, late nineties Amsterdam, this is very, it's truly when in Rome, it's when in Amsterdam.

Yeah, it was when in Rome, yeah. Yeah. So, they were sitting there having coffee and I gave them a long list of things to do, include like, you gotta rent a bike, you gotta bike around the city. And then I said one thing, just when you're biking along the tram tracks, you just want to be careful, like when you cross a tram track, you have to cross them perpendicular. Because if you go parallel along a tram track,

your bike tires get caught in the tram track. Yeah. This is just something you tell everybody. Yeah. This instilled such a fear in them that when I came out 10 hours later, they were still just sitting there. And they had just basically been stoned and had, like, I think two full meals at the same cafe and a bunch of beers. And I was like, what have you been doing?

And they were like, yeah, that tram thing. We were like, we're not up for this. Yeah. Well, they probably were having a wonderful day. Well, I don't need to tell you this based on everything you know about Jake. When I walked out and saw them, he laughed harder and longer than anyone else you would possibly know would laugh. Yeah. Full of giggles.

Yeah. Mackenzie, my now-fiancé, the year we met, we met in like a June or July, June. And that Thanksgiving, we were going to Amsterdam for Thanksgiving. And she was going to meet, I think, you for the first time and mom and dad for the first time. And we were biking and it had rained a little bit and we were biking up one of these like sort of, you know, main canals, but it's a very tight little road and there were cars as well. And there is room for a car and bikes, but we all sort of like got up onto the sidewalk and through the Amstradamiches to let sort of some cars go by and just have it be a bit

more relaxing. And then Mackenzie skidded and was heading towards like a set of stairs that went to a down like a basement apartment. And she just jumped off the bike and let the bike continue and the bike went down like eight stairs to this like subterranean door and somehow she didn't go with it. If she had, like it would have been awful. Yeah. And she was so embarrassed, but it's she had, like it would have been awful. Yeah. And she was so embarrassed, but it's just like,

that's the kind of thing that can happen. Do you think her skills as an equestrian helped with the dismount? Yes. Yeah, I don't think I could jump off a bike in time. Yeah. And like to jump off and sort of have it continue on from under your legs.

I don't know how she did it, but I have to think that her skills as an equestrian are the only thing that saved her. I forget, I forgot that incredible detail which speaks to the depths of our connection to Amsterdam is both of our wives, my current and your future, first met mom and dad at Thanksgiving in Amsterdam. Well, yeah. Like that was our big,

hey, do you wanna fly to Amsterdam for Thanksgiving? You will meet my parents and my closest friends at the same time. Yeah, that's really putting them right into the cauldron. Yeah, right into the mixers. Yeah. But they both handled it with a plum. With a plum? They passed the test? I also should say, Lin,

the minute Lin started talking, I thought Chicago, and so I felt very rewarded that that was where Lin was from. I also want to say, I feel like right now, Lynn, when I hear the brother with the good hair, I know it's Josh, but in the late 90s, I also thought I had a shot at that title.

So I think it was maybe me, you saw it. There were better days. But we were both there in those years. Yeah. So it could have been anybody's. Could have been anybody's hair up there. I think we have some questions as well from some listeners. Hi, Seth and Josh. My name is Julia and I'm located in Chicago.

Growing up with me and my siblings, choosing a souvenir was often a huge part of our vacation. It would often take us the whole entire time to decide what we wanted and it would usually end up being something stupid. So I was wondering if you guys had a similar experience with souvenirs or if you have any memorable ones. Great question. Thank you, Julia. The first thing I thought is a very depressing thing about my upbringing, and I think it's probably changed now, is remember there were, I feel like you would go places and they would have sort of fake license plates that had names of children

on them or there were a lot of things that had popular names on them and there was never a Seth. Oh yeah, like keychains and et cetera. So there'd be a Sean and then it would skip ahead to like Steve. And so I felt like very left out. I feel like Seth has maybe popularized in recent years. Or maybe those chintzy key chains no longer exist.

No, they do. They do. I don't know. I remember a thing I was always jealous of that I never got was the Hard Rock Cafe, like, Cancun. Those t-shirts, I felt like people would come back with a Hard Rock Cafe shirt. I always felt very jealous of that. Yeah, I'm trying to think of what I got.

