This Friday, my wife and I will fly to San Diego to spend Christmas with my daughter. It’s an annual trip we have been making for the past six years, ever since she started working there for a large consulting company — and if you ask me what she does, I have no idea!
We have enjoyed returning to San Diego, particularly during December. One obvious benefit is the weather. I wouldn’t say the weather is balmy, but it is balmier than The Dalles in December — well, it hasn’t snowed there yet!
Since we’ve been making these annual trips, I’ve found my attitude towards traveling has changed. I now find traveling to familiar places more enjoyable than traveling to once-in-a-lifetime, faraway places.
I know many people my age who are traveling around the world, and I enjoy hearing their stories: trips to Costa Rica sponsored by the Hood River Valley Adult Center, river cruises through Europe, and my sister’s trips to Southeast Asia.
I’ve been fortunate to travel to Korea, England, and Scotland, and experience the excitement of new cultures, new foods (I would suggest avoiding haggis in Scotland), and walk and observe the history and sites I had only read about.
But at this time in my life, I would rather visit places I can return to; that are familiar, comforting, without the stress and hassle; where I can explore and discover new sites and encounter new experiences closer to home.
Having visited San Diego for so many years, we are now familiar with my daughter’s neighborhood and nearby Balboa Park. We now have our annual traditions: visiting an old friend at Imperial Beach, eating breakfast Christmas morning at the IHOP (one of the few places open), helping her assemble an item from Ikea — father-daughter bonding! And now Liberty Station, which we visited for the first time last year.
But when my wife and I flew to Atlanta for my family reunion and visited the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and the Atlanta History Museum, both incredible places, full of amazing history, we knew we would probably never return. And as we hurried, trying to see all that we could in the short time we had, I felt like I was just skimming through the classic southern novel “Gone with the Wind.”
By returning to familiar places, you can take time to dig a little deeper and explore the hidden nooks and crannies, learn more about the community and its history, and not worry about what you may be missing, because you can come back again — and again.
And you don’t even have to leave the Gorge. There is so much to see just within a one-hour drive: the hidden gems, cultural heritage, and natural landscapes.
I’ve found these trips to familiar places comforting, whether they’re in the Gorge, Eastern Washington, the Oregon coast, or San Diego. I know I will be missing some incredible experiences, but those experiences closer to home can be just as rewarding as traveling around the world. And these days, I’ve decided I would rather find my thrills in familiar places.
•••
Brain Tease: What four-letter word can be written forward, backward, or upside down, but still be read from left to right?
•••
The American author, novelist, and socialite who wrote her first etiquette book, the best-selling Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, in 1922, is Emily Post. I received correct answers from Donna Mollet, Anna O’Donnell, Judy Kiser, Lana Tepfer, Rebecca Abrams, Shelly Hinatsu, Dave Lutgens, Eva Summers, Marny Weting, Doug Nelson, Marlene Clymer, Pat Evenson-Brady, Kim Birge, and Kathy White, who is this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket.
•••
And last week, while watching Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan in reruns of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” I missed Anna O’Donnell, Keith and Marlene Clymer, Pat Kelly, Linda Frizzell, Shelley Hinatsu, Craig Terry, Tina Castanares, Rebecca Abrams, Nancy Higgins and Jay Waterbury.
•••
This week’s “Remember When” question is about a game that if you were a child in the 50s you may have received as a Christmas present. What was the name of the game, first launched in 1948, whose object was to be the first to build a three-dimensional bug-like object from a variety of plastic body parts? Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-296-4788, or mail it with the 1949 original game manufactured by W. H. Schaper Mfg. Co. Inc.
Well, it’s been another week trying to remember “this” while not being distracted by “that.” Until we meet again, keep the home fires burning.
•••
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
— Calvin Coolidge
•••
Nutritious home-delivered and in-person meals are available at noon Monday through Friday unless otherwise noted.
Seniors of Mosier Valley (541-980-1157) — Wednesdays with music on second and fourth Wednesdays; Mt. Hood Town Hall (541-308-5997) — Tuesdays; Hood River Valley Adult Center (541-386-2060); Sherman County Senior and Community Center (541-565-3191); The Dalles Meals-on-Wheels (541-298-8333).
For meal sites in Washington, call Klickitat County Senior Services: Goldendale office (509-773-3757) or the White Salmon office (509-493-3068), and in Skamania County call Senior Services (509-427-3990).
Commented