A Field Trip to the Wild, Wild West

The Plane

I am very used to it by now – walking past the business class into the coach where we belong. I am also very used to walking all the way to the back of the coach and plod ourselves down a few rows before the toilet. This is the only way for us to travel with three kids in tow on a plane.

The oppression of the lowly persisted when the airline came up with a new class: Basic Economy. It’s not enough to degrade the commoners to Economy; they must be shoved just one step lower. With Basic Economy, you can’t choose seats, and you have no rights to the overhead bin above you. I knew my kids would scream murder if they are to be randomly assigned to the middle seats among strangers. Therefore, I coughed up $50 to have them seated together. My husband and I would take our chances at the mercy of the ticketing agent by the gate.

Politely, I asked for two seats that are close to my kids.

“The closest is 37E, and the other one available is…7F,” replied the lady wearing a United ID badge. “I would totally go for a 7F,” she said.

7F is the window seat on the first row after the first class behind the curtain. It has legroom built for a 7-footer.

I went back to my family with the news. My husband said he’d take 37E, which is a middle seat. My admiration for him only grew that much stronger.

As my husband and the three children trudged along the endless aisle down to the back of the plane, I made a swift turn and settled on the very comfortable 7F. I began to dream about the next five hours. I could finally decompress and doze off and check into my mental spa to relax completely. My eyelids felt heavier and heavier as I leaned my head against the side of the cabin.

Not for long.

I felt my husband hovering over me, accompanied by a big, tall man. I was drowsy and disoriented. He excitedly said, “He is willing to switch with you. Let’s go!”

Why would I switch and give up the best seat on the coach? I hesitated as I was still weighing my options. Sensing my slower-than-usual reaction, my husband frowned and stared me down. It didn’t look like I had a choice. Reluctantly, I got up. It would be the right thing for a loving mom and wife to do.

I ended up with what I had wanted without paying for pre-assigned seating: an aisle seat by my husband, whom I still admire…only to a lesser degree.

Homeschooling in Sin City

I felt slightly hesitant about telling people where we were going for our vacation. When my husband first mentioned Las Vegas, the hair of my skin raised like an agitated porcupine. I resisted the idea with all my heart.  But knowing the Grand Canyon is usually part of Vegas vacation bundle, I tried to warm up to the idea.

Like what most people do these days, I googled.

“Las Vegas with…” Even before I finished typing, Google already completed my thoughts with “kids.”

A search of “Las Vegas with kids” brought up pages and pages of colorfully illustrated, family-friendly attractions.  It did not take long before I had a complete change of mind.  I began to sell this trip to my surly, unwilling child, who then jumped on the Vegas bandwagon after she heard there is an M&M World.  Don’t we already have one in Time Square?

Why Vacation?

The Bible says nothing about vacation. People in the Bible went on long journeys, but they took them with trepidation, fear, and anxiety. They were not leisurely excursions. What is going on in our world that tourism is now a multi-billion industry?

Workaholism.

By God’s design, men shall work six days and rest for one. It is to keep us living at a sustainable pace. Now, as a result of rapid industrialization, the average paper-pushers work 80 days so they can play for 5 days. The entrepreneurs work 365 days and squeeze in a few hours of sightseeing during their business-related travel. No one rests anymore.

Let’s get it right – vacation is not equivalent to rest. Vacation is just a distraction.

For me, at this stage of my life, vacation is more than just a distraction. It’s an elaborate field trip to take our homeschooled kids out of their suburban bubble into the heart of Sodom & Gomorrah and expose them to the height of consumerism, materialism, and sensual pleasures. Uhm…allow me to try again.

Vacation for me, at this stage of my life, is an on-going education. It is homeschooling and parenting on the road.

“We are taking you all out here to see the world, to smell it, to feel it, and to hear it. I don’t want you to see the world through the internet. You will see the good and the bad, and you need to know the difference.” I spoke these words while overlooking the lavish garden from the ornate pedestrian bridge around Bellagio. One of my kids nodded, and that was enough for me.

I can be a non-stop talker, and I tell my kids what is on my mind most of the time. I would often point out a situation and ask them to think about the right course of action.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. – Deuteronomy 6:6-7

While at the airport, a TSA agent decided that he could be rude to my son. He tried to make a joke, but it came out as a harsh reprimand. My son was simply following the order of another agent by walking through a not-yet-opened metal detector.

