A Year with A Different View: Traveling Together

If you are unable to visit your relatives in the US for any variety of reasons, do the next best thing: Fly across the globe and meet them in some exotic locale! They might end up being your friends instead of just tolerable family members.

Up until recently, my sister, Gail, from Denver, and I had only seen each other for family events: Thanksgivings, weddings, birthday parties and memorial services. And the last time we traveled together was half a life time ago on a cruise with our parents. Over the years we have both mellowed and have grown into a relationship in which we enjoy each other’s company. Knowing that Gail and her hubby, Pete, are intelligent, fun, easy going people, I put out the suggestion for them to join us so that we could experience some part of the world together.

Being a dude and all, it’s sometimes hard for me to express, but I was touched deeply that they would even consider taking me up on the invitation. When my big sis starting taking the planning seriously; I was fairly confident that we would travel well together. But for 2 weeks? We had only spent a few hours together, here and there, over the past couple of decades. Would it go as well as I thought? And, Pete, was he really as smart, nice and wonderful as he seems? Or had he put on his “family event” best behavior all these years?

For better or worse, we would soon find out. The date was set. They would join us in Istanbul immediately after Pete’s Internal Medicine recertification exam for which he studied in all of his free time for the previous 10 months (HE PASSED!). I was really excited when they booked their flight. They were actually going to make the effort to come see us, half a world away. Maybe I mean as much to my sister as she means to me.

We were overloaded with research for the rest of our destinations so Gail went above and beyond and took up the challenge of planning our Turkey travels (Thank You Gail!).

Through our 12 days of travel togetherness I got to know my sister again. She‘s more like our mom then ever. Which is a good thing. I’m proud to be her brother.

And, Pete, he is as terrific as we thought. Even smarter and more fun then we imagined.

Gail and Pete are seasoned travelers and rolled with all the challenges one inevitably encounters while on the road - all with a smile on their faces.
We had a great time walking in forgotten towns, hiking to magnificent vistas, ballooning over fairy castles, boating to Butterfly Valley, exploring ancient churches, laughing over all the rain, being blown away at the warmth of the local Turks, and most of all enjoying each other’s company.

One of the great pleasures in our year, so far, was touring with our families - Amy’s parents, Gary and Dee, and with Gail and Dr. Pete (The Meat). If you ever miss your loved ones and want to get to know them as friends rather then relatives, do as we did, invite them to join you in some far off location…….they just might take you up on it!