I feel like I have put my son in harm’s way.

Wiley has had a trying 2 days.   At the elephants, he developed a lower intestinal issue that kept him from part of our ride yesterday.   He started to feel ill at lunch.  After lunch, he got on his elephant, turned a shade I will describe as a light pistachio and decided to dismount (not an easy task when you are ailing).  He spent the next hour lying still and awaiting our return.

Today, we went to the tigers and he got hit by a Tiger named Chicken (isn’t that a Johnny Cash song?) during some loving play.  He was fine.

During this trip, we have eaten street food, crossed roads with no traffic lights and climbed slippery, steep hills – all in countries that do not speak our tongue.

But nothing prepared Wiley for the horrors of today.

No, it was not the tigers or the intestinal struggles.

Let me show you the aftermath.

What could have caused this blood-letting?

Yes, it was a bloodbath.  Here is the culprit.

Oh, the horror!!

Yes, Wiley has survived the trials of Asia and the most impressive of mammals, but was hobbled by one inch fish.  Wiley and Liam passed on the first fish pedicure where Garra fish eat the “extra” skin off your feet and legs.  When I wondered in a previous blog how the fish know what is “extra”, I did not realize I had asked a relatively profound question.

On our return to the fish place, the boys decided to join after hearing the reviews from us.  Since the reviews ranged from “so relaxing” to “dude, this will freak you out!”, the boys could not resist.

We did everything that the fish spa asked us to – leave shoes, clean our feet, rigorously wash off sunscreen and bug repellant.

We were there 45 minutes.  At the end, we learned that the fish sometimes improvise and go after skin that is not really all that extra.

Like a scab.

Like the rest of us, Wiley plunged his feet into his tank, became startled when the carnivorous swimmers attacked and settled in thereafter.  He was on a computer (the combine the treatment with “free” internet) and happy, until about 5 minutes passed.

“Hey, they are checking out my scab.”  He had fallen on New Years Eve in Laos as we were on a beach.

“Hey, they REALLY like my scab.  It kinda hurts.”

Perhaps we have traveled too long, because I no longer react excitedly at comments like this.  If he had said “it hurts, it hurts” and pulled his leg out, we would have come running.  But “it kinda hurts” does not register.  A few minutes later, I heard him say something that suggested that “I am trying to cover the scab with my hand but they are going between my fingers to get to the scab”, but I once again heard no urgency.

When he came out of the tank, we saw the cut.  The fish were as good at taking off the scab as his body was at coagulating.  Even more impressive, the tank that he had been in was no longer clear.  It was an odd shade.  I would describe it as an light eggplant.  [Note: if you look at the picture, you can see the tank I used to the left of his wound and the tank he used above his foot.] I do not know how much blood is required to make 10 gallons of clear water that shade, but it is more than I would have contributed to the fish.

I learned a few things.

Wiley is tougher that I had thought.

It takes 3 changes of a water tank to remove the discoloration (or so the Burmese worker told us).

The spa needs an additional warning sign: something like the following: “This experience will excite and invigorate you, unless you are nursing an open wound.  In this particular case, you risk exsanguination” – or something to that degree.

To his credit, he is up for another visit.  We might just wrapped it, or bring a few units of O-Negative blood.

Cultivating Our Culinary Crafts

Today, we went to an all-day culinary class.  We also went to a wonderful one in Shanghai, but this one was different.  It was not as private (we shared it with 6 other people) and we did not shop in a market.  Instead, we rode a tuk-tuk to the train, took the train to another town, rode bikes to a farm and gathered some of our own herbs.

Cutting lemongrass

We each chose 6 items (a soup, an appetizer, a stir-fry, a curry, a curry dish and a dessert) and we learned how to cook Thai.  Our instructor, named “Oy”, did a nice job of explaining Thai culinary theory.  Thai cooking has many variations, but they all stem from a limited number of themes.  Most soups have the same process and similar ingredients.  Curries all start with 80% the same ingredients that are prepared in a mortar and pestle.

Here is our class.

