Quist World Tour

Oh, the places you’ll go. If you can stand to drive there. We had an uneventful trip to Mansfield, where we’d picked up Jodi. Sunshine, bluebonnets in the fields, and cows. Halfway there, Jodi called to give “full disclosure”. Her 7 year old was up a good portion of the night with abdominal pain, and she had gotten very little sleep. Okay, oh well, we’ll probably just have to stop when we’re tired and find a hotel. We drove through some open country on smaller roads to pick up Jodi and kids. We met her sister and brother-in-law at their beautiful home, which is in a neighborhood on the edge of suburbia, just like the neighborhood I moved into in Plano in 1980. Open fields meet seas of fenced-in new houses. Everything is new and exciting, with lots of young families for the kids to get to know. When we moved into our version of that neighborhood, I was the only almost-teen for miles around, as far as we could see. Lots of transplants to Dallas were desperate for a babysitter.

We found a possible career option for the kids who go to GRCS's Circus Camp. Rachel?? Today we went to SeaWorld, which doesn’t require much description. If you haven’t been to one, you probably still know enough about it already. It’s part thrill ride, part aquarium, with a nice big touch of schmaltz, guaranteeing good sales of cute stuffed sea creatures. This one also has a waterpark with some cool slides as part of the deal, but unfortunately it is only open on weekends at this time. I did not know that until I saw the sign at the parking lot entrance. The thing that saved me from my children’s wrath was that Six Flags is only open on weekends right now, so we could not have gone there instead. This knowledge made the limited ride choices at SeaWorld more acceptable, and the great part was there were no lines. The only people there on a school day are people with small children, who don’t ride big rides, and people from crazy-cold places like Michigan where spring break

Goodbye Dallas. Who knows how long until I come around again. We packed up quickly to get an early start, at least early for us. We took a driving break in Waco, to stop in at the Dr. Pepper Museum. That’s right, the Dr. Pepper Museum. This is exactly the kind of thing that my dear husband would do anything to avoid stopping at, and he’d probably be right. My daughters’ natural fear of creepy animatronic people talking to them at museums has just been upped a notch. Charles Alderton, otherwise known as “Doc”, was a pharmacist who came up with the soda combination that is now arguably the state drink of Texas. His statuary likeness gives a speech at the beginning of the museum tour that is sure to both creep out AND bore a kid right off the bat. There were Dr. Pepper collectibles of every sort at the museum, though none of the screens show what I consider to be the hallmark of Dr. Pepper advertising: the commercial from the late 70s or early 80s where a group of people dances ar

One more trip back in time. Today we met up with Jackie, a kind and welcoming former classmate, who gave us a tour of the new and improved Trinity Christian Academy. I had a serious feeling of déjà vu as I raced down Addison road, late to school, the same way I did for years. No matter that we had nothing planned until 12:45—still can’t make it on time! When I started there in 1980, the school had existed for exactly 10 years. The campus was 6 years old, and sort of in the middle of nowhere, North Dallas. My graduating class would have had 75 but for one kid who got expelled at the last minute.   Now the classes have about 120 each, and most have waiting lists as they did back in the 80s. They’ve added a new high school building, and then added on again to that. There’s a new elementary building. There’s an additional middle school building, an additional cafeteria, and an additional auditorium. The arts program is booming. It’s much more diverse than it was when I was there. A

So enough of the “when I was young” narrative. Today we went to see some things that didn’t exist, at least in their current form, 30 years ago. First off, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. This museum is named for H. Ross Perot, the Texas magnate who didn’t win the presidential election. His children donated 50 million dollars to the new museum, which opened in December of last year. Like its namesake, the museum is interesting, over-the-top, and demands attention. The building was designed by architect Thom Mayne, who won the Pritzker Prize for the San Francisco Federal Building in 2005. Depending on who you listen to, this is either a giant leap for Dallas architecture or the most ridiculous pomposity possible. Either way, it was entertaining to my teenage designer-in-the-making. The museum itself is a hands-on science museum that covers all kinds of topics from cells to minerals to energy to fossils. There is a nice section that shows the habitats of Texas, which was

