GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
Volcanoes, blue-footed boobies, and Lonesome George
Knowing that his wife, Beth Beloff, loves nature, science and photography, Marc Geller gave her the ideal 60th birthday present—a Galapagos Islands cruise. This trip was also the completion of a study cruise that Beth and her mother took eight years ago from Argentina to Chile, around Patagonia, when they retraced Darwin’s …

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NORMANDY AND PARIS, FRANCE
D-Day beaches, quaint towns, and unforgettable history
Betty and Raymond Latham enjoy traveling and thought it would be fun to have special one-on-one time with their grandchildren during the summer before each one of them started high school. Thus began a wonderful tradition of taking each of their six grandchildren on a 10-day trip of their …

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SEDONA, ARIZONA
Red rocks, the glass bridge, and a wedding in the sky
While floating in a hot air balloon above the monolithic red rocks of Sedona at sunrise, Claudia Woods and Rich Ruggiero were married on the singular date of 7/7/07. The intimate wedding included Claudia’s daughter, Anne Haskett, 18, and Rich’s son and daughter, Rick Ruggiero, 24, and …

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PARIS AND THE LOIRE VALLEY
French Open, student housing, and a wedding reception
An avid tennis player, Kathy Butler came close to going to the French Open in Paris three times before, but various circumstances thwarted her endeavors. During her two-week trip to France in late May and early June, she finally achieved her dream of going to a Grand …

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ITALY, SWITZERLAND, AND GERMANY
Boat tours, train rides, and cuckoo clocks
“With older parents, it’s a real challenge, because you have to try to figure out everything you can do that doesn’t require too much walking,” says Judy Katany about her three-week April journey to Europe with Nancy and Joe Katany of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania. “There were all types of …

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ARGENTINA AND CHILE
Penguins, mountain refugios, and spectacular scenery
“We couldn’t get reservations at the few hotels in Torres del Paine National Park, so we had to backpack and camp in mountain hostels that last week in Chile,” says Susan Williford, adding, “As a 60-year-old, my primary objective was to return alive!”

Susan’s daughter, Robin Shannon, a recent Baylor University …

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BEAVER CREEK, COLORADO
Dads and daughters, skiing, and a snowball fight
“Wow, I wish my dad had done that with me!” has been the universal comment over the years when this sizable crew of dads and daughters traipses into a restaurant or gas station on one of their annual road trips.

Starting as a YMCA-affiliated Indian Princess tribe when the …

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PARK CITY, UTAH
Prime skiing, gourmet restaurants, and deep sleep
For the past 10 years, a group of St. John’s School boys and their dads have gone skiing in various locales in Colorado and Utah over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Stories abound, and let’s just say that to avoid injury, don’t ski in large groups or through the …

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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
Active adventures, stunning scenery, and impressive wildlife
Snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef off of northeast Australia, landing by helicopter on a snowy glacier near Queenstown, New Zealand, and jetboating in the Shotover River Canyons near Queenstown were only some of the highlights “down under” for Memorial’s Dede and David Wadler; daughter Elizabeth, 25; and son …

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PERU
Mystical scenery, Inca and Spanish history, and pisco sours
“Peru is such an undiscovered beauty,” says Memorial’s Ginya Trier. “The people are incredible, the Andes Mountains are stupendously beautiful, and there’s also the history and the culture.” Ginya and Cindy Brien of Memorial, Olivia Fisher of West U, and Lisa Jordan of Southside were sparked by Tanglewood’s Donette Reil …

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MOSCOW, ST. PETERSBURG, AND THE VOLGA
Onion domes, baroque palaces, and river hamlets
“I just loved being in Russia because I’ve been fascinated with it all my life,“ remarks Memorial’s Barry Moore about his visit there with wife Sis in late August of last year. One of 10 trips sponsored in 2006 by the Rice Alumni Travel Program, the Journey …

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GERMANY, FRANCE, AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC
World Cup soccer, history, and birthday strudel
“We were in the middle of a sea of US fans and never sang the Star Spangled Banner with more exuberance,” West University’s Wiley and Valorie George say. Attending the US-Italy World Cup soccer game in Kaiserslautern, Germany was the genesis of their family’s three-week trip to …

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COSTA RICA
Monkeys, marine life, and zip lines
Tropical rain forests, mountains, and beaches are only a three-and-a-half-hour nonstop flight away from Houston. Costa Rica fulfilled the adventurous vacation experience that Bellaire’s Anna and Tim White and daughter Emily, 11, were seeking during their weeklong visit in mid-July.

The northwestern Guanacaste region is green and not too rainy in July, …

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CHINA
The Great Wall, Warriors, and the Yangtze River
“Going to China with a group of friends added so much fun to our adventure,” says Carol Shimp. “We definitely relied on each other for everything from companionship to watching out for each other. It was terrific!” Organized by some couples in the “Boomers” Sunday School class at First Presbyterian Church, …

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AMAZON RIVER, SOUTH AMERICA
Cruising and exploring in the jungle
“What surprised me so much was how big the Amazon River is,” Bellaire resident Ken Jones says. “The largest river in the world, it is 4,000-miles long, and ranges anywhere from 10 to 30-miles wide. Part of the time, you couldn’t even see the shore on either side.”

Ken’s February …

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