Oy and the Crew

Serious concentration from Virginia

Liam starting his curry dish

Terrill rocking the spring rolls

Wiley was asked to demonstrate making spring roll fillings

Loving mom with her girls

Man who should not be allowed cutting tools

We got to try everyone’s creations.  Some were “Thai hot”, including one of Wiley’s.   Here is me dealing with the after-effects of 3 spoonfuls:

Yep, that is my face sweating. Truly attractive, no?

The entire day was leisurely.  We cooked, ate, chatted and cooked some more.  The lovely, lazy Thai pace was soothing.

Until we were working on our curry dish.  Oy suddenly told us that our train (a 10 minute bike ride away) would be leaving in 22 minutes, “but OK, please make sure your sauce thickens.”

This took a little out of the pure relaxation of the event.  We cooked quickly, wolfed our food, hopped on bikes and got to the train. Have you ever stuffed yourself with a five course meal featuring furnace-hot food and then tried to exercise?  Let me simply predict that this will not be the next fitness fad.

Before I conclude, I should mention one other aspect of the experience that made it special. We met a couple from Germany that just finished graduate school and were traveling before exploring the job market.  They were fun, bright and engaging with all of us.  We wish Pia and Alex a great trip to Laos and beyond!

I should also note that we had a Canadian on the trip that reminds me of the scene from Annie Hall when Woody Allen struggles with the loud, self-assured man in a movie line with him.  Like the person in the movie, this fellow was loud and (as my dad used to say) “often wrong, but never in doubt.  Even Wiley noticed.  ”Does he know what he sounds like?”

Tomorrow is our last day in Thailand.  We will miss the country, especially Chiang Mia.  I hope they do not notice the tiger cub and elephant calf we have with us!

Steve Sir

In the Austin Airport, Ready for the Next Adventure!

Welcome back to that Baskin Travel Blog.

For any readers that are new to the blog, welcome! I hope to make a daily record of our Crazed Baskin Adventure. I am currently sitting in a plane bound for Beijing, China with my wife Susie, and four children – twin 14 year-old boys Wiley and Liam and daughters Terrill (13) and Virginia (10). We will be in Asia for 11 weeks and then go to New Zealand for 3 weeks.

The family is separated due to the vagaries of the Hainan Airlines reservation system. Susie managed to cajole them into getting she and Virginia next to each other. All of us are in middle seats except for me. I am in a bulkhead aisle only after the realization that my entertainment system was on the fritz.

I think this early and minor adversity will not be an issue. The boys assured us that they would not watch any of the inappropriate movies (Hangover 2? Really?). Of course, the one movie I watched had even the mildest curse words edited out. If they did the same thing to the “Hangover 2” track, I think it will effectively become a Silent Movie.

Back to the blog.

This is not a luxury junket. We will be staying in hostels and riding overnight trains. We will trek in Nepal and have home-stays in Vietnam. In short, we will be acting like college backpackers, except without the luxury.

We finished a similar 8-week trip through Europe. During it, we covered 11 countries and bonded a great deal. If you would like to get a feel for that trip, please feel free to look through the blog archive.

As a sane individual, you might ask why we are doing this.

At times, I wonder the same thing, Here is the main reason.

As camp directors, Susie and I spend our summers with our camp family, full of exceptional teammates, counselors and campers. We, however, do not get to take summer vacations with our own children.

We are thinking of this as a heapin’ helpin’ of summer vacations all linked together.

One day in 2010, we were talking about our lack of summer trips as well as the fact that all 4 kids were switching schools in a year. That led to the idea – lets pull them from school and give them an education through travel. We are now living that experiment.

Before we begin to describe this adventure, it might be worth sharing a few thoughts from the first trip.

Happily, we are still alive and speaking to each other. The former is expected, but the latter is somewhat remarkable to me. I marvel at the positive approach the entire family brought to each leg of our European journey. We spent dozens of hours in a car with 6 people and our luggage. We stayed in apartments the size of a large bedroom. We required teenage boys to wake before noon.

In other words, we were taking some risks. As it turned out, they were all “reasonable risks” (to borrow some Camp Champions parlance). It was not leisurely, but they did not mind, In fact, they developed a healthy approach to the trip: “its travel, not vacation!” I think I want to make a t-shirt that says this.

We learned a great deal, not only about each other, but about history, culture, arts, beauty and kindness. We consistently found people that were helpful and simply nice. I found this a wonderfully encouraging discovery. Sure, everyone was not nice everyday, but on the whole, people seem inclined toward decency.

