Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bound for Mom ~ The World is Not Flat~

The final installment of Bound for Mom blogging mini-series Carnival, hosted by geneabloggers.

The World Is Not Flat: many Moms love to travel and take off to parts unknown once the nest is empty.


Mom's Travel Log~

My Mom has traveled all over, even since I was a baby she has traveled extensively. When I was only a year old she went to Holland, Belgium, France and England. Then, when I was two and a half, we moved from Germany to the United States. After we arrived by ship we continued on by train from New York to Monterey, CA.

When I was about eight or nine, we had flown to Puerto Rico together for a weeks vacation and about once a year Mom would fly back to Germany by herself to see my Oma (her Mom), her twin brothers (my uncles) and Great Grandparents. When I was 13 I flew with Mom on one of her trips back to Germany for a three week stay during Christmas, this was the one and only Germany trip I made. What a very special trip for us together and a treat to see my Grandfather again, it was the first time he had seen me since I was two and a half. Mom would make the yearly trip so that she was able to spend time with her family. It was just Mom and me here, it meant a lot for her to be with them as much as she could.

During the years of my childhood we had taken many trips from California by car to New York, where we would visit our cousins there. Occasionally my Oma would fly from Germany to New York, where we would pick her up, then drive back to California where we lived. Eventually my Oma was able to fly into San Francisco International Airport, decreasing our trips to New York.

After I left home, she was hard to keep down! Her job had her flying regularly to Chicago and New York. She also continued to go back and forth to Germany, made trips to Canada, England and many different areas of the United States. She even had a friend that owned a small plane and they would fly here and there for short trips.

After being single for close to 30 years she finally married about ten years ago to Adam, who is from Poland. Now they include travel to Poland where they take the train to Italy and on to Germany! Adam has daughters in Italy, Poland and one in California.

Her most recent trip with her husband included my husband, granddaughter and myself. We took a genealogy trip from Southern California to Louisville Kentucky to meet my Aunt Virginia for the first time. In our motor home, with our Jeep in tow, we embarked on a two week adventure that none of us will ever forget.

Mom has always been on the go and to this day still is! She has experienced so much and has had many opportunities to eat many different types of foods. She is a coffee connoisseur, so she has tried many different types and flavors of coffees (I think her favorite is still the typical German strong coffee, she grinds it herself !). She has seen some very beautiful places and Mom can confirm the world is definitely round and life is too short to stay in one place!

3 comments:

my Heritage Happens said...

Gini, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your series about your mom! Nice job, it was wonderful!

my Heritage Happens said...

Gini, I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading the series about your mom! It was wonderful!

Gini said...

Thank you Cheryl, it was fun doing this mini carnival and in doing so I learned so much more about my Mom and our immigrating to the United States! I am glad that I took on the challenge! I am glad you enjoyed it.