“Hey, son, you can get into serious trouble there!!!” The tone of the TSA agent was such that I almost worried if it would traumatize my very sheltered son for life.

We later analyzed the situation and asked what my son could have done differently.  Should he have waited for this other agent to clear the way? It was easy to get upset by the silly injustice. Instead of getting even, get educated about people, about the stress these workers deal with, about the ridiculous process we have to go through in and out of the airport security check-in points.

“Did You See Anything Disturbing?” 

My ever so protective eyes were constantly scanning for images that would be too overwhelming for my angels. Once we were stuck at a red light, and all the traffic on the Strip came to a halt. Right in front of us was a 20-foot long LED mobile billboard truck. I don’t need to describe what was advertised on the billboard – it’s Vegas, after all. I did not know where to look, and I wish I had eyes on the side of my head. I wonder how my 14-year-old processed these images; it was the only time I wish he were near-sighted.  To add insult to injury, this happened twice.

That night we lounged around in our resort unit to talk about our day.

“Did you see anything disturbing?” I just had to ask.

Thinking my children would talk about the images filled with scantily-clad men and women…or sexy ads for adult entertainment, I was gearing up for an on-the-road teaching moment.

“The Trump keychain,” my son replied.

In an ABC souvenir store, there was a section of all things Trump. Trump play cards. Trump shot glasses. Trump magnets. Trump squeezable dolls. The kids took an uncanny interest in the doll. I don’t have to describe what gets squeezed and what pops out.

That was the most disturbing thing my children saw in all of Vegas.

The Instagram Generation

As we were walking out of the grand archway of Mandalay Bay, a Chinese woman in her late 20s approached me. I had noticed her when we were on our way in. Apparently, she had not gone anywhere else. She appeared alone and was taking pictures of the arch from her phone at all different angles.

“Can you take picture for me?” With a slight accent, she inquired.

Easy enough. I was happy to oblige.

Taking her phone, I began to pull away from her, thinking I know what she was looking for.  I was taken aback when she suddenly leaped into the air with her arms and legs fully stretched out. She hopped to the right, then to the left, to the right again, and then to the left. I felt enormous pressure as an instant photographer. I had to take my job that much more seriously. I wouldn’t want this photo to fail, and I made sure I covered the entire arch and all of her limbs. I was one with the Instagram generation.

A Hole in the Ground

I’ve seen countless pictures of the Grand Canyon. Even on the tour bus, we watched a sleepy documentary that showed the aerial view of such a phenomenal marvel. A five-hour bus ride later, we walked into Bright Angel Lodge. Going down its historical, dark long hall, I was anticipating a moment that will be etched into my memory. I was waiting for it to take my breaths away.

I had no words. I wanted to shoo away all the tourists that were hogging the low stone walls taking the same picture over and over again.

A Japanese girl caught my attention. The way she wore her makeup made her look almost anime-like, and it hinted that she might be one of those women with a significant following on Social Media. While all the tourists nervously and tentatively propped themselves on the edge of a flat boulder for pictures, in one motion, she effortlessly climbed onto it. She let loose her silky, long hair and smiled as she gazed into the depth of the Canyon.  I almost wanted to take my phone and snap a picture of her!  I knew she was posing, but I didn’t see any photographers. It’s not until later did I realize her parents were up on the balcony of a store, taking pictures of her from above. Parents have become the willing accomplice of the young Instagram generation.

“Did the Flood Cause This?”

“Did the flood cause this?” My son can use the fewest words to express the biggest thought.

He meant the flood with the capital “F,” the Flood of Noah.

I was raised with the Buddhist tradition. I was taught since the day I could read the theory of evolution. At age eight, I believed that scientific advancement alone had eradiated illogical ideas of religion. Even though I had begun to go to church as a young teen, I still found it hard to believe that the Bible could be the literal word of God.

In Sunday school, I teach Creationism to the kids in church. I explained it less as the absolute truth and more as another way to examine the origin of life. You’d be surprised to hear kids cringe at the idea that their ancestors could have been amongst the ranks of the primates. They much prefer to hear that they were created by a master Creator with a purpose and that they were not the mere products of evolution.

