Closing in on 40 Years…

August 3, 2008

Next year will mark my parents 40th year of marriage, unless I’ve butchered the math and my facts, which is entirely possible. If so, I’ll get a correction posted when they return from their Arctic trip and read this.

For as long as I can remember, and becoming a more openly discussed topic after Kim and I had left home and my parents were back to travelling as a couple rather than as a fullblown couple-with-kids, my dad’s engineer/early-riser/better-safe-than-sorry approach to trips has been, “Figure out how early you can start packing…and then start a day or two earlier.” My mother’s approach has always been, “If it wasn’t for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn’t get done.”

They headed out yesterday for a trip up towards the Arctic Circle. That means that, in a span of just a year or two, they will be putting themselves in a fairly small group of civilians who have spanned this broad of a range of latitudes. An excerpt from the e-mail that my dad sent out on Friday that gave Julie and me both a good chuckle:

Well, we are off to Ottawa on Saturday and your mother has been packed for a couple of days – first time ever. We are actually going to a live show and dinner tonight. I just got an email that we won’t be boarding our ship in Resolute, but in Nanisivik, instead, due to ice near Resolute. Perhaps they are being overly cautious due to the tour boat that hit ice in the Antarctic earlier this year and sank. Or, it may be that the mild earthquake caused by your mother getting herself packed and ready early shook the ice loose.

Happy travels, folks!

Posted in Miscellaneous