My First Trip Overseas

Traveling Family

Growing up, I traveled a lot. My family was very willing to hit the road, visit, explore. And because my dad worked for Eastern Airlines, we got to fly for free anywhere in the United States. We flew to see my sister when she lived in various locations.

We also visited family by car in Florida, especially my great aunt, Elwy, in West Palm Beach, my Grandma Nellie in Jensen Beach, and my cousin, Sandra, when she lived in Hobe Sound and Jupiter.

My Aunt Florence and cousins took me with them to Disney World the first summer it was open. That was cool! It was the summer between first and second grade. I had so much fun exploring the place. I had no idea years later, in college, I would be working there.

We took family vacations to Sanibel Island and Islamorada in the Keys. I went to Girl Scout weekend camps in Sebring and Tequesta. In summer, I went to choir camp in Brandon, youth camp in Leesburg, and Garden Club camp in Wekiva.

The summer before sixth grade, my friend, Joy, and her family took me with them to Upper Peninsula, Michigan. That’s where their family was from, so we traveled around and stayed with different relatives. They made sure I got to visit Ishpeming, where my grandmother, Eunice, grew up.

It seemed like I was always traveling somewhere, and I loved it. But if you ask about my first big trip, I would have to say England and Scotland. That was my first trip overseas, and it was a big deal for me.

London for Mother’s Day

When I was in fifth grade, my dad decided to take my mom to London for Mother’s Day. They had traveled internationally before, leaving me at home with my Grandma Eunice. But this time, they wanted to take me with them to experience the United Kingdom. How exciting! My first international trip.

Eastern Airlines didn’t fly to the UK, but the airlines had reciprocal agreements, so we were able to fly half price on Trans World Airlines (TWA) and get discounts on hotels. Our itinerary included several days in London, and then we joined a bus tour through the English countryside and up to Edinburgh.

My mom had talked to my fifth-grade teacher to be sure it was okay for me to miss so many days of school. I don’t recall how long the trip was, but it was at least a week if not 10 days. My teacher said the trip would be a great educational experience for me. She simply asked that I keep a journal of interesting things I learned and that I share a short report with the class when I got home.

I faithfully kept that journal the whole trip and wrote down my observations about what I saw, customs that were different, and phrases that seemed opposite from American English. For example, what we call a subway was called The Underground in London, and their underground walkways were called subways.

I wrote about what we ate, what we watched on the telly, and who we met. Our bus drivers spoke with a cockney accent, and that was the first time I heard that accent apart from television. The bus drivers were very kind to me, and I enjoyed talking with them.

I’ll try to recall different moments from the trip. If I can still remember these things almost 50 years later, they must have had an impact.

First Glimpses of London

I had never flown overnight, let alone overseas. It was a strange concept falling asleep, and then in the middle of the night being awakened by a flight attendant serving orange juice, and seeing the sunrise through the airplane window. I had crossed one or two time zones before, in the US, but nothing that dramatic.

Heathrow was probably the biggest airport I’d ever seen. I was fascinated by the system that moved the luggage around; it was like a spaghetti junction high rise of conveyor belts, and I announced that when I grew up, I wanted the job of the man who was controlling all the switches. Then an unintended switch happened. While my suitcase came through, my parents’ luggage didn’t show up. Finally, it was discovered that their luggage got mixed up with the luggage of the US ambassador. Sometime later that day, the correct suitcases arrived at our hotel.

I was very excited to see Big Ben, the double decker buses, and Buckingham Palace. I became fascinated by the different types of guards and their outfits. My parents bought me dolls representing the different kinds of guards.

It was May 1977 during Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee year, so London was very festive. That celebration meant a lot to my mom. She was the same age as the queen, and their birthdays were almost the same; the queen was only five days older. My mom remembered when Elizabeth became queen, and how she was so young for such a big responsibility. Elizabeth was 27 when she became queen. My mom told me, “I remember thinking how I wouldn’t have wanted to take on that responsibility at that age.” Or any age, for me!

May 1977 was also four months into Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the United States. He was in London during our visit. We ended up on a sidewalk mobbed with people as President Carter and his entourage walked down the street. I got a glimpse of the president waving and smiling. One lady near the road turned around and in a very excited British accent said, “He’s passing out peanuts!” I don’t know if he was or not, but I appreciated her enthusiasm.

I remember seeing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London and looking at the Thames River. We also went to Westminster Abbey. I think we went there literally on Mother’s Day because I insisted on taking a picture of my mom sitting outside the abbey in front of a bed of tulips. Yes, I was the official trip photographer with my own camera, although my dad brought a camera too and got some of the photos I was too short to capture.

I remember how different the bathrooms were in the hotel. The sink, faucets, and showerhead somehow seemed very different from the ones at home. As this was my first trip overseas, I had never seen different versions of familiar things before. I enjoyed hanging out in the hotel room at night watching comedies on the BBC.

Visiting Scotland, Our Ancestral Homeland

Soon, we ventured out on the tour bus to see the English countryside. I remember visiting Shakespeare’s home and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. I recall lots of other cottages, farmland, and sheep. We went to Oxford, saw lots of cathedrals, and saw unfortunate damage to buildings from World War II. I remember seeing the Lake District and Yorkshire. Everything was so picturesque.

I was very excited to get to Scotland because that’s part of my ancestry on my dad’s side. England is too, on my mom’s side, but when I was growing up, we talked about our Scottish ancestors a lot.

We went to Loch Ness. I looked for the monster but all I saw was water. Still, it was fascinating to me at this place of so many tales. I took a photo of my dad in front of the loch. It’s still one of my favorite pictures of him in his ancestral homeland.

We visited a Scottish wool factory where lots of scarves and other items were made in the different clan (family) patterns called tartans. The Gillis family on my dad’s side comes from the MacPherson clan, so my dad got a necktie in the MacPherson plaid.

The big event in Edinburgh was a Scottish Night dinner at our hotel. Unfortunately, my mom wasn’t feeling well, so she missed the dinner. A lot of ceremony was involved. The main dish, called Haggis, was brought in on a silver tray to the accompaniment of bagpipes. We ate mashed neeps (turnips), which I normally disliked, but I loved the way they were prepared. My mom was shocked to hear I had eaten them.

The meal ended with London Fog for dessert, which had some kind of Scottish whisky in it. Whether or not the alcohol had been heated before serving, I don’t know. I thought the dessert was quite tasty. I told my mom I had whisky for dessert. She was probably glad she missed the dinner.

Eleven years later, while in college and studying abroad in Poland, I would visit England and Scotland again with my sister and family. I saw a lot more of the countries on that trip, and of course my memories are more precise. But what I’ve shared here are the things I still remember from that first big trip across the pond. I would say that’s when I really got bit by the travel bug and wanted to see the world. Indeed, it was just the beginning of my international journeys.