Of course, I think part of this stems from our deciding to expect people to be positive. Over the years, I have found that people who expect others to be nice are rarely disappointed. Similarly, those that assume the world is full of jerks seem to find jerks just as readily. I am not sure if this is because each group only sees what they expect to see or if they actually bring out the best or worst in others. I suspect that it is a combination. When people approache me with the honest assumption that I am a kind person, I find myself striving to meet their expectations.

In any event, the people we met helped infuse our family with a renewed enthusiasm for not only travel, but humanity as well.

I cannot imagine a better education for them during that 2-month period.

The trip did make our month back in the States a little tricky. After 2 months in Europe with limited technology and full daily agendas, the transition back home was odd. They rediscovered sleeping late as well as the remote control. We did go to our major Texas cities to see our campers and parents, but we had an unusual amount of idle time.

We also found that some of the tensions that had formed in Europe were blossoming in the idleness of Texas. Their tones were getting a bit raw. They found it hard to resist the occasional barb.

You might wonder if this is the right warm-up for a 14 week journey. Susie and I wonder too.

Yet I remain optimistic. I have a basic faith that they will be great travellers and family members once again. Ironically, the kids seem to act better in the face of challenges than in the face of ease. I suspect there is a deep insight in this observation. Perhaps ease is a disease. Perhaps we are meant to strive more than be comfortable. Perhaps it is too late on a long flight to wax philosophical.

We will see as we explore even more foreign environs on this trip. I suspect that the kids will soon say, “this is not vacation or travel, it is an adventure!”

Steve Sir

We have really been slacking in the department of posting old yearbooks! Today we bring you the yearbook from the summer of 1990. Let’s think back to a time when…

• The Simpsons series debuts, d’oh!  (and is  the longest running American sitcom, currently in it’s 23rd season!!)
• Saturn Cars are launched by GM
• President Bush signs the Clean Air Act, forcing the auto and fuel industry to reduce their pollution
• Nelson Mandella is released from prison after 27 years
• Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael take over the world, as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is released as a series on CBS.Turtle Power!
• Julia Roberts and Richard Gere star in Pretty Woman
• The Sci/Fi Channel premiers on CABLE
• And the Grammy goes to… M.C. Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This” for best solo Rap Performance

We hope that you enjoy this yearbook! Click the following link to view the 1990_THE_TORCH_CAMP_CHAMPIONS.We hope it brings back a camp memory that will make you smile!

Please make sure to update all of your information in our Alumni Database so that we can contact you about future events and put you in touch with other Alum from the years you were at camp. You can update your information here.

We lost another child. Before you call Child Protective Services, allow me to plead my case. After the Virginia excitement at the Alhambra in Granada, we sat down and created a family plan.

If anyone is ever lost anywhere, he or she will return to the main entryway of wherever we are.

We created this plan since it would apply to whatever location we found ourselves in.

Welcome to Versailles, a location able to show us the error of our ways. Our plan depends on 2 critical words in the sentence: “lost” and “entryway”. First, it requires that the lost person know that he of she is lost. Second, it assumes a central entryway.

We had neither today. Each of us was appreciating the opulence of the palace, armed with detailed individual audioguides). The crowds were massive, so we were watching Virginia like a hawk. We also kept Terrill in view. The boys – we were checking regularly, but heck, they are almost 15 years old.

As I mentioned previously, Wiley marches to a drum none of us hear. He got a little ahead of us on the tour and then assumed he was behind us. So he sped up. But he remained interested in the tour, so he just walked faster while still listening.

We went for perhaps 30 minutes before he realized that he was really separated form us. He kept expecting to catch up, particularly with his new rapid pace. Meanwhile, he was still walking along. Remember the part about the “lost person knowing that he was lost”? Wiley did not.

After a while, however, he realized we were not there. Being a smart fellow, he remembered our agreement – meet at the entryway.

The challenge here was determining what location counts as an entryway at the most massive Palace in the world? The ticket buying gate? The security entrance? The initial gates? Perhaps the audioguide area? Wiley check all four – as did we. The problem is that we were always at different places while looking for each other.

