Read part 1 of this story.

Swift first began leading groups through Holbrook Travel 20 years ago after he met Frank Richmond, one of Holbrook’s longest employees, travel advisors and trip leaders, at a conference.

It wasn’t long before the two got to talking, and Richmond had Swift sold.

“I mean, I don’t even think I told you this,” Swift said as he looked at Palmese-Graubard, “but I had probably one of the most amazing moments of my life on this past Ecuador trip I was on,” he said. “We were at Wolf Island … and Jefferson and I were snorkeling off the islands.

“We were in the 8- or 10-feet deep water out right near the shore. We had our goggles, flippers and masks and just puttering along. We had a cheap underwater Walmart camera that’s good for, you know, about 6 inches deep,” he said chuckling. “So we’re swimming along side by side, and all of a sudden, Jefferson reaches out and grabs me and jerks me out of the water.”

He mimicked Jefferson’s white knuckled stronghold he had on his dad’s arm.

“He comes up and he’s sputtering, coughing and flipping his mask off.,” Swift said. “He had asked, ‘What was that? Was that you?’”

Swift replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about son.”

“Jefferson said, ‘Well something tried to grab me. It grabbed my legs.’ I said you know, I don’t know. I didn’t see anything,” Swift said.

Swift and his son went back to swimming along again.

“Shortly after, Jefferson grabbed my again and said, ‘You know, funny is funny Dad, but knock it off.’”

He said, “I really don’t know. I’m not doing a thing. It’s your imagination son.”

Swift eyes widened and said, “Then all of a sudden, something grabbed my leg, and I shot out of the water.”

“Then Jefferson said, ‘Ah ha! Now that it’s happened to you we have to stop and figure it out but with me, it’s nothing. How do you like that?’”

“Well, turns out it was two female sea lions that we had seen way down on the beach,” he said motioning as if they were a mile off.

“They had decided to come out and kind of play with us, like frolic in the surf,” he said. “So we were snorkeling and these sea lions were diving between our legs and then peeling off so when Jefferson and I look at each other, we don’t even see them because they’re gone.”

“Well they make about three passes like that until we figured out what was going on.,” he said laughing. “We were laughing and giggling and sucking sea water up our nose and looking at each other like do you believe that. And then the sea lions came up to surface of the water, lay on their backs and swam right alongside us.

“And then I swear hand to God, they started laughing at us. They started barking,” he said as he motions the animals faces with his hand and making the barking noises.

“Well, we got so tickled we thought we were going to pee our pants,” he said. “And so I got my camera and I’m trying to take one of the sea lion’s picture. You know, the focal length with those things is about 6 feet so here I am kind of pushing on her chest to get far enough away to get a picture.”

Swift said, “Jefferson asked me, ‘Well you’re well traveled and you take good pictures right Dad?’ I said yes.

“And he asked, ‘Isn’t it generally a challenge to sneak up on the animal and get a good picture and not disturb it?’ I said yes. He asked, well when was the last time you had to push the animal away to get a good picture?’

“I hadn’t thought about that so I said well counting this time, once,” Swift said laughing.

“So after a little while, I got tired and sat on the beach. And then it happened,” Swift said pausing.

“Jefferson came up out of the water, and put his hands on his hips and was standing there on the beach. He had said, ‘Dad, I believe this is the best day of my life.’”

Swift sat there nodding slightly reminiscing in the splendid moment.

Swift said, “You know, as parents we always want our kids to do cool stuff, cooler stuff than we did. But not all that often does a parent get to do it with a kid so that you’re there as a witness in the moment when you see a kid have an epiphany like that."

“He looked at me with this look that parents long to see in the eyes of their children and said, ‘Dad, I believe this is the best day of my life,’” Swift repeated and shook his head.

“I thought that’s the kind of thing that I personally get out of travel and these trips. To have those kind of experiences I really feel like is attributable to Holbrook. I got to do that with my kid because of Holbrook. So how could you not think they were pretty cool.”

“There’s something magical about Holbrook,” Swift said. “I’ve traveled with all kinds of other organizations, good ones too. Holbrook seemed to have everything I was looking for in a travel provider.”

He said Holbrook knows about kids, they know about adults, and they know how integrate the learning with fun. Swift has been around the world with Holbrook, and it seems only fitting that his biggest travel goal was to be completed with them.

“Well, I’m going to tell you what, that moment, that’s about as good as it gets.”