Travel Bug

My parents have the travel bug. They are itching to go somewhere.

Their current notion is to go to Turkey, on a guided tour. They are contemplating a two-week escorted tour of Turkey in November, and they want my middle brother and Josh and me to join them.

My parents came across this particular escorted tour in a brochure, naturally. I believe that my parents are ordering far too many brochures, and I fear that it may soon be time to begin restricting their mail privileges.

My parents are extremely reluctant to go to Turkey by themselves, even on an escorted tour. They selected this particular tour precisely because of the dates: at its conclusion, the tour will deposit travelers back in the United States on Wednesday, November 21, the day before Thanksgiving. My parents' thinking is that the time frame of the tour is perfect for all of us, and that we can all disembark in New York on our way home from Istanbul on November 21, and spend the Thanksgiving holidays in New York with my older brother and his family (not that we have been asked yet).

My parents have never been to Turkey, although both of my brothers and Josh and I have visited Turkey. I would love to go to Turkey again, and so would Josh, and so would my middle brother. Our problem is that we three have limited vacation time, and going to Turkey in November would exhaust most of our vacation time for the year, and prevent us from taking any other trips.

If Josh and my brother and I go to Turkey, then we cannot go somewhere else during the first two weeks of September, which up until now had been our tentative plan. A Turkey trip, with a Thanksgiving extension in New York, would consume eleven days of our vacation time (it would require even more vacation days were it not for the fact that Veterans' Day and Thanksgiving Day fall within this time period).

Also in the back of my mind is the fact that I promised Josh that he and I would take trips--just the two of us--to Europe as often as possible. We have yet to take even one of those promised European trips by ourselves, and I am not living up to my promises.

The escorted tour my parents want to take is filling up, and my parents want to know as soon as possible whether my brother and Josh and I will go. If we say "No", then my parents will definitely not go, because they do not want to travel to Turkey by themselves.

My brother said it was up to Josh and me. He said that he would be happy to scrap a potential September trip somewhere, and to go to Turkey with our parents in November instead. My brother likes the fact that Thanksgiving arrives immediately at the conclusion of the tour, which means that he can combine a tour of Turkey with the Thanksgiving holiday, without a lot of extra flying around on his part.

I told Josh that it was up to him, and that I wanted him to make the decision, and that he could be confident that no one would mind in the least if he did not want to go to Turkey this year. Josh was fine with that--he is happy to make decisions--and he and my brother and my parents are going to talk things over the next two nights, and go over some details, and make a decision (I will have to work late tomorrow night and Wednesday night, so I am leaving things in Josh's hands).