I got to thinking about travel in general and in particular who you travel with. You can of course travel by yourself. But it is nice to have someone with whom you can share the experience. My husband is not fond of air travel, but he's a great partner on road trips and we've had many over the years.
I've been fortunate to have several other great family travel partners. In 2011 it was my sister Chris on a trip to Costa Rica.
In 2008 it was a trip to Greece with my niece Katrina (my sister's daughter).
In 1998 in was a train trip through the Copper Canyon in Mexico with my nephew Danny (sister's son).
My first mother-daughter trip with my daughter Casie was in 1996 to Hawaii.
A mother-daughter trip with my mother in 1993. We took a trip to Louisiana and enjoyed the sights around Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
I think it probably goes without saying an important prerequisite for a travel partner is that they love to travel. But even more important is that you both can agree on what you want to see and do. I've been lucky in that all my travel partners have been easy going companions who were up for the adventure. Some of my trips have been tours, so a good portion of the trip is planned for you. But there has always been free time also. Other trips have been self planned. Like the trip to Louisiana. I did the research on things to see and my mother (who was game for anything) was happy to go along. The trip to Hawaii I let my daughter make the arrangements. My only request was that we see the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. We had a lovely trip visiting Maui and Oahu.
When the opportunity came to make the trip to New York I asked my daughter if she would like to be my travel partner again. My husband, who as I said doesn't like flying and he'd been years ago, declined. He said he didn't loose anything there. Although Casie had been to the city many times before it was always on business. She had never really had the opportunity to see the sights and be a tourist. So the end of June we met up in New York City (she lives in LA).
This was a tour group but with plenty of opportunity to explore on our own also.
Beautiful herbs and spices at the market in Grand Central Station
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Freedom tower at the 911 Memorial
911 Memorial
Walking the Highline
A selfie in Washington Square Park
How could we not see this Lady.
Also visited Ellis Island
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
So much to see. You really need several days.
A walk through Central Park then lunch at Tavern on the Green
We had a wonderful and full week in New York City. In that time we walked a little over a 100,000 steps or about 45 miles. Even with taking the subway you better like to walk. The pictures I've showed you are just a few of the things we did while there. We also went to Rockefeller Center, Plaza Hotel, FAO Swartz, Lincoln Center, Chelsea Market, Soho, Greenwich Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, Radio City Music Hall, and saw two Broadway musicals; Aladdin and Mama Mia.
My daughter is a real foodie and loves the Food Network, in particular Anthony Bourdain. One thing she really wanted to do while in New York was visit his restaurant Brasserie Les Halles. Since it wasn't far from our hotel we walked over and had a glass of wine.
We did a lot during our visit but I'm sure we only scratched the surface. There is so much to do and see in New York City. I'll bet many of the people who live there haven't even seen it all. It was a wonderful week spent with a wonderful travel partner.
A thought to ponder: Certainly travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Mary Ritter Beard
Participating in:Grand Social, Wednesday Blog Hop
No comments:
Post a Comment