The vacation ritual my mom taught me that everyone should do

"Been there, climbed that" was my family's tagline while living in Germany.

My dad's job took us to the land of beer and pretzels during my last six months of middle school and my first two years of high school.

During those 2 1/2 years, my mom took on the role of travel agent. Every weekend we ventured to a different German village; every school vacation we traveled to a new country.

One constant: If there was a church - or any tall structure with stairs - we climbed to the top.

I may have complained a lot then ("Another cobblestone street? ANOTHER church to climb?"), but today I'm forever grateful that my mom dragged us up, because just look at all the incredible memories we made ...