My early years in Israel: 1944-56
If Jane Austen had written a book called; “Nili’s Travel Adventures”, she might have borrowed from Northanger Abbey’s opening paragraph and said, “No one who had ever met Nili in her early years would have supposed that she was born to be a travel junkie. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own personality and disposition, were all equally against it.” *
Though, my parents showed quite a bit of the adventurous spirit when they left Poland in the 1930s to settle in Israel, then again emigrated to the U.S., that was the sum total of their adventurous spirit for many years.
As for me, I was not a very adventurous child. I liked my home, my routine, and my mother’s cooking. I didn’t even want to go to camp. In fact, until I was eleven, I had never traveled out of my birth city, Tel-Aviv. However, right before my family emigrated to the U.S., my mother felt that I should see a bit of the country and we traveled for a few days. That was my very first trip. I wish I could say it sparked a travel bug – it did not. I didn’t like the food or the sleeping arrangements.
On my journey to the U.S., the ship stopped in Naples, Italy and we took a side trip to Pompeii. I don’t really remember much about that visit except that the site was impressive. The boat also stopped in Halifax, Canada. We left the ship to tour Halifax wearing our “warm” Israeli winter clothes, which did not quite make it on a cold January morning. By mid-morning I had the beginning of frostbite and we returned to the ship early.
Nili on the Ship headed to the U. S.
Life in the US: Before Children – 1956-69
We settled in Chicago, IL and during the next 8 years my family took modest annual trips to small resorts in Wisconsin and a couple of trips East to New Jersey to visit family. These trips were fun but being a picky eater, I worried constantly that I would be served some food that I would not like to eat. Does that sound like the basis for a Senior Adventure Travel Junkie? Unlikely.
I left home to attend college at the University of Chicago. I lived on campus, which broadened my outlook and food tastes. However, it was only when I met my first husband, Thomas Logan, that any real travel and adventure entered my life.
Tom had a very different upbringing from me. His father worked overseas and Tom spent many years in the Belgium Congo and in Turkey. Soon after we met, we drove to California to meet his family. It was the first time that I traveled west from Chicago. Driving 2,200 miles across the country, over the Rocky Mountains, the 12,000-foot passes and seeing the scenery in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California was very exciting. I had no idea that the world was so beautiful. Tom encouraged me to go hiking and camping. At first I did so just to please him but soon I realized that I was really enjoying being out in nature.
Our honeymoon, in 1966 almost squashed any burgeoning adventurous spirit or desire for interesting and unusual destinations. Most people go to Hawaii or the Caribbean on their honeymoon but not us. Tom thought it would be romantic to go to Moosonee, Canada on the Hudson Bay. After all, it is so isolated that only the train (not a road) can get you there.
We drove north through Vermont and Maine, camping along the way. When we reached Cochrane we parked the car and went by the Polar Bear Express the rest of the way. Doesn’t it sound romantic? The reality was not a bit romantic.
Nili at the Hudson’s Bay Company in Moosonee.
Being duck hunting season, we were greeted at the Moosonee station by the returning hunters, waiting to take the train back south with their dead birds. Moosonee was a tiny, unattractive town with open ditches at the side of the road. There were about 500 feet of dirt roads, but everyone in town had shipped their cars up and spent the entire day driving their vehicle back and forth on these roads. The choice of restaurants consisted of one hamburger place and a Chinese restaurant. What a depressing place. The only bright spot was the friendly B & B. The next morning dawned cold (40s) with a fine drizzle and we had had enough. We got on the next train going back South. If this was adventure, I didn’t want to have any more of it. In any case, we were too poor to try any other trips other than family visits for the next few years.
*Actual quote from Northanger Abbey is: “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.”
Nili's Adventure 