Bro and I Travel the World: A Collage

All of this traveling we did as missionary kids was done, of course, with our parents. A huge thanks should go out to them from us for their willingness to follow their own curious noses in visiting other countries, and in cheerfully bringing us along in tow. They did not always meet up with easy times. For example, the cheery and interesting Egypt picture above doesn't show how the beggars drove my parents absolutely crazy! My memories are of the camel ride and an interesting venture into one of the pyramids, and of seeing the sphinx in real life--which is pretty amazing.
Here we are in Holland, which is my dad's home country. A boat trip along the waterways is always an interesting experience; we saw firsthand how the Dutch can wrest dry land out of the sea by virtue of some nifty engineering. In this picture, however, I was clearly more intrigued by the ice cream I was finishing.
London was really cool. I liked seeing Big Ben, which I'd seen before in my very favorite Richard Scarry book, Busy, Busy World. And I remember seeing Buckingham Palace and the crown jewels in the Tower of London. And I remember visiting a garden with lots of roses--was that Kew Gardens? My other memories of London come from subsequent trips, and begin to get all mixed together so that I don't remember what I saw on which visit.
We visited Australia because my uncle lives there. What a different world! This little wallaby was patient with us wanting to "pet a kangaroo," which of course we didn't get to do. Kangaroos are a bit big and unwieldy for kid petting activities. I remember being quite enchanted by the strange animals and flowers of Australia. It seemed like everything was unfamiliar there because it was so different.
And then there was the visit to my mom's friend in Hawaii. Here we are posing above Hanauma Bay. You can tell I loved playing dress-up, having appropriated my mom's friend's hat and sunglasses for the occasion. My brother was more interested in shooting rubber bands. Having grown up on a tropical island, I don't think we were all that impressed by the scenery. But I did like the muumuus and the fragrant leis.
This picture really doesn't show it, but one of the more unusual places we vacationed was Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Lake Toba has formed in an old volcano caldera, and still experiences earthquake activity. There's an interesting tribe there, the Bataks, who live in very distinctive houses with upcurved roofs that make them look like boat hulls. They're a musical people. My brother and I were more interested in playing with the boats, though. I may be wrong, but I think this was the very first time we were on a sailboat. Check out my very stylish swimsuit!
This trip took us Banff National Park in Canada. We hopped a tour on one of those glacier-mobiles and got to walk on ice--a very novel idea for two kids from the tropics. Check out my non ice-worthy footwear! As I recall, the glacier didn't hold our interest for very long. After you walk around on ice for three minutes you look around and wonder what else there is to do out there.
I'll end this post with a picture from Rome. I think this was during my 7th grade year. My mom took us via Rome on a short trip to the United States to visit her mother and brother. Everything in Rome was super-cool, in my book, from the spaghetti (loooooong noodles!) to the pizza (thicker crust than I'd ever seen) to the pantheon (a temple to all the gods with one big open eye in the top of the dome?) to the Vatican (opulence everywhere) with a view of the Pieta (really moving) and the glorious paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (pure wonder, even to my pre-teen, as yet uneducated artistic eyes).

Rome is where I learned that it's a good idea--if you're visiting a new city with limited time--to at least start with an overview tour with a guide. You get the best idea of the place with that, and then you can focus on spots you've identified as being worth more investigation.