I love traveling with my Mother , but over the years I have learned a few valuable lessons. <BR>1. Even if she has been there before, I am expected to know all the answers/directions - suddenly I become the tour director.<BR><BR>2. She will NEVER have an opinion on what to do or eat -&quot;Whatever you want is fine dear&quot; ( I learned to hate that phrase so much that one night in London I told her - 'choose or we will be hungry all night, I am not deciding tonight') <BR><BR>3. Even though she thinks she is a good map reader, don't bet on it. First off , it takes her 15 min just to find her glasses - No , not her GOOD glasses - she knows where they are - she needs her Walgreens glasses that she uses for in the car. When I suggested she get a cord or chain for them - &quot;oh, I have one - I left it at home.&quot; If by some chance she found her glasses , figureing out where we were on the map ( Ireland is an island you know - how hard is it to find Limerick?) took forever. Luckily I had obsessively (sp?) poured over the routes while planning , and practically memorized the major turns. <BR><BR>I do enjoy traveling with her - honest - we both enjoy castles &amp; shopping, and getting time to hear all the stories about her childhood &amp; mine is precious. Each trip I just have to apply the lessons from the last trip.<BR><BR>Note to self - Bring Dad along next time , so he can read the map.

A few years back we chartered a sailboat to sail the Greek Isles for 2 weeks. We were 3 couples.<BR><BR>6 people in a small boat is difficult, but we had all sailed together before.<BR><BR>One of our companions was getting quite drunk every night. Then in the mornings he was worthless (we needed him to share navagation and sailing duties), and we had to live through his hang overs 'as a family'.<BR><BR>One night he did his usual drinking, and passed out. His wife took a bottle of bright pink nail polish and polished all his nails. Think you can find nail polish remover on the tiny isles of Greece?<BR>He had to endure the rest of the trip with pink nails, and it worked to remind him to take it easy on the sauce!

Last year a took a week vacation w/ 2 girlfriends to Paris. One friend had only traveled w/ boyfriends/lovers and was not accustom to such things as looking at maps and making decisions. She would say &quot;Let's go to the flea market&quot; and then expect me to look it up in our guide books, and figure out how to get there on the metro. <BR>Oh yes, and Paris sucks when compared to Spain. And she compared Paris to Spain non-stop. She's a very picky eater, so she hated almost every place we went, and we ended up at KFC by Hotel de Ville because she was starving. The thing is, alot of this ISN'T HER FAULT. I just learned that i wouldn't travel with her again. We did have alot of good times, and i did tell her straight off that she was expected to help with maps/plans/restaurants straight away. It was just annoying to constantly push her to take some responsibility. I've traveled extensively with a male friend, and i called him as soon as i got home to thank him for all the times he navigated us through the subways of NYC many years ago! Fact is, we all have things about us that make us a &quot;travel nightmare&quot; to someone else. Experience teaches us what to ask when thinking about traveling with others...or having a willingness to diplomatically tell the other that you're doing stuff on your own!

ttt