This article was originally published on August 31, 2010
By Alice Banta, 4-time traveler, Bend, Oregon
I never traveled while growing up. I was raised in Oregon in a time when every family had a car and Dad drove it and that was it. I married, had children, worked as an RN, and then was widowed, so I never had time to travel. In 1993, I married Bob, who had also lost his spouse. We lived in Denver, but then moved back to Oregon, far from my grown daughters (two live in Denver and the third is in Reno).
Bob got me traveling. He was a pilot and had travel passes, and it was wonderful. Even so, it was a kind of Huckleberry Finn thing, always catching this plane or that train whenever we could. I never had time to read before we went, so we missed a lot of the history. In 13 years, Bob took me to something like 50 countries, but when his knees became non-functional, he couldn’t keep going. He didn’t want me to stop traveling, so he said, “Take the girls!”
Alice enjoys a wagon ride in Kalocsa, Hungary, with her daughters and sister, Paris.
They immediately said, “Oh yeah!” They’re in their 40s and 50s and they all have their own families. One is an RN, one does environmental work for the state of Nevada, and another is a stay-at-home mom of two young children. I have to give credit to their husbands for letting them just go away with me for two weeks, which means all the home responsibilities which usually fall to my daughters fell to the men.
On my first trip three years ago, two of my daughters joined my sister and me on The Great Rivers of Europe. All three girls came on our 2008 trip to France. Last year, we took Eastern Europe to the Black Sea, and saw the Balkans. I’d already taken this trip with Bob, so I thought it would be the same old thing for me, but at least fresh for the girls. Instead, it felt like a whole new trip! I enjoyed it—again—as much as they did, and the girls are so addicted to riverboats now that if I even say “land tour” to them, they say, “Oh no!”
Alice’s sister, Paris, and her daughters, Sandra and Sharon, stop for a break in Rothenburg, Germany.
Normandy, on our Seine River Cruise, was another special memory. I was a child of World War II, so just to be there meant something, and it was memorable to participate in the service the Program Directors held in honor of the veterans among us. I was exceedingly glad for my girls to get to see this. Before that, they knew about the time period and what it meant, but it hadn’t really clicked in for them until then.
When I think about our trips, the word “bonding” comes to mind, as we don’t see each other that often. Their personalities are quite diversified and their lives so different, that it’s nice to see them as friends. They come aboard and start talking and giggling. They have their own professional jobs or daily stresses to deal with, but then we get on the ships and it all melts away. It’s nice as a mother to sit back and enjoy that.
Alice, Sharon, and Paris, in Germany during their Great Rivers of Europe River Cruise.
But you know, it’s also nice to have that same experience with my own sister, who has come on the River Cruises as well. I’m twelve years older than she is—I had been her babysitter when we were young. But now we’re traveling as friends, just as my girls are. I couldn’t be happier.
Charlotte and I love exploring new—and already visited—destinations together. Do you travel with children? I'd love to hear about it—email me at harriet@gct.com.
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