Today is Kat’s last day in America but that didn’t mean we’d not try to do something spectacular to close out this leg of her gap year and brief three-week vacation in America. We woke shortly after 4:00 in the wee hours of the morning with about 90 minutes to go before the sun would rise. After dropping Caroline off at her office our niece and I continued across the Valley of the Sun over to the Salt River.

Since Katharina arrived on the first of July from New Zealand we have traveled over 2,192 miles with her here in the Southwest, which at 3,528 kilometers is about the same as driving from Barcelona, Spain, to Moscow, Russia. Our destinations have included the Petrified Forest National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, the Navajo and Zuni Reservations, the San Juan Mountains, Heard Museum, the Desert Botanical Garden, the Colorado River, Sedona, and a horse sanctuary right here in Phoenix. These places took us into the northeast corner of Arizona, the southwest corner of Colorado, northwest New Mexico, and we dipped into southern Utah.

Our niece has tried Mexican food, Korean food, a Piccadilly (Navajo shave ice), various pizzas, pancakes, pizza cookies, and cheesecake. All the while she was able to maintain being a vegetarian which she chose to practice while in New Zealand. She got a judo practice in, visited the gym a few times with her Aunt Caroline, rode a mule into the Grand Canyon, went horseback riding in Sedona, and obviously from these photos had the chance to photograph and visit with the wild horses of the Salt River.

Along the way she’s been offered countless cups of coffee (she doesn’t drink it), cigarettes (she doesn’t smoke), marijuana in Colorado (it’s legal for recreational use but she doesn’t smoke that either), tattoos weren’t appealing, we couldn’t get her to cuss so I made up for it by cussing all the time. Even when we tried to turn her to another kind of vice by offering her beer or hard alcohol she was able to abstain, good thing too, as she’s only 19 and we’d have been contributing to the delinquency of someone to whom it’s illegal to give alcohol. She didn’t want a haircut, she vigilantly wore sunblock, she stayed awake for our long drives, didn’t get car sick once (she’s quite prone to that), she didn’t complain about me listening to Rammstein or dubstep in the car but I don’t think she liked either. Boba tea didn’t go over well, nor did deep dish pizza but she made up for most everything with enthusiastic laughter.

Like all young people, and creatures too, our niece is only now stepping out on her own and still has lots to learn. She may not know it yet but she’s got a big journey ahead of her where each step offers her experiences that will help define her evolving perspectives which will hopefully grow as she continues to mature. We learn best when others give us nudges that help keep us on the right path and just like with the horses she adores, sometimes a sharp bite or solid kick (metaphorically speaking) is needed to bring attention to a drifting awareness. Most of all though we need compassion and love and while we may not be well-practiced in how to best share that, it doesn’t mean we don’t try our best to give of ourselves and find compromise when we are not getting our way.

It’s been nice to run around the Southwest with Katharina and show her a different way of life of two people she hardly knew when she landed here. She left the winter of New Zealand and dropped into our summer heat in the desert and has done great keeping up with us and helping us think about the way we do and see things so we might better understand a teenager. I’m guessing that the next time we spend some serious time with her she may likely be in her career following the next four years of university she’s returning to Germany for. For now, she still feels like an adolescent to us oldies but given a bit more time she’ll join the ranks of adults, and if she’s lucky she’ll still be laughing and ready for other adventures.