Travel typically is place focused. You climb this mountain. You cross that river. You tour this museum or score a great meal in that restaurant.
You take pictures of way too many buildings that seem important at the time and snap off shot after shot trying to nail a sunset (in this case, in the Grand Canyon). Yet as I look back on over two weeks of travel, some of the best moments were moments we connected with people.
In the Grand Canyon we hooked up with Ranger Joseph Felgenhauer – a friend from Spokane working in the National Park for the summer.
In Las Vegas I drove out to North Las Vegas before we left to spend a few moments with Peter and Toni Dual. Peter is currently in a pitched battle with agressive Stage IV cancer in his throat and mouth. Yet the half an hour I spend with the two of them was one of the biggest blessings of the trip.
In Long Beach, we stayed for two nights with one of my wife Karen’s cousins and her family. All three kids enjoyed their second cousins, and as we left, we were lobbying for the Ollen family to find an excuse to visit Spokane.
We reconnected with more family at Karen’s mom’s in Saratoga.
Then in Portland there was the opportunity to visit the new home of Richelle Reid who had served as a summer babysitter for all three kids five years ago. The conversation with Richelle turned out to be another delight along the way.
Our last stop in Seattle for the 4th of July centered around time with my sister and her family.
Of course we will remember the places we saw – especially those we’d never seen before. Not surprisingly, I’ll remember a number of the meals. But possibly the richest part of the trip turned out to be the people along the way.
