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• Watching the sun melt into the Caribbean Sea from the front of a cruise ship

• Riding the gondola chair ride up to the top of the Isle of Capri

• Driving golf carts on Catalina

• Snorkeling in St. John

• Climbing Dunns River Falls

• Climbing the Great Wall of China

These are just a few of the experiences that our family has shared while traveling the world for the past 25 years. We began when our son Marcus was small and we’ve gone somewhere special every year since then. Some trips were domestic, others international, but all have allowed us to share some really good times.

Our first family trip was to the Bahamas when Marcus was one year old. When we arrived at the airport he was amazed at seeing so many people. That’s when we realized that his world really had only consisted of his baby sitter, a few relatives and us. So seeing hundreds of people walking down the concourse was quite an experience. He was elated and seemed to think that they’d all come to meet him. We knew then that he had the travel bug.

Marcus has become a true citizen of the world and his experience has expanded his education far beyond what he was learning in school. We’ve always taken St. Augustine’s quote quite literally, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”.

When visiting the Island of Kiribati he saw children living in simple dwellings and playing with simple toys and realized that not all children were as fortunate as he was. While visiting the Acropolis he saw the Parthenon that he’d been studying in his world history class.

Much of our travel has been on cruise ships since cruising is a great way for families to travel together while enjoying many different activities – and there’s something onboard for every age group. So Marcus could play and go on scavenger hunts with other children while we enjoyed a little “grown folks” time. He also learned to meet and connect with other children from all over the world. On one of our early cruises our family was seated with a family from Sweden during dinner. They didn’t speak English and we certainly spoke no Swedish. But Marcus and the 2 children were able to connect because they all shared a love for ketchup. We’ve snorkeled in the Caribbean and one of our most memorable experiences was climbing up Dunns River Falls in Jamaica. Cruising also gave him exposure to fine dining and he learned to order multi-course meals at an early age. – although most of the time he preferred to eat chicken fingers & fries – and those were readily available too.

Our most recent adventure was spending 10 days in China where we visited Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. We were truly captivated by the culture, cuisine and history of that ancient country. One of the highlights of the trip was climbing the Great Wall of China together. I’ll be honest, Robert and I didn’t exactly climb all the way to the top, but Marcus and his GoPro did, so we still got some amazing photos.

As much as we’ve traveled, we’ve seldom seen other Black families. We see other races of people with their children in tow or in backpacks, and we always ask, ‘Where are our families?” Of course money is always a challenge, and the more children that a family has, the bigger that challenge becomes. But we cannot afford to deprive our children of experiencing a world outside of their own neighborhood.

When I was growing up my parents also had a love for travel – but not much money to finance that passion. So sometimes our family trips consisted of loading us 3 kids into the back of our station wagon with a lunch and driving up the coast. Even that was an adventure to our little minds. And we made some great memories.

Even if parents don’t have much money they can expose their children to historical sites and attractions, even in their own hometown. “Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings.” — Hodding Carter