Just on the key chain thing very quickly, I feel like they often would have a Joshua, which I'm not, you know, even on the birth certificate, but even like, I feel like it's rare that you'll find a Joshua who goes by Joshua. Yeah, Mr. Joshua. Well, Mr. Joshua. Do you know what movie I'm talking about?

No, but you've asked me this before on the podcast and I didn't know. Yeah, I like that it's still not resonating. As I said it to you, I realized I've asked you this question before and I will say I was a little bit more confident you would get it the second time. Yeah, well, I know that at some point the guy says,

I'm Mr. Joshua. I feel like I remember that. Yeah, I think that's probably the giveaway. That detail. I don't think I learned it from watching the credits. Is it Alan Rickman in something? No. Okay.

I'm not gonna say it this time. Okay. I'm learning the lesson. Let's see. I don't know. I will say this, and it goes back to something I mentioned about the kids being into Greek myths. Alexi and I went to Greece this summer alone without the children. And yeah, they never knew we got some friends to doubt fire us. Oh, that's good. Yeah. They never knew. We got some friends to doubt fire us. Oh, that's good. Yeah.

And so, no, but the boys both said they wanted a Greek God stuff. And then at the Athens airport, you know, I found there were two, and they had a nice little weight to them. They're sort of like, if you can remember, like a Greek soldier helmet, like that has that, like sort of, you know, can remember, like a Greek soldier helmet, like that has that,

like sort of, you know, it's got that brush on the top and then that like nose piece that goes down the middle. And they're just, they look like, they look old, you know? Yeah. But they're not. That's good. But they have like a nice little weight to them and the kids are really happy with those. So I feel like, I feel like,

well, I can't remember a good one from when I was a kid. I feel like I nailed it with them. I know we used to, these aren't necessarily souvenirs, but we used to keep the like nip bottles that, like mom and dad, if they'd get like, you know, mom would have a gin and tonic on a plane and they'd give her one of those little bottles

or dad would have a scotch and soda. And we had like a little bar lined up in our bathroom at home. Yeah. And so those we would keep. So those are kind of souvenirs, but just from being on a plane. Yeah.

Dad would also travel and bring us back coins, which were very exciting. Yeah. Because we still have us back coins, which were very exciting. Yeah. We still have so many coins from all over the world. Dad would go to some like batshit places where there were like holes in the middle. Yeah. I mean, it's so cool. And you just get, yeah, it just feels like, oh, the world is so big when you see coins like that.

Yeah. All right, great question. like, oh, the world is so big when you see coins like that. Yeah. All right, great question. Not sure if we had a great answer for you, Julia, but that was fantastic. Hey Seth and Josh, my name is Will, and I don't hear anyone talk about cruises on this podcast. So my question for you is what are your thoughts

or experiences with cruises? Never been on one. I feel no pull to go on a cruise. Yeah, same. I gotta say, I've got friends right now that are on an Alaskan cruise and I'll be very curious to hear, you know, their discussion of it afterwards.

Mom and dad have done these cruises, these river cruises in Europe that sound great. I just don't know if it's my time for those. have done these cruises, these river cruises in Europe that sound great. I just don't know if it's my time for those. I feel like there are like lectures and, you know, you go see some sites, but it seems like it's for the slightly less active. Yeah. I also, I don't like being trapped.

Yeah, no, you definitely don't. I got to be two exits anywhere I am for it to be a vacation for me. I'll say anytime I am watching like a planet Earth or something of that nature and you see like just the blue, blue waters and sort of like white like glaciers almost like I would like to do a cruise to the very far north and and sort of see some of that. I feel like that's kind of the only way to do it.

Me I just for me it would just be Florida just and down, just close to Florida. That would be the cruise you'd take? Yeah, just up and back. Just get up, just top of Florida, Northern Florida. No flow? No flow. Yeah, it's never, also I will say a big part of why we haven't done it is mom would never.

No, mom would never. Yeah. Mom would snob a cruise so hard. Yeah. The impact of mom's snobbery on a cruise would be worse than a full iceberg. Yeah. It would rip the hull.