The remaining 5 of us developed a plan. One group would go through the museum all the way looking to him. Another would go to a guard and ask about separated people. The final person would wait at a central location in the courtyard.

After the search through the palace failed (BTW, Wiley did the exact same thing -hustling through the museum a second time- but he was either a handful of rooms ahead or behind), one of the teams headed to the Gardens. We had said that “after the Chateau, we will go to the Gardens”, so we thought he might be there. It was there that Liam and I found him. He had gone through the Chateau twice (like Liam) looking for us, gone to each of the 4 “entryways” and then decided we must be in the Gardens.

About this time, Susie has found the head of Information, who spoke very broken English.

“You lost what?” “What?” “Your CHILD?” “For how long?!?” “An hour?!?” “Oh, he is 14. That is better.” “I can help.’

In 4 hours at Versailles, we only heard the PA system once: “Will Wiley Baskin please return to the front office? He is a 14 year old, he is one and a half meters high and weighs 50 kilograms. He is wearing an red jacket and black shorts.”

Like Louis XIV, Wiley made an impression at Versailles.

All of this after we had reunited.

Ultimately, we had some excitement due to the fact that he was trying TOO hard to find us and we were just missing each other. Nevertheless, we had a great day with the French Royal home.

Hanging with Louis the Fourteenth.

With that confession behind me, please let me describe our day. We woke early. The kids were not excited. In fact, they were perplexed why we were attacking the morning so aggressively.

We were off to visit the greatest palace ever built – Versailles. We know about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The French peasantry rose up and rebelled against the opulent and indulgent ruling class. Both of them ended up in the guillotine once the peasants rose up

I have always associated Versailles with the excesses of the French rulers – powdered wigs, stockings, hunts, music and fake canals. [Note: they built a one mile canal and imported gondoliers from Venice to staff it. Wow.] But there is more to the story than I knew before

We were off to visit the greatest palace ever built – Versailles. Here is the modest backyard.

The modest Hall of Mirrors (kidding- the are massive!).

A modest fountain. This is Apollo, god of the sun. Louis XIV called himself the Sun King, so they were tight.

The kids think we could have a nice camp here.

Louis XIV was a very impressive man and ruler. He was a great general, a musician and an inspired ruler. I thought Versailles was about wealth and parties, but Louis XIV had a real plan. In a land full of court intrigue and aristocratic manipulation, Louis created a clever plan: move the capital from Paris. Build a place everyone would want to go to, then require that they be in court. Then make sure they are well entertained and happy, while keeping an eye on them at all times. Doing thus, Louis was able to control all aspects of his court.

I was surprised that Louis spent hours every day on the affairs of state. He was a great leader and king. He reigned for almost three-quarters of a century.

Two rulers later and heads were rolling in Paris.

We ended the day with a 3 hour walk in Montmarte (the tallest hill in Paris and he sight of the Sacred Heart Church – the white Byzantine-styled cathedral at the top of the hill). Here it is:

We are weary. We are also glad we are Texans and not in the French Court of the 19th Century!

Steve Sir

I envy the walkability of European cities.  Don’t get me wrong – in Texas the car is a valued and necessary friend that makes our lives extremely easy and provides us great flexibility.  I am not saying that we should all move to Copenhagen.

What I am saying is that walking these cities provides several great gifts for our family.

First, when we walk, we also talk with each other.  We share ideas and observations.  We constantly shift whom we walk next to and chat with.  In a car, we often end up listening to the radio or playing with electronic devices rather than talking with each other.  When we do talk, it is a group discussion.  Here, we find ourselves enjoying long stretches of relaxing bonding time, both as a group and as individuals.

Second, it encourages discovery.  The pace of walking allows us to truly see what is around us.  We notice not just the stunning buildings and statues, but also the retiree walking his dog, the canal full of boats and the young couple chatting by the bay.

Third, it resets my internal clock.  I am no longer on modern time with instantaneous communication, 24-hour news cycles and text messages (OK, it helps that the phone is off too).

