This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.With summer around the corner, now’s the time when many families begin imagining the version of themselves they want to be for just a few months. Some people book elaborate international trips. Others return to the same beach every year, or pile into the car to hit the road with no real itinerary at all.There is no single right way to spend summer as a family. What makes this season meaningful is often less about the trips taken and more about what families want from them: a break from routine, time together, or simply a few weeks that feel different from the rest of the year.Today’s newsletter explores stories about summer travel and the strange expectations attached to family vacations.On VacationingThe New Millennial Parenting AnxietyBy Faith HillFor those determined to pass down their globe-trotting values, vacations have become ever more ambitious and goal-oriented—and exhausting. (From 2025)Read the article.How to Have Your Most Fulfilling Vacation EverBy Arthur C. BrooksTurning your leisure into learning offers the happiest holiday experience of all. (From 2023)Read the article.The New Family VacationBy Michael WatersMore and more Americans are traveling with multiple generations—and, perhaps, learning who their relatives really are. (From 2023)Read the article.Still Curious?Beach vacationers are doing it wrong. To really take a break, try vigorous exercise, Richard A. Friedman argued in 2022On failing the family vacation: “How I got dumped, went on a cruise, and embraced radical self-acceptance,” Kim Brooks wrote in 2024.Other DiversionsThe richest cat in the worldThe goodbye Stephen Colbert wanted to sayA nervy thriller for the scam eraPSCourtesy of Myriam K.My colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Today the submission came from my own grandmother, who was very excited to share her picture. “Climbing the mountain near my house in Bogotá, a little higher up at 2,600 meters, the tropical nature thrives in a climate that can drop to 3 degrees Celsius at dawn. The bromeliads bloom beautifully,” Myriam K. from Bogotá, Colombia, writes.We’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.— Rafaela