If you were enjoying a cruise that you were on with mom, she would just keep running you down. Oh, she'd ruin it. Yeah, you would not wanna go on a cruise with mom. There's another thing, and by the way, I'm sure people love cruises and I celebrate that. But the other thing is sometimes,

cruise ships will dock on the west side of Manhattan sort of around like 40th to like 50th. And I'll sometimes be running up there. When it's, you know, when it's docking. And it's there's a very weird thing of people watching people get off a cruise and then just roll giant suitcases across the West Side Highway. Yeah, yeah.

Like, it just feels like, oh, there should be a better port of call. You know what I mean? Cause that just is like, you know, where you've been in some like awesome tropical location and now you're literally rolling across a New York City highway. I do have friends who have kids and my friend's parents brought them on a Disney cruise.

And my friends of like our age were like, this is going to be nonsense. And then they went on it and they were totally bought in. And the kids were having a blast and they were having a blast. And it was like, I, on paper, never would have enjoyed this. But then I did it and it was fantastic. I think, I do think more. I think a lot of cruise haters are probably just one cruise

trip away from enjoying cruises. So yeah. And I think you have to go in. You have to go into it with the right attitude. Also, if you go into it being like this is going to be terrible, then pretty good chances it will be. What are the percentage chances mom could go in with the right attitude? Zero.

Zero. Yeah. Zero. She... She would have an eye rolling suitcase. All right, let's hear our next one. Hi, my name is Carol. And I was wondering if there was a kid that took a family trip that you were really jealous of. And if that kid just happened to be a friend of yours,

do you still keep in touch with them? Also, just want you to know that I'm loving the podcast. Thanks. Thank you. That was so sweet. Thank you, Carol. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Carol.

Thank you, Carol. I don't know if I ever had a trip that I was jealous of. Yeah. I mean, no. I've heard more from our friends with kids that it's like, I know like Stanch and Anne have these friends of ours from college. They have done trips where it's Christmas morning and they wake the kids up and then they like fly to Hawaii or something like that.

Yeah, they surprise them. Yeah, and that's a trip that we, that's a thing that we never did. And that I feel like has to be so exciting. And if you get the kids at the right age, it's, you know, you can blow their minds and you can pack for them and they're not going to be like, oh, but I forgot my whatever.

So I've always had a little bit of jealousy that that kind of thing never happened, but I can't think of a kid who took like the trip. Yeah, I really didn't. And even, you know, again, I don't have the same, oh my God, I gotta see the whole world, obviously, that you do. And so I think that probably helps too, because anything that feels far away, no matter how amazing it is,

I think my first reaction is, ugh. But yeah, I didn't have any friends that went to like a safari or something like that. I feel like something like that, I would have been very jealous of. I mean, I guess I'm a little jealous that I didn't have to flee Boston

during the polio pandemic of 52. That sounded like fun. That did sound like fun. Tell me more about that. Well. Also, that's how polio gets you, because if you have polio, it's hard to flee. Right, well I think the fleeers are the ones who are maybe a step ahead of it.

Yeah, well absolutely. This is, as always, the best listening and hearing from our listeners. Thank you so much for sending in your awesome stories. Yeah, thanks guys. And was surprised by all the dicks. Quickly they had had enough. But leaving meant hiking the bluff. So Tyler figured, hey, I'm here. He whipped it out and had no fear.

Balls were kicked along the strand. While Tylos was safe in the sand Margie insists, Venetian bliss, till they boarded a ferry And Margie saw a great bird, swung her arm And knocked off her sister's glasses Her sister's vacay was blue wind Even worse than Barney Toon She'd escaped polio but Couldn't escape Marge's flailing arm Scott and his siblings had a raft

An army surplus eight man craft Inflated it, put it in And let the adventure begin His sister jumped out, brother got launched And Scott hit the rapids After banging a log It was a waterfall and not an illusion But a falling night an illusion Lin's mom came to Amsterdam

They walked instead of bikes or trams They were a little hungry Lin said let's get these awesome fries Over their fries are called freaks And there are often cobbled streets Well, Mom took a major hitter The Freak Fork Impaled Her Inner Lip Thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.