Bon Voy-eggie!*

Hello, and welcome to The Right People Travel.  Noel Coward fans may get the reference to his arch number, "Why Do The Wrong People Travel (When the Right People Stay at Home)?" from the musical Sail Away (1961).  The fabulous Elaine Stritch ("Stritchie" to Coward) performed this originally, and did a great version in her one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and you should listen to it here.  If I can ever find the lyrics online, I'll post them.

Now this song is pretty dated (Rolleiflexes and suntan oil?  And who is Yvonne di Carlo anyway?), and frankly I don't entirely see what is wrong with having a dry martini on the isles of Greece, although I suppose Coward does have a point.  But I like to think that if Noel and Stritchie hung out with us Laskins, they might change their tune.

A few years ago, I thought that if I made some notes about the highlights of our family adventures, that would help with those endless phone conversations with the grandparents after we returned, in which we tried to recount each and every funny story, only to never quite capture the essence of the vacation.  Because of course, every trip has a theme, you just have to be patient and it will emerge.  But if you don't write it down, it gets lost and all those funny stories become transparent threads in your family tapestry.

I was also inspired by the travel journals of my husband's uncle, Thomas B. Lemann, of New Orleans, who is a world-class travel journaler.  My scribblings cannot hope to compare to his in the erudition department, although I do believe that you will find most of the words I use in a dictionary.  And of course, Uncle Thomas does not have small fry to influence his ramblings.  While I believe he shares my interest in a good meal, for example, I expect that his journals do not feature, say, as many hot dogs consumed by eight-year-olds, as mine do.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these reports on our travels from recent years.  Read up from the bottom if you want the full chronological experience from MV 2009 on.

*Did you get the Bugs Bunny reference here?