WASHINGTON, D.C, June 14, 2010 – The first annual Great Father-Daughter Summer Trip got underway Friday with a 540-mile car journey from Charleston.

My passenger? Six-year-old Avery Brack (“I’m six and a half, Dad.”)

In the years since the birth of our daughters – Avery, followed by now 3-year-old Ellie – the notion matured that it might be a good idea for an annual father-daughter trip to show a new part of our country to one daughter each year. It’s a big country and what better way, I thought, to enjoy it than a week-long immersion in different states? Particularly places where I had never spent major time? That would make it fun for both of us.

First up, I picked, would be Kansas – America’s heartland, a place of flowing plains filled with wheat and corn. I don’t know much at all about Kansas, but figured there would be some interesting things we could see.

But when recalling that my first big trip with my dad was when I was about 7, I figured Avery might still be too young for a Great Father-Daughter Summer Trip (GFDST) this year. Why, I wondered, take a child on a trip that she won’t really remember? Seven, not 6, might be the right age. On my trip years back, I have vague recollections of the Jefferson Memorial, the Mayflower Hotel, losing a Snoopy comic book and driving from Washington to Philadelphia so my dad could go to a meeting.

So I figured Avery might need to be a little older to get something out of a GFDST.

Then came the chance to visit my sister in Washington this summer. Perhaps, we thought, it could serve as a kind of test drive (literally) for next year’s trip to Kansas. We jumped at the opportunity to leave the heat of Charleston for the humidity of Washington.

And it’s been fun, without as much whining as you might expect. Some observations:

• Six is not too young for a child to get ensnared in the first Harry Potter book. We got the book-on-CD from the library. For the first 30 minutes, the reader’s English accent seemed a little off-putting to Avery, but soon she was asking to hear more the story. We’ve got half left for the trip back and she’s looking forward to it.

• It is a good idea to make a “no whining on the trip” rule. We’ve made a game that if Avery catches anyone whining in her Aunt Catherine’s house, she gets $10, but that Avery can’t whine either. If she does, she forfeits any “winnings.” So far – little whining and the adults haven’t had to cough up any money (yet).

• It is not a good idea to walk as much as we did Sunday. In a four-hour foray, we hiked from the Capitol, visited the Native American museum, enjoyed the escalator ride in a modern art museum, saw a lot of rainbows at a gay pride celebration and wandered inside the U.S. Botanic Garden on the Capitol grounds.

• A chocolate milkshake will rectify any problems caused by a dad’s forced march on a hot day.

This summer’s experiment with a GFDST has worked well and we’ll go to Kansas next year. If you’ve got any suggestions for future states to visit, drop us a line and make your case for why we should travel there.

Andy Brack, publisher of CharlestonCurrents.com and Statehouse Report, can be reached at: publisher@charlestoncurrents.com.