Finally, walking is great exercise.  I have always been an intense exercisers.  Susie Ma’am mocks me for pushing too hard.  I want to run hard playing tennis, ski bump runs and lift more than I should.  She preaches moderation and consistency.  I should know better than to argue with her because I proved her point inadvertently 25 years ago.  I spend a year studying in London where I walked everywhere, but did not “official” exercise.  Upon returning to the States, I resolved to get myself into shape: I would swim everyday until I was fit enough to swim a mile.  I hit the goal on my first try.  The regular walks had, in fact, been marvelous conditioning.  We should all return feeling great.

As I read this list (regular conversation, discovery, relaxed tech-free pacing and exercise), I am reminded of so much of what I love about Camp.  As I have written below, I think we often lead lives that are running on a clock different from the one we are meant for.  We also have become less connected with the outdoors.  I am not talking about deep hikes into forests here, just sunshine, breezes and grass underfoot.

As I was saying, yesterday was another marathon walk.  We went by the National Opera House and picnicked by the canal.   We visited Our Saviors Church, a stunning building with a corkscrew spire that visitors can climb.

This Design Really Strikes Me

400 steps and 300 feet later and we had a fantastic panorama of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

A City of Spires and Canals

The climb was a nervous endeavor.  Despite iron sidings/handrails, we felt quite exposed and precarious during the ascent.  Here is a picture as we descended.

 

Looking Down on the Children (No Metaphor Intended)

The oddest part of the day was a stroll through Christiania, the hippie commune 10 minutes from the city center.  This community has less than 1000 residents, but it has an odd origin.  A group of squatters began to live in old military barracks in 1971 and declared themselves home.  Many European countries have laws favorable to squatters and less favorable to land owners than we are accustomed to.  It did not take long before this group became noted for two attributes: 1) their disregard for Danish drug law and 2) their access to highly adept legal help.  This group was apparently completely against any and all hard drugs, but they really REALLY embraced marijuana.

At The Entry of Christiania (Makes No Sense to Me Either)

The Danish government resolved to enforce their anti-pot laws aggressively in 2004.  SInce then, a trip through the area will always reveal either open pot smoking or walking police, but never both.

I am somewhat fascinated with their legal triumphs.  They are allowed to stay and occupy land that must be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  They pay roughly $1 million annually for their utilities and that is it.  Every time the government attempts to remove them, they fail.  Roughly one decade ago, the city just gave up and told the national government to take over.  Here is my question – who are these lawyers and who is paying them?  They are winning tough cases, so I assume that they are not high, which means (almost by definition) they are not residents of the commune.  If not, are they getting free graffiti at their offices?  Lots of woven goods?  Bob Marley t-shirts to go with their suits?  I assume there is a great story here and I want to hear it.

One last note.  Their flag is a red background with three yellow stars.  What must the symbolism mean?  What were they thinking as they designed it?  Apparently, nothing and nothing.  They found buckets of red and yellow paint in the barracks and decided to go with that.  Wow.

Journaling

We are in a small battle about journaling.  We are asking the kids to write each day.  We found some inexpensive and durable word processors off eBay. The AlphaSmart 3000 looks like the keyboard for a 1980’s clunky computer, but they are light, hard to break and more than adequate for daily writing.

While all of the children hope to avoid the task, each has taken to the challenge differently.  Wiley quietly hopes that we will not ask about it.  Liam writes with a vengeance.  He strives to use sophisticated syntax and language, so his writings either read like a college student’s or an awkward adolescent trying to sound like an adult.  Terrill is dutiful and disciplined.  Virginia wants to make everything a team effort, soliciting first Susie and then my opinion of every idea.

Terrill prefers journaling about the events of the day.  Liam and Virginia like to tackle creative assignments. For example, “pretend you are a rent-a-bike in Copenhagen” or “imagine that your parents were on the other side of Berlin from you when the wall went up”.  You know, light stuff.  Wiley seems equally ambivalent, but is plowing ahead.

The hard part about writing is the fact that we do not have a standard schedule.  We humans are so much more effective when we become creatures of habit.  With an ever-changing schedule, we often find ourselves at the end of a day asking, “have you written your journal yet?”

I know that they will treasure them when they are done, so we are willing to be the bad guys.

Our Tilted Apartment

We arrived in Copenhagen to discover an apartment that is wonderfully located . . . and massively tilted.  Not quite Leaning Tower of Pisa tilted, but askew nonetheless.