My own children have been homeschooled with the Christian worldview even before they knew how to read. As an unintended social experiment, I discovered that they have a very different way of processing information.

Let me explain as I take you back to the South Rim.

“Well, good point. You’d just heard from the film on the bus that it took millions of years for the Grand Canyon to form. How do you use the biblical worldview to explain what happened here then?”

“If it starts today, it will take millions of years.” My son replied.

“Where did you get that idea?!” I was intrigued by his answer.

“It’s common sense, Mom.”

When I taught the origin of life through the lens of creationism, I went with the script of the texts while I had millions of questions about such an astounding claim that the earth would only be 6,000 years old.

“So you are saying that the world and the climate back then was very different from today?”

My son nodded.

The Native Indians that made their home at the foot of the Grand Canyon had their own version of the Flood story. In fact, the flood story is found in many civilizations. Most were told as a divine judgment.

I decided to process this theory out loud.

“Let’s start with a ball of clay and mix it with some dirt and rocks, and let’s soak it in a jar for days.  Then say we shake it really hard, and then we take a hammer and pound on it.  What will become of it?”  I continued to follow this trend of thoughts logically.

“A mess, right? Maybe that’s what happened to the earth after the Flood. Earthquakes and extreme weather patterns reshaped the land in all sorts of ways, and the result was…a beautiful mess of things.”

A beautiful mess of things.

We had half an hour left before the tour bus was to depart. I asked my family for some alone time to ‘reflect.’ I walked along the Rim Trail, and I noticed people were face-timing. I decided to face-time my mom. When she answered, I turned the lens of my phone towards the Canyon. She had no idea what she was looking at.

“When will you come and visit?” She didn’t seem interested in what I was seeing. That is her refrain each time she has me on the phone, even when I call from 7,000 feet above sea level. And at that altitude, I promised I would visit her on her 82nd birthday; it just rolled from my tongue.

I stared into one sliver of this vastness, and I cannot comprehend how much longer, wider, and deeper this whole ragged formation is. If what happened to this part of the earth was the result of the judgment, then the Creator had released His most magnanimous stroke to finish it. In sin and irresponsibility, we make for ourselves landfills of rubbish. In redeeming sin and in full responsibility, the Creator made for us one of the seven wonders of the world.

A hole in the ground is the perfect picture of redemption.

The Cost of the Field Trip

I dreaded the accounting work after the trip. I keep all the receipts, and I depend on the online credit card records. Before I totaled up all of our expenses, I asked everyone in the family how much they think we spent on this six-day trip.

“$2,000,” said my son.

“$5,000,” said my older daughter

“$7,000,” said my husband, after wavering on his original estimate of $8,000.

My younger daughter wouldn’t venture a guess. All of these numbers seem astronomical to her.

“$200?” she threw up a wild guess.

I honestly didn’t know where the money would come from. In my book, we already spent all of our vacation dollars for the year. But we took the trip anyway when my husband declared that he’s taking a week off before the holidays. Somehow a staycation is still a foreign concept.

After searching high and low for that receipt from dinner at Da Lat, a Vietnamese restaurant, I was ready to make the announcement.

“The total cost of our Las Vegas and Grand Canyon trip is….[drumrolls] six thousand dollars.”

My older daughter and husband high-fived each other.

I want the children to comprehend the value of $6,000. Since one of my brothers is in the restaurant business, I know my kids can relate to the cost of money through…food.

“Suppose a bowl of noodle soup costs $5. How many bowls of noodle soup do you have to sell, and for how long before you can have $6,000 to spend? Keep in mind the cost of store lease, electricity, water, gas, the workers, and IRS.”

I went on with my simple, elementary mathematical calculation and figured it would take roughly EIGHT MONTHS; Eight months of making and selling 2,000 bowls of noodle soup to afford that near coast-to-coast family vacation for five.

I do not believe in digging into savings. Our savings is for me to live on in case I outlive everyone. For the financially savvy who go on vacation with the money they already saved up, they should proudly add #PaidInFull to all of their vacation posts.

I will find that $6,000 by selling off our junk, cut back on groceries, and maybe cancel Netflix for the foreseeable future.

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