|
 TM
Sister Tripping Keeps Our Family
Memories Alive and Kicking
by Murray D. Laurie
“Sisters, Sisters. We are such devoted Sisters.” When the Second Sister, the only one of us
who can sing, led our conga line of
four around the table at the nightclub, napkins fluttering wildly, we all felt
like kids again. That’s what our annual
Sister Trips do for us, now that we are Oh-so-grown-up, and with grown-up
children too. We used to do Beach
Parties when our kids were younger and our parents could join us, but now we
hop a plane to a different destination each time and bond like Super-Glu for a
week or so.
 With one of us living in Vail, another in Baltimore, and two
at opposite ends of the long, skinny state of Florida--and all of us way too
busy these days--we work hard at planning trips that bring us together and
where our memories can flourish. One rule is that we don’t visit each other at
our homes. We sorta broke that one when
we decided one sister trip to all descend on our brother and his family in San
Antonio, which of course is a highly prized destination. As our favorite, and
only brother, we appointed him our guide, and he kept us busy with tours of the
missions (we did the deja vu thing as this was a repeat of a childhood
experience and each of us remembered it differently), the River Walk one
evening (we wore our finest outfits), tubing on the Guadeloupe River, an
equestrian demonstration by our niece, and luncheon at the officer’s club at
Fort Sam Houston.
A rendezvous in Charleston was another winner. Two of us were born there and we tracked down
our family landmarks, including the church where our parents were married and
the hotel where their wedding breakfast was held. We stayed at the wonderful Fantasia Bed and Breakfast Inn and
felt like true Southern Belles as we lounged on the upstairs piazza and sipped
cool drinks in the evening. With no
husbands or children to distract us, we soaked up the historic architecture,
ate when we felt like it, shopped with perfect confidence in our selections,
and held long, meandering conversations that braided effortlessly through the
day and night.
 Our most athletic sister was the instigator of a trip to
Italy, which not all of us could take in, but we counted it as a Sister Trip
anyway. She planned adventurous hikes
for us and picked out the Cinque Terre, the five diminutive but spectacular
towns on Italy’s northern Mediterranean coast, as a starter. The Alpine leg of
our jaunt took us by train to Bolzano, just south of the Austrian border. We
missed our mountain meadow meander due to rain, but we walked all over the
beautiful, historic city, ducking in and out of shops, museums, and churches
between raindrops. The weather cleared in a day or so, making our final stop at
Varenna on Lake Como even more appreciated. Our little hotel was right on the
waterfront, facing the sunset-spectacular western view. No sooner were our bags stowed, when we
found ourselves following the lead sister up a steep and rocky path to the
castle perched on top of the hill above Varenna. After that, the everyday clamber through the perpendicular
townscape was a minor challenge. We stored more new memories and sorted through
older ones as we explored the villas, gardens, shops, cemeteries, monuments,
churches, gelaterias, cafes, and world famous Lake Como scenery.
We’ll probably go back to New Orleans one day, and Nova
Scotia is also on the long-range agenda. Our mother’s people were from Acadia, driven out centuries ago to land
in Louisiana and become Cajuns. And
Ireland, for the second time, is another possibility, if time allows. Our Irish
relatives, on Dad’s side, keep urging us to come back.
“Sisters, Sisters,” our song and dance routine, may
embarrass our children, but we still try to work it in at least once on each
Sister Trip. We think the time to be giddy and silly is when we are all
together in some fabulous place, and we just can’t stand to act like the
properly brought up, not-all-that-young ladies we actually are for one minute
longer. Feel free to join in if you ever run into our troupe on tour.
Fantasia Bed and
Breakfast has a website http://monmouth.com/~fantasia
. More about Charleston can be found at www.charlestoncvb.com
Plans for the trip
to Italy evolved from Rick Steves and his travel guides, as well as his website,
www.ricksteves.com
Back to
TravelLady Magazine |
|