Dear Liza,
Today we leave for our first big trip away from our new home in Portland. We are taking an Amtrak train called The Cascades all the way to Vancouver, Canada, with a stop or two in between.
Since we haven’t left yet, I can’t tell you about it, but I can remember other trips we’ve been on.
Grandpa Nelson first took me to London in 2004. It was our first time “overseas”, as they say, and it took some getting used to. Traffic, foods, ways of getting around…they were all different. But we learned and had a ball!
Our next trip was in 2006, when we started out in London but branched off to Stratford on Avon (to see Shakespeare’s home town) and then Cambridge, just because.
Grandpa Nelson’s surprise for me was that we then had a three day, experimental trip to Paris!!! This was BIG. I didn’t know any French at the time, and it was a real challenge to even travel or order food. But again, we learned.
In 2008, we got to take Auntie Bridgett to Europe. Our world got bigger as we went back to Paris and on to Calais, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Tournay. We got better at figuring things out as we went along, and less scared about new places.
As we kept traveling back to Europe, we saw Christmas Faires in Strasbourg got rattled by New Year’s fireworks in Amsterdam, sat by the ocean in La Rochelle and celebrated comics in Angouleme.
This trip To Canada should be less culture shock, because the main language is English. Still, none of us have been to Vancouver. I am so excited to see new things!
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 