Yesterday I lent all my language and travel guide books related to Turkey to an acquaintance who is going to that fascinating country in about a week for a 10-day vacation. I should have told him to keep all of the books as it is highly unlikely that I’ll ever go back. My wife and I spent two weeks there in 1997 and had a wonderful time. I’m so glad we did.
As a child growing up, travel to faraway places was something my family never did. It took joining the Army to have my first travel experience outside of California, a 15-month assignment to the Republic of Korea from 1974 to 1975. After that, it would be another 15 years before there would be any more distant travel of sorts. From 1990 to 2007, my wife and I traveled a lot, initially with our children and later just the two of us. Most of our travel was to European countries because that was our interest. We always traveled together but in 2008, my wife went solo on a 2-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt along with church acquaintances while I stayed home and worked during my busy season. More recently, a couple months ago we visited Mexico City for a contemplative pro-life retreat.
We have so many pleasant travel memories that will last a lifetime and I’m so glad we traveled when we did. Now, with aging parents and some health issues my wife is experiencing, travel as we did before is out of the question. I’m OK with that because in our vagabond journeys to popular destinations and down roads off the beaten path, I can honestly say that there is no place like home. That serious case of the travel bug we had for so many years – we finally got it out of our system.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
As a child growing up, travel to faraway places was something my family never did. It took joining the Army to have my first travel experience outside of California, a 15-month assignment to the Republic of Korea from 1974 to 1975. After that, it would be another 15 years before there would be any more distant travel of sorts. From 1990 to 2007, my wife and I traveled a lot, initially with our children and later just the two of us. Most of our travel was to European countries because that was our interest. We always traveled together but in 2008, my wife went solo on a 2-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt along with church acquaintances while I stayed home and worked during my busy season. More recently, a couple months ago we visited Mexico City for a contemplative pro-life retreat.
We have so many pleasant travel memories that will last a lifetime and I’m so glad we traveled when we did. Now, with aging parents and some health issues my wife is experiencing, travel as we did before is out of the question. I’m OK with that because in our vagabond journeys to popular destinations and down roads off the beaten path, I can honestly say that there is no place like home. That serious case of the travel bug we had for so many years – we finally got it out of our system.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
No comments:
Post a Comment