How It All Began...

I never assumed I would see so much of this planet.  My parents were avid tourists, certainly, and we did the annual family vacation thing like USAmericans do.  Mother continued to tour the world after my dad died; but I was a working single parent and the few vacations I ever had back when those children were young were to take the kids to see Grammy, my brother's wedding, and a couple of trips to see my sister on her husband's Coast Guard base; my godchild's baptism in New Mexico.  Mother took me to Paris and Luxembourg in the mid 1980's. The most important memory I have from that tour is meeting her cousin in Haller, Lux, and finding my parents'wedding photo in their family's photo album; I also remember that it seemed like every warm meal had french fries in Paris ( cuisine?)  I was a tourist and an infrequent one at that.
My worldview, my lifestyle, and just about everything else dramatically changed in 1990 when I met my husband, a native Dutchman.  Our romance sparked on a road tour from Wisconsin to New Mexico, and one year later as I visited Utrecht, Netherlands, at his invitation, I accepted his proposal of marriage. And just like that,  I became a traveler.

I am on three concurrent journeys:
1.  the partnership journey:  with its pitfalls and perils complicated by culture, language and personalities.  Himself is a cutting edge solid-state research chemist.  He makes light.  He is in demand all over the world.  He is a professor at Utrecht University.  Most of our far flung trips are because of his work.
2.  the parenting journey: re-learning to parent WITH a companion, in middle age, in a foreign environment.  I was 43 when David came along: Else was born just short of 17 months later.  Middle age, motherhood and menopause is a heady mix.
3.  the spiritual journey: becoming a better follower of Christ. I am a Latter-day Saint.  FAR from Salt lake City.  Learning to pick my battles.

I could have started this blog many times over the last 20 years: why now?  Truly, I am determined to find a way to share my photos and impressions of the world that doesn't require three different kinds of contact.  Some folks don't use Facebook, others won't click a link.  Others want to live the whole experience with me. I struggle with uploading, downloading and the internet in general. ( a whole blog experience in itself) Now that the parenting journey is nearly at the end of the teen years, I have more time to write, I travel more with Himself,  sometimes, I feel like I have something useful to share.  So.

We just got back from 10 days in Israel.  We have been to China, Japan, all over Europe, Brazil.   This summer we toured for 5 weeks in the Mountain West of the Unite States.  With a 17 and 18 year old. And we survived!  As I sort through the thousands of photos and memories, I invite you to come along for the ride.

P.S. Himself was amazed:  You forgot New Zealand!  Indeed, how could I? It was the bestest time.