Top Five: Doh--what about the world tour!

After getting all the vacations down that were my top five, my wife asked, "What about the round the world trip we took in 1985?" Oh yeah--a once in a lifetime venture for sure! So here are the top five things we experienced on that trip--me, Peggy, Sam, Afton, and Kevin. We started off from Saudi Arabia, visiting these places:

5. Hong Kong. Skyscrapers, ferries, the tram to Victoria Peak, the Chinese Carnival, being the only Americans at the Nathan Hotel, buying a new wedding ring (sapphires!) for Peggy and a new-fangled video camera to record all of our fabulous trip! Whole lot of people milling around--to keep our kids (8, 7, and 6) safe when we were walking, I'd be in the front, the kids in single file behind me, and Peggy at the end, making sure no ducklings get lost!

4. New Zealand. We rented a motor home and toured the northern half of North Island. The New Zealand temple (where we broke the new video camera...), Rotorua crafts and geysers, caves, sheep galore, a series of KOA type campgrounds, visiting our friends the Middletons from our years in Samoa. What a great, green country!

3. Samoa. Got there just in time (after a day's stopover in Fiji) for the annual Independence Celebration, and got to show Sam and Afton a little of their heritage. Interesting to see old haunts from a seven-years-later perspective. We enjoyed nights at Aggie Grey's and the Tusitala.

2. Hawaii. My parents were sponsoring an extended Steele family reunion, to mark my dad's retirement, so we went to Hawaii for that. Polynesian Cultural Center, condos at Turtle Bay, the beach, tour of the island, family times, and the highlight of baptizing Sam, Tom2, and Jeff in the ocean just down from the Laie temple.


1. Salt Lake City. During the reunion, my Grandpa Eral Henderson died, so at the end of the reunion everyone flew to Salt Lake and attended his funeral. Grandma Ruby Henderson had not told us till the end of the reunion, so as not to spoil our time together.


And then we flew back home to Saudi Arabia via Europe. Niiiice trip!

Top Five: Vacations

5. Cross Country to New York, 1965. My parents, brother Tom, and I drove from LA to NY to pick up my oldest brother Dick from his mission in New York. I was 14, and it is the first big road trip I remember going on. The mountains in Wyoming, historical sites like the Abraham Lincoln site in Springfield, the NY world's fair, the Cumorah Pageant, and an unending parade of Best Western's are all highlights from the trip. And my brother's dry commentary all the way out and back. We went in a station wagon, so I spent a good portion of the trip lying out in the back--this was pre seat belt era.

4. Cyprus, 1986. One of our vacations while living in Saudi Arabia. Peggy and Afton were in the US attending Kelly and Julia's wedding, so during an Eid break Sam, Kevin, and I took the short jaunt over to Cyprus. I'd checked in advance and found there were two member families in the whole island. We contacted them both and got together for a Sacrament meeting, the first one in several years there. And the one family, headed by a British peacekeepng soldier, had me teach the missionary lessons to a friend. Too bad I couldn't baptize her, but hope it took later. Beautiful beaches and mountains, fascinating castles and layers of Greek, biblical, Crusader, and Islamic history, tinge of excitement from the political division of the island, all contributed to a great time.

3. Boston/DC, 1998. With Peggy, Shelly, and Dallin. Historical sites galore in hot District of Columbia, Revolutionary sites around Boston, family history and Woods Hole visits in southern MA, and the highlight for me to the Plimoth Plantation, an open air reconstruction of the Plymouth Rock colony, where our Hatch ancestor first came. I loved how the people were trained to be specific inhabitants of 17th century Plymouth. Willing suspension of disbelief brought me quickly to talking with them as if they were residents of a foreign country, not actors. When can I go again?

2. Thailand, 1982. Peggy and I went alone, our first vacation during Saudi Arabian time. Left the three older kids with neighbors (the Alvarez family). Floating market, Buddhist temples, tuk tuks, open markets, LDS chapel, Nana Hotel, train ride down to Hua Hin, cold showers in the cheap rooms at the Railway Inn. Chicken satay from roadside vendors, all so exotic and luxurious to be on our own for the first time in five years.


1. Germany, 1982, 1986, 2007. A collage of three trips, and includes neighboring countries like Benelux, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic. American cemetery in Luxembourg, Tivoli garden and Legoland in Denmark, Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, stake conference in Berlin with Elder Wirthlin, Neuschwanstein castle, mission cities and people like Sister Specht, Afton's baptism in the Bern temple, Kevin's injury to his arm, Interlaken! and the Swiss Alps, the lion at Lucerne, Bodies exhibit in Prague, battling porn in the Munich airport, Oktoberfest. Aaaaahhh, wunderbar!

So, what's your favorite trip?