So this was the reply I got from my mother earlier this month
I was texting her to see if she had arrived at her latest getaway. The jab at L.A. made me laugh remembering how she always has been a bit of a Bay Area snob (and I’m okay with that). Dee’s heart is always in San Franciso and we all know it.
She’ll always be a California girl
This time she went to visit some college friends, see family and meet up with Alice who she’s known since kindergarten. I can’t even remember anyone’s name from my kindergarten days let alone imagine meeting up with any of them. And to be fair, she only started her trip in Los Angeles. She worked her way “home” to the Bay area along the infamous Highway 1, my favorite drive in the world. She’s always managed to get to “home” over the years. In the 1970s, summer at our house meant packing up the car for the almost 2,000-mile drive from Iowa to Cali with our mom. My sister and I would take on the ‘navigator’ and ‘stewardess’ jobs since we didn’t have driver’s licenses yet (or cell phones, yikes). We used maps, played the license plate game, and listened to the radio. Each night we'd find a not-too-shady motel and my mom would have her martini poolside while my sister and I swam. Two days later, we’d be pulling into my aunt and uncle’s house in San Mateo. My dad would fly out a couple of weeks later for his vacation and then help make the drive back.
Happiness is always having a trip planned
COVID has made it hard for everyone to travel and stay connected. This has been especially true for my mom, a lifelong traveler who is always planning her next trip. It’s hard to slow down a woman whose been to more than 49 countries on 5 continents. Long ago my dad figured out the key to keeping his wife happy – always have a trip on the horizon, something to look forward to. From cross-country road trips in the 1940s and 50s with her mom and dad to accepting a teaching position in Mannheim, Germany in 1963, Dee has created a travel diary of memories for a lifetime.
Is it Doris Day? Nope, it’s my amazing mom Dee
This stunning image of my mom was taken in Budapest in 1965 before I was born. She was 26 years old and living her best life I’m pretty sure. In those days she was often mistaken for Doris Day which she took as a huge compliment. I’m pretty sure my kids don’t even know who Doris Day is, shame on me. It does not go unnoticed to me that my mom has been a trailblazer in her time. She took off for Europe all on her own in the 1960s when most women were encouraged to look for a husband and put their home economics class to good use. Instead, she spent her weekends traveling to Paris and Berlin or skiing in the Alps.
Sharing the love
These days when my mom and dad take a trip we get the ‘official itinerary’ emailed ahead so we know where they will be and for how long, etc. My dad spends an absurd amount of time putting these together but he seems to enjoy the process as much as my mom does the planning. He could probably publish a book with all the details he has and we could literally walk in their footsteps around the globe. It’s so easy these days to go online and book flights, find a place to stay, make reservations for dinner, etc. But it truly takes a devoted seasoned travel veteran to research, send for information, write letters and make long-distance phone calls to find an affordable pension (look that up if you don’t know this definition...I only do because of Dee). She’s the original Expedia and way more personable. I wonder what she's dreaming up now.
Did I mention my mom is 84
P.S. I talked with my mom about that 1965 trip to Budapest. She recalled she was on a tour with friends and had visited Russia and Poland as well, keeping in mind this was just 20 years after the end of WWII. While in Warsaw her bus of tourists asked the tour guide to see where the ghetto was. Under Russia’s rule at the time, they were told there was no ghetto. It’s something that’s stuck with her all this time.
And as Dee’s travels go, her friend Louise whom she was with on that Budapest trip was one of the girlfriends she just visited in Los Angeles 57 years later. Now, that’s a forever friendship.
Dee and Jerry Sullivan _ Big Sur, California 2022
Dee has traveled 1/4 of the world.