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| Photo of London Double-decker bus taken during my trip to London in 2003 |
Plane tickets are booked, and an overnight sleeper train from London to Inverness, too!
This trip will be a little different. This trip I won't be solo. On this trip I will be a travel companion to my Dad, Jeff, whose trip this really is.
My Mom died in March, after a brave year-and-a-half long struggle against endometrial cancer at the age of 65. She was the apple of my Dad's eye.
My parents had their honeymoon in England, in the Manchester area and in Llandudno, Wales, almost 43 years ago. Even earlier, my dad spent his early youth in England with my war-bride Nana and my GI Grampy as they helped my great-grandfather run his pub.
My brothers and I joke that this is my Dad's "Remembrance Tour." It is exactly that, but I think it's much more. My Mom didn't like to fly, and only ever did so for family -- to be with her mother and to visit her -- sometimes -- wayward children. She would never agree to fly for a pure pleasure trip. My Dad, on the other hand, was always willing to travel but couldn't coax his bride to do so unless via Amtrak or by car. I'll tell you sometime about our car trips to Florida and to Williamsburg, or our cross-country train excursion from Arizona to Boston!
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| Distant view of Tower Bridge from the grounds of the Tower of London, taken in 2003. |
I can already tell that my Dad will be an excellent travel companion. He's an excellent writer, too, so maybe I'll coax him to write a few words on my blog during our trip to elevate the discourse.
I am excited to be traveling again, of course! And I'm grateful to be allowed to share the journey with my Dad, with whom I'm proud to say I've enjoyed a great relationship the entirety of my life.
More details to follow, then stay tuned for messages from the UK!
No father could ever ask for better sons than Ken and his brothers, Will and Alan.
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to go back to England, Scotland, and Wales for many years but, for the reasons Ken outlined, that was virtually impossible until now.
This trip, though, will be bittersweet at best. We'll go to many places that Ken's mom and I visited on our honeymoon and I feel confident that my emotions will get the better of me at several of them. Overall, I feel that the journey will be cathartic. I certainly look forward to spending the time with Ken, whom I have come to respect greatly as a human being, quite aside from the fatherly love I have for him.
I know that Ken's mom would have been incredibly proud of the way her sons have rallied around to support me in the most difficult time of my life, and I will cherish every minute of this trip.
And no, Ken, you told no tales out of school. You just said it like it is.