Usually we spend Easter morning celebrating the resurrection of our Savior after keeping watch during the long, somber, but hopeful season of Lent. Easter Sunday also means gathering with one or the other of our extended families to enjoy the gift together. Let’s just say this Easter was a little different. Prestonwood Baptist Church was a growing presence in North Dallas in the 80s; by the time I graduated from high school they were in a new, bigger, mega-church building nearby. Fast forward a few decades, and there are now 3 different, huge campuses that are all part of the same church. We went to the main campus in Plano, which seats 7,000 people, for the third service (11:00). The only other service today would follow ours, and it is in Spanish. The overflow of the crowd sat in the chapel nearby and watched on a screen. This is not unheard of for the Prestonwood community, since the other two enormous campuses watch church on the big screen every week! Pastor Jack Graham is simu

This morning we went down to the lobby of our hotel for breakfast. This is a nice hotel, but the area seemed a little sketchy. I was a tad concerned about leaving my van in the parking lot all night, but we had emptied it out completely, and all was well. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that a police car was parked near it all night. We got in line at the breakfast buffet, Andrew at the lead with me 4 or 5 people behind. He had some trouble with the wafflemaker, and I looked up to see a man helping him with it. Then I did a double take—this guy looked familiar. Very familiar. I said, “Jimmy?” He looked up and said “Hey Kristy!” Then he realized the guy he was helping was Andrew, who has changed enough in the last 6 months to make him almost unrecognizable. Jimmy is married to Ingrid, one of my college roommates and still a caring friend. He and Ingrid and their four children were on their way to Florida from GR in sort of a roundabout way, and they’

On the road again, this time driving to Dallas with my three kids, friend Jodi from church, and her 3 kids, all in my minivan. You may think it’s crazy, but it seems like my children spend less time irritating each other in the car if other people are around. So far it seems to be true. I’m going to Dallas to revisit my adolescence, since I lived there during my middle and high school years. More on that later. Jodi and her kids are going to visit her sister, who moved to the area with her husband and children last year. Today we drove from Grand Rapids to West Memphis, Ark., where we took refuge at a Comfort Suites. It was a long day of driving, but the adults-in-training (ages 2-15) handled it with aplomb. Everyone got along well and stayed happily glued to whatever electronic entertainment they could get their hands on. Jodi got them to look up briefly to make note of the Mississippi River as we drove over it. Travelling with a 2-year-old made me realize again how much t

We are safely home, and I always like to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned over the course of a trip. Here’s a top 10 list of things that tell you it’s time to go home. 1. When you notice that the outside thermometer on your car is reading -18. 2. When all the Christmas cookies are gone. 3. When you’ve started to forget that you have a dog (but your dog-sitting parents surely have not). 4. When you catch yourself trying to point out the Mississippi River to your children again, which produces somewhat infuriating, polite “mm hmm’s” from the children who think it really doesn’t look that different from the Grand River at home—just like you did when your parents tried to point it out to you. 5. When the stations play Phillip Phillips or Imagine Dragons or Matchbox Twenty about fifty times too many, and your 9-year-old is constantly requesting “Madness” by Muse. 6. When you realize that you are no longer offering to take over driving from your spouse beca

Yesterday we decided to explore the big town of Fairplay. Fairplay is a happenin’ town of 675 people, and it has a small shopping district with some cute stores and hotels. Unfortunately, as we found after half of us piled into the van for some souvenir shopping, most of the stores were closed. Funny, people here apparently enjoy taking New Years Day off. Does no one care about the 15 tourists in town? Sheesh. We did stop in at the Hand Hotel, which is purportedly haunted. As far as we could see, it is only haunted by four enormous and friendly golden retrievers. Though one of those retrievers was not in attendance; the manager said he was in time out. The hotel has a gracious staff, as they let us see almost the whole place. There is a breakfast room/sitting area at the back of the first floor, and it looks out over the South Platte River, now frozen and covered with a pristine white spread of snow, and gives a breathtaking view of the white-capped mountain range. Most of the

On Saturday morning, we said farewell to dear Jeter, the dog that Natalie has grown to love more than her future children. We left Colorado Springs for Fairplay, CO, where Brian’s sister and her husband have a cabin. The drive to the cabin was clear this time, so we could see snow-capped mountains across the horizon. Truly, it is more of a vacation home in the woods—all 12 of us have our own beds and ample space to hang out. It backs up to a forest with mountains all around. So we eat too much, we sleep just the right amount, and we every once in a while make a foray outside. That’s been the last two days, since we drove here on Saturday, and on Sunday had Christmas. Really not a lot that’s terribly interesting to anyone else! View from the short hike to a clearing For instance, Brian has found a new calling as the guy who matches up magazine articles with appropriate readers (so far the two he’s pushed into my hands have been excellent). Andrew is “helping” 7-year-old Levi b