"When my oldest daughter was eight, I had the opportunity to take her to Egypt," says family travel writer, Christine Loomis. After serious questioning she decided to go ahead and had an amazing trip. "One of the most extraordinary moments came at the massive King Tut exhibit in Cairo's Egyptian Museum when I asked my daughter about her favorite thing. She responded quickly, `King Tut's linen underwear. I hope no one's looking at my underwear in 5000 years.' I'll never forget thinking, the fact that his underwear is here is such a cool thing and I would have totally missed it had she not mentioned it. Listening to children, especially on vacation, gives us experiences we wouldn't have otherwise. They have a sense of humor and a perspective that we lose as we get older."

Christine Loomis was, for nine years, the Family Travel editor for Parents' Magazine and now continues the same work at Family Life magazine. She's always traveled with her three children, Kira (13), Molly (7) and Hutch (4). She gives voice to family travel in her new picture book, We're Going on a Trip (Morrow, $15.00; ages 4-8). The book begins with a concise five-paged "Note to Parents", a checklist of considerations to help parents to plan a successful trip and begin dialogue with their children.

Most of We're Going on a Trip is written for children. There are two stories of individual and yet, universal children. Julius goes by plane with his mother to a reunion at his Grandmother's. Buried in the story are suggestions and models for children as Julius and his mother discuss missing his father, using a stuffed animal for comfort, and greeting new relatives at a reunion. Throughout are specific child-centered images that explain everything from x-rays to landing wheels coming down.

"I wanted the parent and child sections to come from different perspectives and to reinforce each other. You tell parents it's not a bad thing to put their children in a supervised program so they can have adult time. Then within the children's story, you show children happily meeting others in the hotel and it reinforces the idea for everybody."

In Loomis' second story, Ginger and Harry take a car trip with their parents. En route there are car games, picnics, museums, a hotel stay and they document everything with pictures.

"When you give a child a camera on a vacation, there will be pictures of knees and other weird things, but by giving kids a camera, journal, or a scrap book you really give them some sense of control in the experience because they become chroniclers."

Loomis has a wealthy of stories about how family travel has enriched her life. Camping with a four year old, she rushed until one morning she experienced her daughter's exit from their tent. "'Good morning footprints. Good morning sticks. Good morning world,' she was saying and I suddenly stopped and wondered why I was rushing when I had no reason to hurry. Travel provides one of those few times where you can let children's wonderment rule, whether you're in a hotel or in Grand Teton National Park. That's one of the reasons I'm emphatic about scheduling free time during travel. Vacation provides much needed time to take a breath and look at things you don't normally see when you're rushing. Kids are cranky a lot because it's not a mode of operation that's natural to them. Vacations can remind you that schedules don't have to rule your life every minute."

Loomis has also discovered the pleasure of learning with her children. "There are so many great children's books about animals or walking in the wilderness. Learning about our destinations becomes a chance for us to discover information together in a fun, positive way."

She also finds in vacationing a way to model life-long learning. "My children have learned from watching the way I travel that you're never too old to learn. At Club Med, I tried the trapeze and when we went on a ski vacation, my older daughter and my husband took snow boarding lessons together. Unlike most things in life, they started out as complete equals and it was harder for him to learn!"

Loomis pauses to ponder when I ask her to name a favorite family vacation. "Paradise Guest Ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming is in everyone's top three favorite vacations. There was wilderness and lots to learn and we played games and cards at night." At one point her daughter Kira asked "Why don't we do this at home?" My husband and I looked at each other and immediately said, "TV."

Bad trips make for the great memories. Loomis still remembers a trip she took at nine. The luggage came unfastened from the top of the car, spilled out all over the Pennsylvania Highway and cars ran over eighteen bottles of horrible sweet perfume a relative had given my sister and me. The next day, the highway still smelled. We drove home, repacked, my parents went through all the insurance stuff and then we loaded up the car and left again the next day. It was terrible experience that became one of the great family stories."

Loomis' recent book, One Cow Coughs: A Counting Book for the Sick and Miserable (Ticknor and Fields, $14.95; ages 3-7) was initiated on a family trip. "We were driving through West Virginia farm country and everyone was hacking and throwing up. Suddenly I put down what I was doing and started writing and everyone had great fun helping me think of the rhymes." Loomis is presently writing a book on family travel that will probably be out with Fodor in spring of 1996. She has a wealth of travel tips that demand passing on!

"One thing I always tell anyone who's going on a driving vacation is to get every child his own Walkman. It gives psychological privacy you need on a long car trip when you can't just get up and walk into another room."

She recommends planning a trip for maximum fun. "With teens, for example, if neatness is important to you, rent a condo where you can close a door. Otherwise you'll make yourself nuts and them miserable. How important is a neat room on your one week of family together time? Do you want to argue and nag on vacation or would you rather be discovering a great science museum or a bug under a rock?"

©Susie Wilde 1998