My interests dont (always) interest my kids. Duh.

What is still hard to understand even after 10 years of being a father, is that the things that are important for kids are different than those for grown ups.

Uh,.... duhhhhh.

I know you said that.  You are saying, "this guy is not smart at all.  And he is a father? Oh man."
Yes, I know its an obvious idea.  But still as a father you say to the kids, "wow, wouldn't it be great if we did this?"  And they are kind of like, "No, not really.  Maybe".  And I m not talking teen agers.  Just kids.

I had some profound thoughts when I was thinking about this post.  One thing: that small kids, and elderly people sometimes have something in common.  They like small things.  Details.  Don't rush. Look at this bug said the kid to his Dad.  Look at the sunset said the 80 year grandma to her 50 year old son.  I think when we are kids and elderly we take it easy.  Somehow when you become a teenager, you start wanting more and more.  More excitement, bigger and bigger adventures.  Been there, done that, give me something more.  And it stays like that throughout adulthood, at least for many people.  Ernest Hemingway type adventures.  In fact Ernest Hemingway was the same way.  When he was an adult, he went lion hunting and volunteered in the war.  When he was a retired man, he went fishing.  When he was a kid, he went camping in Northern Michigan. See the differences and similarities between different ages?

I could go on and on about this comparison, and maybe sometime I will expand on it, but let me get to the story.

So,  the week before Easter we took a family holiday.  Skiing in the Austrian Alps.  I don't ski, I walk, or sled.  All the others ski.  The sledding lanes were closed.  72 ski courses and you would think they could try to keep ONE sled path open for the less ski abled.  But no.  And the walking paths were very lame too.  An afterthought.  Either on roads, or just less used ski paths.  I am going to write to the Salzburg department of tourism about this.  Not everyone is a skier.... but I digress.

By Friday my youngest daughter was kind of skied out.  That was understandable.  My wife learned how to ski from a military veteran and still thinks of skiing as kind of a discipline, hardcore military training.  Well, maybe not sooo hardcore, but my daughter is six.  4 hours a day skiing is a lot.

So it was decided that while my other daughter and wife would be skiing down one of the highest mountains in Salzburg, Austria, my younger daughter and I would take the cabin lift up to near the top of the mountain where they had a platform outside.  It is 3029 meters, nearly 10 000 feet up (Mount Everest is 33 000 feet high, but still 10 000 feet is much more than a hill in Florida or Ohio).

Get this, at the second platform, they said we had to wait as it was too dangerous for small kids to go to the highest platform at this time as a wind came up which was pretty dangerous.  A wind?  It wasn't wind, it was clouds.  The mountain is in the middle of the clouds and you know what its like when your plane goes through the clouds?  It rocks the plane.

you cant see that i am holding on for dear life

After half an hour we could go up, and I tell you,  I'm no high stakes adventurer, but for sure I felt just as much excitement boiling in my blood as Ernest Hemingway did hunting in Africa. And when we went outside on the platform, I was scared.  I mean, you see the tips of mountains all around you, and there is a wind blowing which you figure if it hit you in the right spot you would be carried to that mountain top over there.  And that mountain top was a hundred feet down and a hundred feet over yonder.

I slid slowly over to the sign which said how high we were and my daughter took a picture of me.  THAT was an adventure!  In the meantime they made an announcement that it was dangerous, especially for small children to be on the platform.  I loved being up there and the thrill of it was great, but I also like life and did not want to be blown over the edge to be impaled on a lower mountain spike top.

After that, this is the Kitzsteinhorn, for anyone who doesn't believe me or wants to check it out, we went through the tunnel THROUGH the mountain. I have to say, this was as exciting for me as going through the tunnel and coming up right behind Niagara Falls on the Canadian side which I also have done.  To be walking in a tunnel through the mountain, I cant explain it well enough, but it just gets the adrenaline going.  It is amazing.

There was a beautiful museum along the tunnel also with pictures and explanations of what can survive there at that height and discussions of the permafrost and climate change.  Very well done.  And again, to be inside the mountain!  Wow.

You cant see the wind in the picture

There was another platform outside at the end of the tunnel, but it was even windier now and the other mountain tops were closer by and instead of being impaled or dropping onto a mountain top you would just be splattered against a mountain wall if the wind picked you up.  You ever see a wind pick up a car driving over a bridge in winter? I have and I weigh less than a car.  So....
Needless to say, this was a pretty big tourist attraction for me.
My daughter... she didn't seem so thrilled with it.

OK granted, she was both scared and fearless going out on the platform to take my picture, and I took pictures of her.  But then she didn't want to stay out there.  She was more interested in turning the crank to make a little copper souvenir of our trip to the Gipfelstation.  She was turning the crank before I put money in and she would not leave till we had figured out how to get one of these souvenirs.  And we had to count quite precisely how many times we turned the crank to make the souvenir.  It told us to turn it ten times, so she counted the turns meticulously with care.

The tunnel museum was so so interesting for her.  I did have to read all the plaques and information blurbs for her, but of bigger interest was going to the restaurant after that and getting a hot cocoa.
 She was comparing this coco to other hot cocoas she recalled.  I couldn't listen to this hot topic, I was just looking out the window marveling at the snow and the wind and the mountains.  I don't think she looked out the window at all.

you cant see the 5 inch snowman.  Its there

What pleased her most was that it was getting late and we wouldn't have time to stay at the next level down again, we would have to go immediately to the next level cabin car going down right away as they would be closing pretty soon.  This was great news to her as she really couldn't wait to get back to our apartment and just be "home" there.  She did enjoy making a small snowman on a lay over at the next level down.  She demanded that I take several pictures of her with her snowman, which was about 5 inches tall.

And when we were in the mountain gondola going down, what was interesting for her was not looking out the window at the amazing heights and scenery, but stabbing at the snow on the floor on the parket which was sort of like a welcome mat with patterns with holes between them.

This is why I mention again that I have to remember that what is important or interesting for an adult is quite different from what is interesting to a kid.  Please excuse my own stupidity, but sometimes it just hits you like new and you have to grasp this concept again.  "No, this is interesting for me, but not for my kid, and whether it should be interesting for her is not for me to say."

Still, please excuse again my complaining, but when you get down from this height of pure adventure, pure "wowness" and your kid says, "I liked skiing with my class more," and proceeds to start her tenth fight that day with her sister, it just makes me scratch my head.  But who is being misguided here?  Is it me who needs the big lion taming mountain top adventure who is silly? Or my daughter who finds more fun and interest in climbing a snowbank and making a five inch snowman?  The little things in life are just as interesting as the tall mountains?

Sigh.  Give me a minute still to grasp this idea, because it is eluding me.  I have to repeat it again, lets see, yes: kids interests are just not the same all the time as adults.  Neither is wrong?  Right?


There are hundreds of pictures of the Kitzsteinhorn mountain, but I am putting up a couple of my own here.  But go to any Kitzsteinhorn www site to see some amazing pictures.   But those are just pictures.  Being there is something else.

          Thanks for reading.