YOU NEED A VACATION .. .
But you are taking care of a parent.
short overnight trip to
Baltimore, I admit I was
somewhat skeptical about
how we'd fare as a travel
team.
Until my stepfather died
three years ago, Mom was a
traditional wife who stayed
close-to-home and whose
travel experience was limited
to an annual two-week winter
trip to Florida. I, in contrast,
was a longtime traveler —
and a dedicated solo one at
that — accustomed to going
my own way on the road.
Despite our differences, our
first trip went surprisingly
well. Mom proved to be an ex-
cellent traveler — adaptable,
energetic, adventurous.
What's more, she carefully
resisted the impulse to
mother me. Instead, she deft-
ly managed to shift roles to
become my traveling compa-
nion who happened to be my
mother.
That weekend we saw the
exhibits at the Jewish
Heritage center; visited the
My mother's
delight in Jewish
travel has made
each trip more
memorable for me
as well.
'
historic Baltimore Hebrew
Congregation, where mom,
along with other tourists,
gamely climbed down the
narrow, winding stairs to see
an ancient mikveh on the
ground floor level; and final-
ly, stopped for hefty sand-
wiches on Corned Beef Row.
That was the start of many
trips together as a mother-
and-daughter travel team.
Not only is my mother a live-
ly traveling partner — and so
youthful looking that people
invariably say, "You look
more like sisters than mother
and daughter" — but she's
also become my unofficial
assistant as I do my research.
In Portland, Maine, it was
Mom who managed to track
down the young bell captain
at the Sonesta Hotel, where
we were staying, and ask him
— using her gentle persua-
sion — if he could take us on
a quick tour of the city's
synagogues.
This was a request he'd
never heard before, but how
could he refuse my charming
mother? So we climbed into
the hotel limo and traveled
around the city and suburbs
to see all three synagogues in
the Maine capital that's
known as "the Jerusalem of
the North."
In Toronto, Mom was equal-
ly helpful as she rode with me
by bus up and down Bathurst
Street, heart of the Jewish
community. It took 45
minutes to travel the length
of this broad, busy avenue.
But Mom was a real trooper,
helping me locate the sites
and verify the addresses as I
tried to take notes while
riding.
With her precise memory
for sensory detail, she often
can add to the hurried notes
I must sometimes make. She's
helped me recall the Shalom
plates in a shop in San Juan;
the gold velvet pews in Thm-
ple Sinai in New Orleans and
the colors of the stained-glass
windows in Temple Emanu-
El's vast sanctuary in New
York.
A true food maven, she also
recalls in detail the meals
we've enjoyed on the road, like
the roast beef special at Chick
and Ruth's Delly in An-
napolis, the chopped liver at
the Full Belly Deli in
Portland and the blintzes at
Milk 'n Honey in Toronto.
And she loves to recount the
evening we dined in style at
La Rotisserie, one of San
Juan's most elegant
restaurants, and had spit-
roasted Empire kosher
chicken for our entrees.
When the waiter brought
our entrees, Mom was the
first taster. "Delicious!" she
pronounced — high praise
from someone who's been
cooking kosher chicken for
decades. We lifted our glasses
of wine — it was kosher
estate-bottled Chardonnay —
and toasted to the start of our
San Juan adventure.
Then I made another toast.
I toasted to a mother who has
shown me that mothers can
adapt to new experience —
and thus stay youthful — at
any age and stage of life. I
toasted to my mother, the
traveler.
This Mother's Day, I will
make the same toast with
high hopes that we'll share
many more adventures in
Jewish travel together. ❑
NEWS
II"'
Nicaragua Eyes
Restored Ties
Jerusalem (JTA) —
Nicaragua will restore dip-
lomatic ties with Israel,
broken by the former San-
dinista government in pro-
test against Israel's invasion
of Lebanon in 1982, the For-
eign Ministry reported last
week.
It said an understanding to
that effect was given by
Nicaragua's newly elected
president, Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro.
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