I am including several photos to convey the magnitude of this anomaly.

Compare Fluid Level With Lip

Look at the Piece Above the Header

This might be the best shots. Susie is 4-5 inches taller than Terrill, but not when put on opposite sides of the tilted room!  Please check them out on opposite sides of the room!

The next report will be from Germany!  Until then, make time for a walk!

Steve Sir

Let that one sink in.  Kinda scary, eh?

I have watched her and her siblings celebrate birthdays at camp 8 summers.  She was a tiny, little peanut-pie when she first put her face into a Champions birthday cake on her 6^th birthday.

I find that I have trouble realizing that she is now a teen.

One of my observations about parenting is that we always think that our children are 18-30 months younger than they actually are and they always think they are 18-30 months older than they actually are.  So as I saw my daughter, I still saw someone that is 11.  Meanwhile, she looked back at me feeling like she is 15.

I believe that this mutual misperception leads to a lot of the challenges of parenting – we often want to hold on too long and they often want to fly too early.

Often, adults lose their “coolness factor” as their children progress through their teen years.  They still love us, but they start to find us terribly embarrassing.  A dance move in front of their friends can lead to fits of humiliation. Questions about their music results is high-quality eye-rolling.

Susie Ma’am and I have decided to take a two-pronged approach to this challenge.  First, we have decided to embrace our function as embarrassers-in-chief.  We have told then that we strive to be the most humiliating parents possible.  We plan to wear costumes to their school functions (I am guessing the kilt will kill!) and dance with intentional awkwardness.

Our second approach is more unique.

We never get summers with our children.  They are campers here and then they attend other out-of-state camps.  They also visit grandparents during the summer.  During the non-summer months, we spend a LOT of time together.  They attend a “University Modeling School”, which means they go to school 3 days a week and do loads of homework the rest of the week.  They also have wonderful vacation schedules, so we travel with them several times a year.  But we still rue the loss of summer vacation.

Also, remember the part about having 3 teenagers at the same time?  Well, we thought that it would be a good time to travel with them since they still appear to enjoy our company.  I am not sure we can count on that much longer.

Here is the gist of our fool’s errand:

We have decided to take all 6 of us on a couple of very long trips – one to Europe and one to Asia and New Zealand.  The kids were planning to switch schools anyway (so there is not a huge friend-displacement) and we have gotten approval to take them out of school for the next year.  People ask if we are homeschooling.  The official answer is no.  We are not teaching 9th grade grammar or math.  But we do believe it will be a tremendous education for them.  We will be journaling, learning history, seeing art and visiting other cultures.

The fall is a very slow time for Camp.  Also, we have managed to assure that we will never go more than 24 hours without an Internet connection.  We had been saving for a while and had been looking for something extraordinary to do as a family.  In short, we decided there are more reasons to take the trip than to NOT take the trip.

The Traveling Fools (Minus Fenway the Basset Hound)

As I look at the pending travels, I am both excited and nervous.  This is not a luxury trip.  We will be putting everything into backpacks.  We will be traveling more like college kids than comfortable tourists.  In fact, Susie Ma’am wants us to live with a family in Laos for 2-3 days.  We want our 4 children to know how fortunate we are to live in this country.

I am certain that there will be days when we are fraying each other’s nerves.  I have already told the kids that they can NOT vote one of the others off the island during the trip.  Yet I am certain that we will return as a closer family.

I plan to blog as we travel.  If you have an interest, I hope you will take a few minutes to read it to see if we are still 1) alive and 2) sane.  The good money says that sanity might not last.

We will be attending all the reunions in the fall (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Midland) as well as having some parties to meet new families.  We hope you will be able to join us when we do. We are excited that all of us will be able to come to these events this fall.  We would love to meet any of your friends that might be interested in camp while we are in your city.

Before I go, I want to share a quick story from camp this week.  During the Rookie overnight, the Division Leader and the counselors wanted to do something unique.  Inspired by the Caveman Dinner, they decided to create an adventure.

Half of the counselors became Wooly Mammoths.  The other half led the Rookies on a Mammoth hunt.

I can assure you that the hunt went well, but no counselors were hurt in the making of this Overnight!

Steve Sir