My Mother Started It All

Prequel

After my dad died, my mom took her grandchildren traveling with her. She covered four continents with them. Australia, Europe, the Orient and Africa.

My oldest daughter went to Australia with a group from the American Iris Society in 1974 when she was in 8th grade (age 13)

1974_tour_group_Australia My daughter is in dark blue on the left standing behind my mother next to a lady in orange

Grandmother_taking_my_picture_with_youth_members_Australia

Two years later, the second daughter went to Europe (also age 13 in the 8th grade)

My_grandmothers_photo_of_me_in_1976_Berlin

The third daughter went to China with a medical group

and then Japan in 1979 when she was in 6th grade (age 11 -a little young)

She took my sister's younger daughter (my niece age 13) to Italy and my son (age 12) to Kenya in 1983. She came back from Kenya with broken ribs -she stood up through the hatch of a safari vehicle. It started off with a lurch and she fell onto the side of the hatch. She refused to go to the hospital - she said "You can't do anything for broken ribs".

My son's photo from Kenya -one of the few I can find from his trip

She found that the best time to travel was when the children were in 7th or 8th grade (age 12-14). She traveled with my older niece after the niece graduated from college and that did not go well at all. She was still traveling when her oldest great grandchild was of an age to go - she took him to Philadelphia in the summer when he was 12 and she was 83. But the heat was hard for her at that age, so the next oldest great grandchild, she just paid for her to go to camp.

She died in April 2006, so I decided to take th the money I inherited from her and do for my grandchildren what she did for my children. Of my 10 living grandchildren, two were much older (age 26 and age 24) and the oldest one had been on a trip with my mother. My son's son was the oldest available grandchild. He was 13 at the time of the trip, but he would be turning 14 the week after the trip ended.