Spotlights
Humans of St. Norbert: Tonia Briski
Staff
Humans of St. Norbert: Tonia Briski
“My husband and I both like to travel. We feel like there is just a ton to see just even in the contiguous United States. We got to talking one time about what we wanted to do with the kids and we’d been through a lot of states already so we started looking at a map and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get to every one of the 48 contiguous states? Wouldn’t it be great if we go to each of the states and snap a picture?’ Alaska and Hawaii would be great too, but maybe that’s for post-graduation. When the kids leave for whatever they intend to do, college or wherever they are going, we plan to give them a map of the pictures of all the places we’ve seen. A snapshot from every state and we are hoping to have all of them filled in [before they graduate].
“We started cataloging where we’ve been and where we want to go. Then a few years ago we decided to start building our vacations around that. In the last couple of years, we have seen probably eight to nine states on each road trip and we now have 10 left. My daughter, the oldest, is a sophomore in high school so we still have two years and maybe a summer left to squeeze in the rest of the states. We have to do something in each state even if it’s just a quick stop at a museum.
“We’ve done things like mining for diamonds in Arkansas – we didn’t find any. We went on dune buggies in the sand dunes out in Oregon. We took a hummer ride through Hells Revenge Trail out in Utah. I’m terrified of heights and it was the scariest thing I have ever been on, but my kids and husband loved it.
“[My favorite part of all this] is not even the places, but the time. It’s seeing all of these different places through the lens of my kids. As much as road trips are hard because you are in the car for so long, I absolutely love it because we’re together. You experience things together and I think as the kids grow up, what I want them to do is say, ‘Hey, remember that time that we were here with the family and Andrew dropped something or Emily did this?’ It’s the making of the memories through all of it.”
“We started cataloging where we’ve been and where we want to go. Then a few years ago we decided to start building our vacations around that. In the last couple of years, we have seen probably eight to nine states on each road trip and we now have 10 left. My daughter, the oldest, is a sophomore in high school so we still have two years and maybe a summer left to squeeze in the rest of the states. We have to do something in each state even if it’s just a quick stop at a museum.
“We’ve done things like mining for diamonds in Arkansas – we didn’t find any. We went on dune buggies in the sand dunes out in Oregon. We took a hummer ride through Hells Revenge Trail out in Utah. I’m terrified of heights and it was the scariest thing I have ever been on, but my kids and husband loved it.
“[My favorite part of all this] is not even the places, but the time. It’s seeing all of these different places through the lens of my kids. As much as road trips are hard because you are in the car for so long, I absolutely love it because we’re together. You experience things together and I think as the kids grow up, what I want them to do is say, ‘Hey, remember that time that we were here with the family and Andrew dropped something or Emily did this?’ It’s the making of the memories through all of it.”
