Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Old friends

Yesterday was really neat. One of dad's old Air Force buddies from when they were stationed in the Azores together was in town with his wife. Dad hadn't seen his friends since 1974 - three years before I was born. But, I had heard so much about Charlie, who they called Charlie Airplane because airplanes were his life back then. As a child, I remember hearing about this Charlie Airplane character and was fascinated.

So, Dad asked me to come to Rome for dinner with Charlie and his wife, Judy - and it was such a pleasure to meet this couple. The stories they told of their travels around the world were amazing. I can only hope to have half the experiences in travel that they have had by the time I'm their age.

With that said, I have almost decided not to take a "real" vacation this year. *gasp* Saving money is my motivation, but I'm sure I'll take a couple mini-vacations (i.e. to my mother's house in Virginia and maybe to see my grandparents in Indiana), but I think I'll use my vacation time this year at home relaxing. Next year, maybe I'll take that trip to Europe. I guess I should enroll now in classes to get over my fear of flying ...